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Easter is a huge deal. You know that. In fact, if you are like most church leaders, you are feeling it right now. You feel the pressure of the day coming on quickly. Easter is one of the four “big days” that your church no doubt puts extra effort into. It’s imperative because two realities are true on this day:

• Your People are More Likely To Invite Their Friends // There are certain Sundays during the year that people who attend church are more likely to invite their friends and family to their church. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to equip our people who do the inviting as it’s a change in their routine behavior.
• The People they Ask Are More Likely to Attend // When your people do the inviting, their friends and family are more likely to say “yes” on these weekends. If your people have the positive experience of inviting a friend to visit their church and they come, your people will be more likely to invite people in the future!

Here at unSeminary our motto is ALWAYS HELPING CHURCH LEADERS and so today we’ve pulled together a small collection of ready-to-use resources to help you get through these last few days before this “big day.”

3 PDFs to Use as Conversation Starters with Your Team

Even though it’s one of the busiest Sundays of the year, you still need to leverage this as a training opportunity for your team. In fact, because it’s one of the busiest Sundays of the year, you should probably do some training with your team. Here are three PDFs that you could send to your team to help stir discussion with your volunteers and staff about what to anticipate on Easter weekend:

• 4 STAGES OF ENGAGEMENT WITH FIRST-TIME GUESTS AT YOUR CHURCH
  • This PDF talks through how someone goes from not knowing your church at all to getting connected to the church. This would be a helpful resource to send out to core leaders and remind them that before we can see people get fully connected to the church, they need to know about the church and show some interest. Easter is a great weekend to help your community get to know about your church!
• 5 SIMPLE CHANGES TO MAKE YOUR CHURCH MORE UNCHURCHED FRIENDLY
  • We know that Easter Sunday is one of those days where a lot of first-time guests will be at your church. This resource could be sent to your entire team and then used as a discussion starter about tweaks that could be made this year to make your church even more friendly to guests who don’t usually attend church.
• 3 WAYS DISNEY IS IMPROVING THAT YOUR CHURCH CAN LEARN FROM
  • Looking for something that isn’t as focused on the “big day”? Use this resource to spur a fun conversation with your team about some “big ideas” that they could implement in the coming months and years.

12-Point Checklist of Small Things to Improve Easter at Your Church

Do you have a sinking feeling that you are forgetting something? We’ve pulled together a simple checklist of small items that will give your Easter services just a little bit of an extra sizzle this year.

Do you have an overly eager volunteer who wants to help with prep for Easter but you just aren’t sure what to pass along to them? Download this checklist and go over it with them on the items that you’d like to have them execute on before the big day.

Are you looking for ideas to give your Easter an extra pop this year? Get this checklist and use it to add few new items to your game this season.

Download the 12-Point Checklist Here.

Fill-in-the-Blanks Press Release to Send to Local Press

Right now writers and producers are looking for Easter related stories to tell through their media outlet. They wake up every day, and the pressure is building . . . they have got to quickly find multiple stories that fit within their scope and pull them together fast.

The press isn’t looking to tell your story . . . they have a story they are looking to tell . . . you need to become that story.

Think about last year on the evening news leading up to Easter. You remember somebody goofy wearing an Easter bunny costume right? That’s because that is what the evening news was looking for.

The same is true for your local newspaper or news website. They are looking to produce a “roundup article” of the best options of things for people to do on Easter weekend in your community.

Give them the story they are looking to tell. This is one of those times of year that we know that the press is going to cover something so why shouldn’t it be your church?

Here is a basic framework of a press release that you could use to send to press outlets in your community. Generally, you want to land it 7-10 days out from Easter. Too far out and they won’t be thinking about the big day yet, but too close, and you don’t give them enough time to react.

Download a Ready to Use Fill-In-The-Blanks Press Release About Easter Here.

How do you know where to send the press release?

• Google is Your Friend // You can use Google to search which news outlets in your community covered Easter events last year. Click through to those articles and find the author who wrote last year. There’s a good chance they are going to have the same assignment this year. As an example, here is a search in Sarasota, Florida for Easter related stories in 2017.
• Search.Twitter.com // A lot of journalists still hang out on Twitter. Use this tool to figure out who is covering the “lifestyle” beat in your community and reach out to them on Twitter!
• Help a Reporter Out // Check out this service. It’s real reporters looking to write stories, and they are on a deadline. You might just find an author looking for your story in the week leading up to Easter.
• Peripheral Awareness // You have to hone your ability to be aware of what’s happening in the world around you. Be looking for interesting tangential connections to what you are doing and see if you could exploit those.

Lost Cost Follow Up Resources

People are coming to your church and will be impacted by the message of Easter. No doubt your church will present the timeless truth of the death and resurrection of Christ in a compelling way that will probe people to want to respond. What resources can you put in their hands? Many churches provide an additional support on top of a Bible during a Sunday like this to people who might be asking questions about following Christ.

You don’t want to be caught short on a big day like this. Here are two trusted resources that your teams could have on hand to help people who might be interested in taking the conversation about Christ further.  

• The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel
  • This classic tells the story of a Chicago Tribune journalists story of coming to Christ. At less than $4.50 a piece, these are an excellent tool for giving away to people.
• How Good Is Good Enough? by Andy Stanley
  • A quick read that drives at the core message of the gospel by a masterful communicator. These are currently listed on Amazon at less than $2 a piece.

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