What Does Easter Mean for Your Church?

When you think of Easter, what comes to mind? As ministry leaders we often think of Easter as a sort of Super Bowl Sunday for the church. People come out of the woodworks to go to church on Easter Sunday, and for churches, this creates a yearly opportunity. It is, however, important to know who is typically showing up to your Easter services. Although there are churches who do a wonderful job of inviting the community to join them for Easter Sunday, most churches do not see many unchurched people attend on Easter. So what is the main cause for the spike in attendance? This is a day that you typically see your whole church show up on the same day. From week to week, you may only see half or less of your church members. On Easter, you are likely to see the majority of your consistent attenders as well as many of those who have fallen off over the past few months. There are other factors to consider in the attendance equation, but the bulk of the spike is that you have the whole church family together on the same day. This is exciting! Churches plan for months to create the Easter Sunday experience, but what is the goal? That is my question. What is the goal of Easter Sunday at your church?

My take on this would be that you have two main goals on Easter Sunday.

Preach the Gospel and give an opportunity for people to respond.

We are celebrating the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ so this is the prime opportunity to preach the gospel and help your people understand the importance of applying the gospel to their lives.

Connect people to your groups ministry.

This isn’t something that you see done very often on Easter Sundays but give this some thought. Often, churches try to put their best foot forward through their programming to get people to come back, but let’s face it, you aren’t likely to pull off the same level of programming every Sunday following Easter. One promise you can deliver on is the promise of community. In the book, The Great DeChurching, by Michael Graham and Jim Davis, one of the main reasons cited for why people are leaving the church is a lack of connectivity to the church. People long for relationships and the church should be the place where the deepest and most meaningful relationships are made. What if your Easter service was all about how Christ’s work offers both an invitation to be in relationship with Him, and with the rest of the family of God?

Ultimately, my challenge to you is to pray that God would show you how you can use moments like Easter to drive home the importance of Christian community and draw people into loving relationships that will drive them to the throne of God.