5 Ways to Make Your Easter Services Shine

Forget pastels and chocolate eggs. There’s nothing soft or fragile about Easter.

Easter, for the Church, is victory. Strength. Boldness. Power.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, willingly laid down His life for us and brought us into a right relationship with God. He died on the cross and three days later was raised to life again. He is alive. He is returning. He is the one we worship and lift high this Easter.

This is what we get to celebrate and why we’re preparing to tackle Easter services with excellence.

5 Ways to Make Your Easter Services Shine

1. Remind yourself and your team about the significance of Easter. It’s easy to see Easter as just an event to put on instead of the life-altering moment it is. Rediscover your love and passion for what Christ has done for you. Before you even think about helping your attenders understand what Christ did for them, make sure your heart is centered on what this act of love has done for you. Spend some time reflecting on God’s goodness, worship Him in new ways, or walk through a reading plan to help prepare your heart.

2. Pray for your church. Be expectant about what God will do through your church, His bride. Pray over each ministry, each seat in the auditorium, and your community. Pray for the people God will bring in your doors on Easter Sunday, and ask God to stir and soften their hearts.

3. Pray for other churches. We are all part of the Church—pray for God to bless other churches in your area. Pray over their pastors and services and pray for them to reach new people who are far from Christ. Lift up their staff and families in prayer—and support them in other ways, too. Send a note of encouragement or some treats for their team to enjoy, or offer to help serve at one of their community events. Remember, the world will know God’s love when they see how we love one another.

4. Download free resources. Visit the Easter page on Open Network to download sermons, creative elements, kids curriculum, and worship music to help plan your Easter services. With resources from Life.Church and more than 20 partner ministries, you’re sure to find something that allows you to focus less on creating content and more on connecting with people. Check out some of our most popular resources from last year:

• Holy Land Footage
• History’s Mystery Message Kit
• Love Like Jesus
• A Happy Sunday

 

5. Create a welcoming environment. Next to Christmas, Easter is likely the time of the year you’ll see the most new attenders in your church. And, when you’re new to church, walking into the doors of a church for the first time can be intimidating or down-right scary. As you think about this new wave of attenders, walk through your campus with fresh eyes and imagine what it would feel like to a someone who is brand-new. Then, figure out new ways to make the environment more welcoming, things like adding directional signage, putting chairs in the lobby, or placing pens on every seat. Learn more about creating a welcoming environment in this short video with Life.Church Campus Pastor Brian Word.

Let’s push ourselves to reach out to other churches, reignite our passion for Jesus, and be urgent with our expression of Easter this year—because people still need to be reached with the hope that Jesus died, and rose, for them.