Easter Outreach Ideas
Strategies for Connecting People to Your Easter Service
By Josh Roberie
The Spring is an excellent time for your church to be involved in outreach. Not only are people wanting to get outside after being cooped indoors during the winter, but it is also a terrific way to introduce people to your church leading up to Easter.
Many churches start preparing months in advance for their Easter services. They know this will be one of the most well-attended Sundays of the year. To make the most out of this weekend, you need to prepare the message, song selection, production, and promotion. But have you considered outreach as part of your Easter plans?
Benefits of an Easter Outreach
There are many ways you can promote Easter gatherings at your church, but without an outreach, your plans are incomplete. Here are some benefits of doing a service project:
It shares the love of Jesus.
It introduces people to your church who may not be aware of you.
It reminds people of you that have not been to your church in a while.
It promotes your Easter service times.
Principles for an Effective Easter Outreach
When you are preparing for an Easter outreach, there are a few things you want to consider.
Spread a wide net. You want to select an outreach project that will touch as many people as possible.
Consider the kids. One of the best ways to reach families is to serve their kids.
Easter Service Information. Have a plan to communicate the details of your Easter gatherings.
4 Easter Outreach Ideas
Here are four simple and inexpensive Easter Outreach Ideas that will help your church connect with new people leading up to Easter weekend.
Egg-vitations
Hand out egg-vitations to kids the week before Easter. This is a plastic egg with a piece of candy and an invite to your Easter service. Give each child at least two eggs, one for them and the other to give away. The kids can give it to a friend and invite them to church.
Easter Basket Give-a-ways
Collect Easter baskets from your church members that you can donate to families in need for Easter. Schedule an Easter basket pick-up the weekend of Easter. The parents can come and pick up an Easter basket for their child, receive prayer, and an invitation to the Easter Service on Sunday.
Water Give-a-way
A couple of weeks before Easter, begin doing water give-a-ways at multiple locations. This is an inexpensive way to impact people in an unexpected way. Take an ice chest full of water to a park, university, or running trail and hand out cold waters with an invitation to your Easter Service. It does not get easier than this!
Easter Egg Hunt
You know, we couldn’t have a list of Easter outreach ideas without this classic. Here is the thing, with a bit of planning, this does not have to be complicated and can reach many people. Don’t have the space to do an Easter Egg Hunt because you are portable or limited with your building? No problem. Team up with a local sub-division. You can promote the Easter Egg Hunt to the residence (built-in marketing for your church!) and use a recreational space in the neighborhood for the event. Why not plan multiple Easter Egg Hunts in communities connected to your church.
Bonus Ideas for Easter Egg Hunt
Consider the children that will be at your Easter Egg Hunt when planning your event. Here are some things to be mindful of to care for all the kids at the event:
Age-Specific Easter Egg Hunt - You should either let the younger children go first or have a separate area for them to pick up eggs without older kids overcrowding them.
Special Needs Easter Egg Hunt - Create a plan for kids with differences to safely enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt with their loved ones.
Easter Eggs Without Candy - Include Easter eggs that have things other than candy in them so that kids with diabetes or who are on a different diet can also enjoy the event.
Being attentive to these families’ needs will go a long way in showing them that you care.
We hope these outreach ideas will help you get the word out about your church and see people connected to your community of faith. Do you have more Easter outreach ideas? Let us know in the comments on this social media post.
Josh is a ministry leader, communicator, and creative who helps train and coach church planters at the Association of Related Churches (ARC). He has written Believe Again: Finding Faith After Losing Religion and has contributed to many ministry publications, including Relevant Magazine. You can stay connected to Josh through his blog JoshRoberie.com and Social Media at @JoshRoberie.