Easter is one of the top three most attended church services out of the whole year. It’s no wonder why this service in particular draws such big crowds, as the meaning behind Easter is one of the most important pillars of our faith.
For church leaders, a highly-attended service is a wonderful thing, but it also comes with a lot of responsibility. With so many people coming through our doors to commemorate the occasion—both regular attendees and first-time guests—churches usually need to devote a significant amount of time to preparing for this event. From organizing our staff responsibilities to preparing the actual church facility, there’s a lot to do before the big day arrives!
While you may already have a mental checklist of your own running through your head, we’ve compiled a list of 23 items, all within specific categories, that you’ll want to be certain to check off in order to make sure everything runs smoothly. When you’ve completed this list, you can be confident that your guests will feel welcome, that your message about God’s love can reach hearts, and that your church will make the most of this opportunity to reach new people in the community.
Here are 23 items you’ll want to check off as we approach Easter:
1) Provide Details in Advance
With the increase in attendance beyond your regular attendees and members, you will want to ensure that the details of your location and offerings are easily accessible. If someone can’t quickly and easily find your address or the time your service will begin, they are unlikely to keep digging around for this information, and they may move on to a different option.
Here are your four action items to check off your list regarding the details of your Easter Service:
☑️ Post on social media leading up to Easter and on the day of.
☑️ Make sure service times and your address are clearly visible on your website. Consider adding a pop-up banner to your website, inviting people to join you on Easter.
☑️ Email or text your regular attendees to be sure they know when your Easter service time is (should it differ from your regular service time), if you will add an extra service, and any special instructions about how your congregation can make new guests feel welcome.
☑️ Make in-person announcements about the church’s upcoming Easter plans during services.
☑️ Provide digital or physical invites your regular attendees can use to invite neighbors, friends, and family.
2) Make a Good First Impression
Take some time to look at your space with fresh eyes. Consider how a first-time visitor will view the space, what kind of guidance they may need, and what might help them feel most welcomed.
Ask yourself, “What are the first areas people will experience when they walk through our doors?” If this is the first time someone is attending church, they may not know where to go next, how to locate your kids’ space, or how to find the room where your service will take place.
Here are four action items you’ll want to adjust prior to Easter to help you make a good first impression:
☑️ Get your parking lot ready. Will you have volunteers directing people to open spaces? Is there a designated area for new guests? You may consider asking regular attendees to leave the spaces closer to the door open for first-time visitors.
☑️ Ensure you have enough volunteers on duty to greet and guide people through your space. These volunteers can help control the flow of traffic and direct new people to key resources. This will help cut down on the chaos of visitors wandering around in confusion.
☑️ Be sure you have visible signage that will help guests navigate the space on their own. This could be hung from the ceiling, a banner on a stand, or a floor sign. You’ll want to be sure that these signs include directions to your kids’ space, the service space, restrooms, and refreshments.
☑️ Note areas that have the potential to create a bottleneck and make changes to keep the flow of traffic going. These will most commonly be at your front door, where people hang jackets, and at your children’s check-in.
3) Create a Strong Volunteer Plan
While it’s important to have a great worship team, strong band leaders, and a skilled crew running sound and slides, we can’t forget to prioritize the people who will keep everything going behind the scenes.
Having plenty of volunteers to handle the influx of additional guests on Easter Day is a great way to keep operations running smoothly.
Here are three areas of your church you’ll want fully staffed with volunteers:
☑️ Children’s spaces. These can fill up fast. Be sure you have plenty of qualified volunteers to handle your regular attendees’ children as well as the children of any new guests. There’s nothing worse than showing up to visit a church and being turned away from the nursery because there is not enough room for your child. To help parents feel comfortable leaving their children under your church’s supervision, make it clear that all volunteers have been appropriately trained and background checked.
☑️ The auditorium. Your worship space is likely to be packed, regardless of your best laid plans. By providing additional volunteers to help seat people, you can avoid the “lost seats” that happen when people leave 1-2 chairs between them and another group.
☑️ Planning on having multiple services? You’ll want to have a team set up to help tidy up between the two services. This includes picking up trash from your worship space and emptying any garbage cans that are getting full, as well as making sure the bathrooms are fully stocked.
It’s helpful to clearly identify volunteers and staff. This lets guests know who they can go to for help or to ask questions. You can do this by providing a shirt, badge, or a lanyard that clearly identifies them as volunteers.
Learn about our safe and secure check-in system >>
4) Craft a Great Message
All of your preparation loses its purpose if you don’t have a great service to go along with it. You’ll want to make sure you have the time to write, review, and re-write your message so that the meaning of Easter is clearly and powerfully conveyed.
The most important thing of all is to communicate the love of God for people and the redemption offered through Jesus’ rising from the dead. Rather than provide you with a checklist here, we have a few of our favorite Bible verses to help inspire as you write your Easter message:
- “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” – John 3:16
- “He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” – Luke 24:6-7
- “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10
- “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” – Romans 8:11
- “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9
- “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” – John 14:6
5) Make Next Steps Clear
Once you’ve hosted a meaningful Easter service, new visitors are more likely to want to take a next step with your church. It’s important to meet that moment by offering multiple ways to get connected—so people can engage in a way that fits where they are right now.
☑️ Offer resources to learn more. This could be a booklet or a book you buy in bulk for each family in attendance. Create something that aligns with your sermon or values as a church.
☑️ Ask new visitors to fill out a connection card. This could be a digital or physical card where people can provide their contact information, request prayer, inquire about groups, or get a follow-up from a pastor or leader. Offer a small gift for guests as a thanks for filling this card out—like a mug, a book, or a devotional.
☑️ Give visitors a warm send-off. This is another important function of your greeters. They can help collect cards, assist families as they pick up their children, and send people off in a friendly, engaging way.
6) Have a Follow-Up Plan
Use Easter as an opportunity to connect people to your church community and help them continue to grow in their faith.
Consider if your church has the necessary resources in place to convert a one-time attendee into a repeat guest. A guest follow-up plan is key to make sure people will take the next step to get connected with your church.
☑️ Follow up with new guests. We have a great resource that details what this plan might look like, which you can read all about here: Creating a Church Guest Follow-up Workflow (w/ Email & Text Templates)
☑️ Highlight resources, events, and your community from the pulpit. This could be during the announcement portion of your service or as a part of the resources you hand out to visitors. The point is to highlight some of your most popular resources that people will want to return for.
☑️ Invite them back. It may sound simple, but you can’t skip this one! It should be included at the end of your message, with the announcements as you send people off, and even from the volunteers as they are opening the doors for people to leave.
Remember not to wait too long after Easter to follow up—you want to reach out while you’re still fresh in people’s minds or you may risk losing the momentum you’ve worked hard to build up.
READ: Secrets of a Successful Church Follow-Up Process
7) Thank Your Teams and Volunteers
We can spend so much of our time focusing on preparing for Easter and executing on the day of that we forget to follow up with our heartfelt thanks to the teams that help make it possible.
Create a plan to show your appreciation to your team after the holiday is over, and gather feedback you can use to make the experience even better next year.
☑️ Use this “Thank You” text template.
Hey Team, I just wanted to say a big thank you for your hard work today. I’m so proud of the Easter service we put together, and it would not have been a success without your help!
☑️ Host a team appreciation event. This could be stocking a team/volunteer room with snacks, donuts, and coffee the day of, or it could be a totally separate event after Easter.
☑️ Ask for feedback. It’s important to spend some time gathering feedback from your teams. What worked? What didn’t? What needs to be changed for next year? Gather up all these details and spend the next week reviewing them.
☑️ Document feedback for next year. Make the insights you receive actionable for next year. Create a note, a document, or even an email scheduled to send to yourself before Easter 2027 that contains a summary of the feedback you received and how you would like to adjust your plan for next year.
Easter can certainly be a fulfilling, yet stressful time, for church leaders who are doing their best to provide the best all-around experience for all their guests, both new and existing. Preparing for such a popular service can feel overwhelming, but completing these 23 tasks will help ensure you are ready to welcome guests with confidence.
One Church Software has all the features you need to prepare and execute a successful Easter service, from robust child check-in features to comprehensive team management tools to customizable communication, and more.
Book a demo to see how One Church Software can help your church or try a FREE 30-Day Trial.
