How to Get People to Come Back to Church After Easter Sunday

You’ve done an incredible amount of work to get people to attend on Easter Sunday, and the results will be successful with what's usually the largest attendance of the year. That’s fantastic!

But how many of the large number of visitors will come back next week? For most churches, the drop-off is huge. You can change that significantly if you work on your communications in these two areas:

• What happens during the Easter celebration itself, and 
• What you give people to take home after the church service that works to get them to come back.

Sadly, most churches are so exhausted by all the work leading up to Easter -- just getting people there for the service and organizing all the special events -- that they forget that once they're there is when the real communication challenge starts. It's a formidable challenge. Here are some suggestions.

Communications for your Easter Celebrations

For the church service itself:

Go back over your order of service, note liturgical or local traditions, and ask yourself, “Would this make sense to a person who had never comes to church or who only comes a few times a year?” Chances are, some of the most meaningful aspects of your service might not make sense to people. If that's the case, work on a way to explain things to them.

Some churches put explanations of what's going on in the left-hand margin of a larger bulletin. Others have short explanations after the introduction of each section. If that sort of explanation is awkward, think about adding an insert entitled something like Celebrating Easter at Peace Lutheran Church: Our Traditions, Their Meaning and How You Can Participate.

A more contemporary church might do up an insert modeled after a tourist brochure and title it something like, What All the Singing and Smiles Are About as We Celebrate Resurrection Sunday at Bible Community Church.

In the sermon or message itself, be sure to clearly explain your terms. If you're celebrating communion, make it very clear what it's all about. What's most precious to us can be quite uncomfortable and confusing for someone who's an Easter guest.

Double check signage for the church building, directions from the parking lot, etc. Make clear the obvious for those who are visiting and new to your church.

Do all you can to make the Easter service clear and comfortable to your guests, but don’t stop there. You must give them a next step to take. Many visitors don't return the week after Easter because they have no reason to return. They know that your church doesn't do every week what it does for Easter -- but if you don’t tell them what you do do on a weekly basis, and give them a reason to come back, they won’t.

Some examples and ideas:

• A children’s petting zoo. Now, this might be a very nice thing and a great draw to the church for Easter Sunday, but parents know you aren’t going to have a petting zoo available every Sunday, and why should they bother to get up early, dress and feed the kids to come back next week? It’s incredibly important to realize that unchurched people (and hopefully, that's who your people have invited and to whom you have targeted your Easter advertising) don't know what a church does on a weekly basis! We often assume, without even being conscious of it, Oh, they'll love the petting zoo, and that will show them what a great children’s program we have and how much we love kids. In reality, visitors have no idea what you do each week and why they should return unless you tell them. A simple flyer handed out as they leave that briefly invites them back can make all the difference in the world. The publications packet at www.lulu.com/yvonprehn has an example for you to use.
• Seeker studies, opportunities to find out more. Easter brings up some very explosive questions: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? What does that mean? Don’t just send people out the door with a some candy or a bagel, a balloon and a nice feeling. The best thing to do is to have planned ahead on your website and in your church calendar some seeker events, conversations or studies in which you can respond to people who have questions. To get them there, pass out an invitation in your bulletin acknowledging their questions and inviting them to return. Even if you don’t have any events planned, at least give them something that can point them to websites that explore the Christian faith. Again, the publications packet at www.lulu.com/yvonprehn has wonderful publications you can add your info to the back of  and use.
• Finally, for your church overall, give them a reason to come back again next week. Many churches have a special schedule, services -- all sorts of things they do at Easter that varies from what they normally do. For kids, as well as adults, a bulletin insert about what you do on a regular basis is very useful. The publications packet at www.lulu.com/yvonprehn has inserts, bookmarks, postcards and even a recipe card for you to personalize on the back, print up, and give out to get folks to take a second look at your church. These files are all in PDF and will literally take you only minutes to do up and personalize -- DO them and you'll see a very different response than what often happens in churches the week after the Easter service!

Finally...

Take a deep breath, pray lots, and do up one more publication, one more explanation, so your Easter service will not only be an incredible celebration but so people will return next Sunday, begin attending your church on a regular basis, and come to know Jesus so they can respond with joy when He returns.

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Yvon Prehn teaches seminars on church communications and marketing to thousands of churches every year. She is the author of Ministry Marketing Made Easy and The Heart of Church Communications; editor and publisher of a free online newsletter for church communicators, and a contributing writer for a number of Christian publications. Prehn’s website, www.thelionsvoice.com , has numerous articles, tips and resources for church communicators.