Easter Community Outreach

Easter is a time when a lot of people in our community will venture out to church who normally do not attend church on the weekend.  If your church is faithful to teach the Word, is friendly and is planning to share a gospel message, then you have every reason you need to invite as many people as possible to your church services.

As the pastor, you may want to get on the phone and call up people to invite them, but, in reality, you have services to plan and people to minister to.  YOU NEED HELPFUL RESOURCES!!!  Here are some ideas about how to enlist your congregation, digital communication and your local media outlets as a tool to communicate with tens of thousands of people right there in your neighborhood.

In Services/At Church

  • Announce: During announcements, remind people about how important it is to invite their friends and neighbors to Easter services.
  • Invite Tools: Give your congregation tools like invite cards to take away so they don’t forget to invite friends.  These don’t need to be elaborate.  A business card with service times for Easter and an invitation will suffice and can be obtained inexpensively.
  • Timing: Talk about Easter early.  Start communicating a month in advance.  Communicate about Easter passively with posters in the lobby and with announcement slides a month before the service.  When you talk about Easter, do it in a way that is engaging and active.
  • Stories: When you talk about Easter, do it in a way that tells a story rather than just communicating the plain details.  People engage with stories more than they engage with facts.  Help them picture inviting a friend and then help them picture that friend’s life changed because of the gospel message that will be presented at the service.
  • Video: Go to Igniter Media or Sermon Spice and find exciting video pieces to play during the announcement time.
  • EDDM: Use an EDDM service and mail out the postcards to the community.  EDDM is relatively inexpensive and very effective

Social Media

  • Video: Take the video you downloaded from Igniter Media or Sermon Spice and post it on social media. Make a video of one of your pastors inviting people to Easter.  “Face-on” videos get more attention on social media than any other type of post right now.
  • Slides: Post projection slides on social media and make sure you give people the date and time. (Don’t’ assume people know when Easter is)
  • Boost: Boost your best Facebook posts for $3-5 per day
  • Current Pics: Make sure you have current photos or videos on your social media pages. Recent photos = higher engagement.
  • Landing Page: Create a landing page with a special offer. Perhaps offer a free e-book or devotional in exchange for an email address.  Add those email address to your email campaign and invite those people to Easter services.

Email

  • Boost: Use email to boost your key Easter social media posts. Invite your congregation to share the post with those they want to invite.
  • Short and Sweet: Keep the emails short and direct to the message.

Outdoor, Movies and Radio

  • Banners: Create a large banner for the church building. Let the church building become the billboard!
  • Pageant Promo: If you do a passion play or Easter pageant, offer media interviews with the local cast. Local papers love those stories. It is a great way of authentically reaching your audience without being pushy.
  • Theater: Advertise before the movie in your local theater a few weeks before Easter
  • Radio: Go to your local Radio station and record spots to run 4 times per day 2-3 weeks before your services.  Depending on the makeup of your church, these are the best stations to advertise on:
    • Christian station (1/3rd of Christian radio listeners don’t go to church)
    • Contemporary country (65% middle-aged female)
    • Adult contemporary (almost entirely female – think moms in minivans)
    • Classic rock (middle aged men)
    • Oldies, talk radio and classic country (Older listeners and Senior Saints)

Do you need help creating any of these pieces?

Ablaze Media specializes in church media and for Prescott and Flagstaff churches, we also specialize in local radio spots.  Give Mark a call today to find out more 928-460-3134 or mark@marks273.sg-host.com.