What’s Easter?
One of my teammates at West Ridge sent me this article last week from the Barna Group which addresses people’s perceptions of Easter. There are some interesting stats in the article. Among them, one-third of the people surveyed don’t view Easter as a religious celebration. Maybe even more interesting is the fact that 19 percent of the born-again Christians don’t view Easter that way, either.
That said, here’s the stat that jumped out to me:
“Overall, 31% of active churchgoers said they would definitely invite someone they know who does not usually attend a church to accompany them to a church service on Easter weekend this year.”
So, if your church is averaging 500 people, only 155 “said” they would invite a friend. This begs the questions: How many people actually invite someone? And, how many people respond and show up for services?
For churches trying to reach a post-Christian, unchurched culture, I think we need to wake up to the fact that Christmas and Easter are no longer slam dunks for drawing crowds and sharing the Gospel. These are my personal observations:
- The crowds that show up on holidays are typically people who are already connected to our churches. Most people who are connected to our churches don’t show up every week the doors are open. The biggest difference between holidays and the typical Sunday is that everyone connected to our churches actually shows up at the same time.
- There’s a chance we’re sharing the Gospel on Christmas and Easter with a big crowd, but there may be very few people outside the faith who are actually in attendance.
- Given the current culture, we can no longer assume that just because it’s Christmas or Easter people are going to show up…especially if we’re trying to reach people who are not Christ-followers.
- In the future, our outreach will need to shift away from an emphasis on the holidays and focus more on the needs of the people we’re trying to reach. If I’m not a Christ-follower, I’m not going to church because it’s Easter — I’m going because I need something that I perceive the church can address.
- All the marketing dollars you’re spending to promote Easter are probably just encouraging people who are already connected to your church to show up.
What do you think? Is this a jaded view of our current reality, or do you think there’s some merit to this? If so, how do we need to respond?
If you want my opinion, I think the Easter Bunny has a leg up on us. We ought to view these holidays through new eyes and begin to be more strategic (or shrewd) about how we approach them.
I agree with your comments and we have planned accordingly this year. We did our “big day” outreach focused on Sunday after valentines day with a felt needs series Overcome the Battles Within focuses on lonliness, boredom in life, and depression. Then Easter will be special and we will invite friends and family but focusing on those connected but not committed to our church.
That’s what were doing…
I agree with what you see the church in the future, but you have to ask why are these people not asking people to church? Could it be that there may be a problem with what we are teaching as leaders. Are we getting so focused on bringing in the crowd that we don’t invest in the people’s lives to teach them the importance of sharing their faith and finding an opportunity to invite anyone. It could be that they don’t see importance of inviting anyone becuase they don’t see Christianity as an important part of their life…just some thoughts. do you think this could be the problem?
Addressing felt needs is totally true. We always attempt reaching the young families at Easter through a free Easter egg hunt (this year to benefit Haiti- which is very marketable to 20/3o somethings) to give parents something to do with their kids. No strings attached is important or they’ll sniff it out a mile away. But there IS a large disconnect between the event and Easter Sunday gathering.
I agree with not just assuming the unchurched are magically looking for a church to attend just because its easter. But if we offer something they are looking for, which is typically somewhat divorced from church, we might then reach them to our church and eventually christ.
A lot of the people who are loosely connected with our churches, and who will show up on Easter, may still be good prospects for evangelism. Also, perhaps, there are many “de-churched” people out there who are good evangelistic prospects through Easter invitations. We still have enough cultural vestiges of Christendom to play on at this point.
Good stuff! The thing that I’ve noticed this year that I’m uncomfortable with is how many churches are promoting Easter services with cards and promo that are saying, “Easter Celebration at First Community!” People know it’s Easter weekend and if they’re open to checking out a church, why should they attend your’s? What I’m saying is: recognize that it’s Easter, but do something compelling and attractive that will connect with the hearts and minds of unchurched people in your community and challenge people in the church to intentionally invite others.
You’re right on Tony, the culture is changing and the church must make necessary adjustments. Part of making the adjustments is listening to what God is putting in the heart of Next Gen leaders. It will be fun to see what this generation will change in the church’s approach to reaching the lost. Thanks for sharing the Barna article.
Mac
That’s an incredible point of view with a powerful stat. Easter and Christmas would almost assure people here in South Florida to come who normally don’t come every weekend so I see the truth in it. i LOVED the idea of capitalizing on Valentines day as a day of lonliness, that’s an awesome idea.
Thanks for this insight.
I agree with you 100%. If we look at our church “membership” roster of active members and prospects, the number of those who show up at once for Easter or Christmas Eve is comparable each time. No doubt though, we do get a great deal of new people as well. We know because of our excellent First Impressions team talking to people and giving out Welcome Packets. Our church gets a lot of people who grew up in church but fell away from it and then decide to give it a try again at Easter or Christmas. We just try our best to create a relationship with them to help that move from more than just a one weekend occurrence.
On a separate note, we just did a huge community outreach called BIG BUNNY PARTY this past Saturday. Right or wrong, we embraced the “Easter Bunny” as a draw that unchurched are attracted to. We had egg hunts, egg drops (from 60ft high lifts), inflatable games, face painting, live interactive show, Ronald McDonald, big costumed bunnies, free photos, etc. The point was not to “convert” anyone but rather a long-tail approach to create a fun, safe event that would allow us to CONNECT and BEGIN a relationship with others in our community who might not otherwise come to church. We made sure ALL volunteers poured LOVE on all guests so that they would walk away going “Wow, those church people were different.” It worked. We didn’t shy away from it being held at a church and we were very clear to invite people back to services and Easter. Saw almost 5000 people show up to the event. It was free but people had to RSVP. 53% of those who RSVP’d said they didn’t attend church anywhere! The Sunday after the event we saw a big bump in family ministry attendance – NEW families. In a post event email survey to attendees, 58% of those who said they were unchurched said they were “Likely” to attend our Easter services. Praying for God to be glorified even through the Easter Bunny. : )
With Easter approaching and the desire to get friends and family interested in church and the meaning of Easter, I find this animated video to be very helpful especially for kids and young adults. Passion & Trilogy