Thinking out loud with staff for ideas on how to engage people for Easter services. Hope these ideas are helpful to you and your team.
- Provide Holy Week experience for families that include some or all of the following:
- Passover Meal on Thursday night (traditional or non-traditional).
- The Lord’s Supper on Thursday night.
- A prayer walk through a garden (or in the backyard) at night.
- Alarms set throughout the days (especially on Friday). This is according to Mark’s Gospel…
- Alarm at dawn when Peter denies Jesus…about 6:00 AM.
- Alarm when delivered to Pilate (as soon as it was morning)…about 7:30 AM.
- Alarm when crucifixion begins (the third hour)…9:00 AM.
- Alarm when darkness came over land (the sixth hour)…12:00 PM
- Alarm when darkness ends and Jesus cries: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (the ninth hour) 3:00 PM
- Alarm when Jesus breathed his last… 3:01 PM.
- Alarm in evening when Joseph of Arimathea places Jesus in tomb…7:00 PMish.
- Maybe a fasting element on Saturday?
- Break the fast with communion on Easter Sunday?
- Drop Easter baskets in neighborhoods, inviting people to join in us online.
- Encourage families to draw the Easter story on their (or neighbor’s) driveways and post on social media.
- Put together an Easter Survival Kit for families to drive by the church and pick up.
- Maybe this has some pre-stuffed eggs to hide in home.
- Maybe this has some Scriptures to read together as a family.
- Maybe this has the link to some online content a family can watch together.
- Maybe this has some supplies to teach the Easter story with.
- Maybe this has communion supplies in it (we can get Milton on that).
- Family Photo competition: Encourage families to get dressed for Easter and snap a photo. Most creative wins a gift card.
- Do a sunrise drive-in service. Then do regular online in addition to that.
- A drive through prayer garden open to people on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night with different prompts for families as they work their way through campus.
- Re-creation photos: families post one each day with a certain hashtag.
- Thursday: Re-create the Lord’s Supper photo in your home.
- Friday: Re-create the crucifixion and take a photo (not too graphic).
- Saturday: Re-create a photo of disciples waiting.
- Sunday: Re-create a photo of the resurrection.
How I used this in my context
We are looking to implement some of these ideas for our Easter weekend.
Author
Staff of Corinth CC