1. Decorate the church for 3 or 4 weeks leading up to Easter just as you do for Christmas. Banners, crown of thorns, Easter garden, and vignettes depicting the passion week, Jesus last week, are just a few of the ways a church can be decorated. By doing this, you are helping the people in the pew realize that Easter is an important holiday, and that it is worth taking time to remember and celebrate the event that gave us salvation from sins and eternal life.
2. Sing Easter songs on the Sundays leading up to, and on Easter Sunday. Nothing speaks to the heart like music, and singing songs about the cross as well as songs about the resurrection are a good way to help church members examine their own hearts for sin as well as express their gratitude to God for all He has done for them. You could ask individuals who are talented in music to prepare a special number.
3. Challenge Christians to seek God for new responsibilities. This can be anything from asking God how much he wants them to increasing their tithe, to setting a number goal for the coworkers and family members they will witness to, to asking God if he wants them to try a new responsibility in the church, such as teaching Sunday school or leading a small group Bible study. This challenge is to do something for God, not to give up something for God. The new year is a great chance to take stock of their spiritual growth, and be challenged to take on new responsibilities inside and out of the church.
4. Give church families resurrection egg sets as a tool so they can use to teach their children the true meaning of Easter in the home.
5. Make a cross cake to kick off the Easter season, make a palm leaf shaped cake for Palm Sunday, and make a resurrection cake for Easter Sunday. There is nothing like a special dessert to make it feel like a celebration. If your church is big, make it for your Sunday school class, or your child’s Sunday school class. If your church is small, make it for the coffee break, or as dessert after lunch.
6. Celebrate Passover in small groups, or as a whole church together. This is a hands-on way to experience the historical background for the Last Supper, as well as a way to contemplate what Jesus went through, and to remind people of Jesus’ command to be servants of all.
7. Have a Good Friday worship service. Done well, this can be an intensely moving ceremony as people come face to face with the enormous sacrifice Jesus took on Himself to give us eternal life.
8. Have a prayer vigil from Friday at 3:00 p.m. when Jesus died, until the beginning of the worship service Easter morning, representing when Jesus rose from the dead. Each church member can sign up for a half hour or hour time slot to pray. A prayer notebook with prayer requests could be printed and passed out to participants, or it could be a time to examine their own lives and pray for revival.
9. Sponsor an Easter egg hunt for children. This is just for fun, but it is a unique experience that can be used as an evangelistic tool, especially if it is paired with showing a Christian DVD, or putting on a play or puppet show.
10. Have a sunrise service. Many churches have an early morning worship service, often providing a breakfast as well. Most do not actually get up early enough to see the sunrise, but it is another way to do something out of the ordinary to remember Jesus’ glorious resurrection early Sunday morning.
11. Put on a mime or skit for the Easter worship service as an amazingly powerful way to communicate the message. (For inspiration of the possibilities, click here to view a youtube video (you will be leaving this website) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA
12. Have a baptism and communion for new believers. What an amazing time to tell the world that they have decided to follow Jesus.
13. Present a year long emphasis to the church, whether it is to adopt a people group to pray for, or a campaign to train and encourage everyone to witness to friends and work associates, or to reach out to the international community nearby to provide for their physical as well as spiritual needs, or to help the homeless, etc. Use Easter morning to kick off the new emphasis the church has chosen to pursue for the coming year.
