Easter is one of the church’s biggest holidays. Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter is definitely a special Sunday service, so how do you go about planning what to do? Some of the things churches commonly do are skits, dramas, guest worship leaders, choirs, orchestras, and the list goes on.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these things, but I would encourage you to do nothing “special” or out of the ordinary for your Easter service.
I know it sounds weird to imagine not having a special service on Easter, but hear me out.
By having a special service you are communicating one of two things:
1. You are doing the special service for the regular attendees and having an inward focus rather than an outward one.
Or
2. You are attempting to do greater outreach on a day where you think more unsaved people will be attending.
The first one is bad for obvious reasons, but the second one not so much. Obviously, we shouldn’t be so inward focused, especially on a day when so many outside people are willing to come. However, why not have a “special” service for them? Here’s two reasons.
It’s not in your skill set
Sometimes, it’s good to simply focus on what we already do well. God has wired us, and our churches, in ways to reach specific people. You want newcomers to get a good, realistic picture of what your church is like. If you don’t have dramas at your church because no one is into that and the leadership doesn’t feel it’s best to go in that direction, then why take so much time in effort to do so? The things we’re good at we tend to emphasize every other Sunday of the year, so whether that’s dramas, worship, teaching, or other pieces of service, those things should make up your Easter service as well.
It’s not a good outreach
Honestly, if having a drama was specifically a good way to reach your community, why wouldn’t you have these more often? Why not twice a month? I think we, as pastors, feel obligated to do specific things on holidays, but the reality is, they may not be effective, which is why we don’t do them throughout the year.
Now, maybe you’re reading this and you realize that you should implement some of your special Easter traditions throughout the year, that’s great! But I think the expectation of having a special service should cause us to stop and wonder why. We shouldn’t accept something because “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” instead, we need to proactively adjusting our methods of service structure and outreach to best serve the church and reach out to the local community.
I hope this has got you thinking about what your Easter will look like, and maybe even the rest of the Sundays this year. I pray that God guides you in wisdom and grace as you continue to lead the church He’s put in your care.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment below!