Ways to Increase Church Attendance at Easter
With US church attendance continuing to decline according to the Survey Center on American Life, pastors and church leaders are looking for new ways to energize existing churchgoers and grow church numbers.
A time of celebration, reflection, and renewal, Easter is one of the most important events in the Christian calendar. An opportunity for people to come together to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter presents a fantastic opportunity for pastors and church leaders to increase church attendance all year round.
With Easter Sunday falling on April 9th this year, there’s just enough time left to prepare dedicated Easter sermons, special Easter events, and comprehensive marketing campaigns to help increase church attendance throughout the Easter weekend and beyond.
As the countdown to the festivities commences, ChMeetings is on hand to simplify preparations with a comprehensive platform that streamlines the entire process. With ChMeetings, it’s easy to:
- Organize members
- Plan events
- Maintain communication
- Collect pledges
Equipped with powerful church management features, ChMeetings is a must-have for any church leader looking to increase church attendance.
How to Increase Church Attendance
Easter is one of the biggest events of the year with people across the globe joining the celebrations. For this reason, Easter presents itself as the perfect opportunity to reach out to members of your local community and welcome them into your congregation.
Here’s how:
Create a welcoming environment
A welcoming environment is essential for attracting new attendees and encouraging them to return regularly. This includes positioning friendly hosts at the door, providing clear indoor signage, and ensuring that the church is clean, comfortable, and well-maintained. By making an additional effort to make your guests feel comfortable and included in the service, first-timers are sure to become regular members of your congregation.
With a comprehensive church management system, ChMeetings helps church teams track attendance numbers and create member profiles. These insights make it easy for churches to maintain open lines of conversation that make attendees feel like valued members of your community.
Host Easter events
With a large number of people keen to participate in the Easter festivities, Easter events, and activities are a great way to foster a sense of community and belonging. Easter events allow people to revisit their faith and strengthen their bond with friends, family, and members of their local community. Providing fun for the entire family, Easter events incentivize non-churchgoers to attend and grow more aware of your mission. Examples of popular Easter events include:
- Community outreach
Fun and engaging Easter events appeal to both regular churchgoers and those who are attending your church for the first time. Community-focused events like family-friendly Easter egg hunts and special Easter-themed brunches are a fantastic way to welcome non-churchgoers into your midst and welcome them to your community.
There are many moving parts involved in organizing an Easter event, and the multiple stages of preparation can quickly overwhelm those involved. With extensive planning tools to implement event logistics, outline budgets, and schedule volunteer support, ChMeetings helps to take the pressure off those planning Easter outreach initiatives. Read our event guide for more info on running community events in a simple and hassle-free way.
- Multiple church services
Easter events don’t have to be all singing and all dancing to be well-received by your guests. An Easter event could be as simple as offering additional sermons to ensure each worship service comfortably accommodates all attendees.
By offering multiple services, you can double Easter volunteer opportunities to ensure both the congregation and servants alike are stress-free with ample opportunity to enjoy the celebrations. Here’s how to develop a successful Easter volunteer management plan with Chmeetings.
Whether free or paid, public or private, one-time or recurring, ChMeetings helps churches to plan and organize any Easter event you can imagine. With comprehensive event management features, ChMeetings equips churches with tools to monitor event registration, assign managers, manage check-in, and track attendance to simplify event execution.
Easter marketing
Now you have your Easter events planned and ready to go, it’s time to ramp up your marketing efforts to raise awareness and increase attendance. This can be done through social media, church bulletins, flyers, and local newspapers.
- Advertising on social media
With more than half of the population using social media (a phenomenal 4.76bn according to Smart Insights), advertising your church on social media is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness.
The more you post on social media, the more people you’re likely to reach. For the Easter weekend especially, posting on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter helps to promote your church and events. Remember to encourage members of your congregation to share the word with their friends and family members – all it takes is a click of a button, and it’s sure to result in some fantastic exposure.
Ramping up your social media presence in the weeks leading up to the Easter weekend helps to inform people about events and keeps them keen to return for updates, news, and more. Be sure to include:
- The date, time, and location of your services and events.
- A summary of activities or programs that are taking place.
A brief mission statement and what attendees can expect when they visit. You can even create bespoke Easter cover photos and profile photo frames using Canva to distribute amongst the members of your congregation for their social media channels. This functions as a 24/7 advertisement to increase your brand visibility as church-goers browse social media.
- Creating bespoke Easter invitations
Bespoke Easter invitations, posters, and flyers can be distributed around your local community to boost awareness of upcoming events. Whether posted through letterboxes or advertised in the local newspapers, bespoke Easter invitations help to promote your sermons and services to a large number of potential churchgoers.
With personalized messages increasing ROI by 200% for marketing executives, handwritten cards present another great way to spread the word of God. Use Canva to create an inspirational Easter card before adding a handwritten, heartfelt Easter wishes that welcome people to join your Easter events.
No matter which option you opt for, make it your goal to foster inclusivity and welcome people from all walks of life into your community.
Thanks to the ability to generate QR codes packed with information, crafting bespoke marketing materials is easy with ChMeetings. One single QR code can include all the information you need on your marketing and promotional materials to keep readers in the loop about church events.
- Stream Your Services Online
In today’s digital age, technology is a powerful tool to help churches reach new audiences. Many people may be interested in joining your service, but hesitant to attend alone.
Live streaming has many benefits, not least the potential to overcome geographical boundaries and establish a connection with Christians across the globe. Streaming your worship services online offers an alternative option for those who either cannot attend in person or are apprehensive about attending alone. Streaming your Easter services online will maximize accessibility and bring confidence to first-time churchgoers.
Simplify Your Easter Outreach Campaigns
Increasing church attendance at Easter is a challenging yet rewarding task. With the right tools, pastors and church leaders can attract new attendees with exciting Easter events and experiences that are sure to inspire long-term church attendance.
ChMeetings is a church management software that helps churches to maximize both community and care. With comprehensive event management, donation tracking, membership management, and communication tools, ChMeetings frees up valuable time for pastors and church leaders to establish warm, welcoming environments and arrange exciting events that maximize church attendance.
Trusted by 3,000 churches around the world, ChMeetings provides easy-to-use communication tools that enable churches to send out email newsletters, text messages, and push notifications to their members and visitors. These tools can help churches to keep their members informed about upcoming events and activities, as well as encourage them to invite friends and family to attend Easter services.
ChMeetings provides churches with the tools they need to develop and execute an effective growth strategy that streamlines the execution of successful events to increase church attendance during Easter 2023 and beyond. Using ChMeetings, pastors and church leaders can communicate effectively with their members and visitors, and create a welcoming environment during this important time and beyond.
