5 Easter Activities for Churches

Every Easter, your church gathers together to celebrate the greatest event in history: The resurrection of Jesus Christ. You don’t want this to feel like every other weekend, and since you have an Easter service every year, you also want to find ways to keep it feeling fresh, so members can continue encountering the power and significance of Jesus’ work on the cross.

This is a time for your church to be together as a family, to reflect on the resurrection, and to grapple with its implications for our lives. Guests come to church on Easter for any number of reasons. You can help them see that this is more than a service—they’re participating in a celebration.

Here are five activities your church can do together to make Easter weekend extra special.

1. Share a dinner with your community

Many families have long-standing traditions of doing an Easter egg hunt, going to church, and sharing an Easter dinner with loved ones. But for those who don’t have close friends and family to gather with, holidays like Easter are extra lonely and discouraging. Many of your members may join you for your service and then have nowhere to go and no one to be with.

What if your church became known for inviting the poor, the lost, and the lonely to celebrate Easter with you over a good meal and meaningful fellowship—not just within your congregation, but your community as a whole? Pulling off a large meal takes a lot of help from your congregation, which could encourage them to recognize that as part of the body of Christ, they belong to a much larger family (Matthew 19:29).

2. Host an art gallery

Over the millennia, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has inspired countless pieces of art, poetry, and literature. In all likelihood, some of your members are artists, and they would love to use their talents to serve and inspire your church—and they’d also appreciate the opportunity to share their work.

Hosting a gallery of art and poetry inspired by the cross and the resurrection can be a great way to honor the gifts within your church and celebrate this life-altering event together. You could display creations in the foyer, around the sanctuary, or in a separate room.

3. Organize a service project

Your church can also celebrate through acts of love and service. The crucifixion and resurrection change everything, and provide an incredible model of the sacrificial love Jesus expects us to share with the people around us. Serving together can be a valuable time for reflection, fellowship, and spiritual growth—but it’s also an opportunity to bless others in your community, and it can open doors to ministry.

Maybe you already have some ideas in mind. If not, consider talking to leaders in your community, other churches, or nonprofits to identify specific needs your church could meet.

4. Prepare a drama

There are numerous memorable scenes surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are also many plays and skits inspired by it. A dramatization can help people see, understand, and experience the resurrection in new ways, and it’s also a great way to make your Easter service memorable.

5. Have a concert

Part of preparing for Easter is selecting songs for your worship set. There is an overwhelming number of songs that help us worship God for the salvation he offers through Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. Each song offers us a unique way to reflect on who Jesus is and what he did, but you can’t possibly fit all the songs you want to use into a single set.

So why not have a concert? This creates another opportunity to gather together to worship, sing, and celebrate, and it can explore a wider range of songs than you can in a short worship set. To help people get the most out of the experience, you could introduce each song by talking about what it asks us to reflect on, what it says about God, and how it speaks to our lives.

This could also be a time for your musicians to introduce original music, and you could also invite other local bands to play at your church.

Think outside the service

Easter isn’t just a holiday. It’s a truth we celebrate all year—one we build our lives around. This year, turn your Easter celebration into a memorable experience that reverberates throughout your community. As you prepare to host a number of first-time visitors for your Easter service, make sure your church is also ready to follow up with them after the season ends. Read the free ebook, Retaining Easter Guests, to discover how other forward-thinking churches are getting creative in their efforts to convert newcomers into committed members of the local church. Click here for your free copy today!