Planning Your Easter Preaching

[John Dobbs]

In Searcy's ebook he suggests that there is a "critical nature of your Easter message" due to the almost certainty that you will have first time guests in the audience on that day. There is an interesting discussion of ending a sermon series on that day or even preaching a stand alone message on that day.

He suggests, however, that the best option is to begin a new series on Easter Sunday.

*Guests feel like they have shown up at the beginning of a new chapter in your church

*You can present things in such a way that they want to hear the rest

*You can challenge your guests to keep coming back for the series. Searcy says, "A large percentage of the regular members and attenders at The Journey first came to church o Easter, or a similar big day, never expecting to return. God had a different plan. We simply did our part to cooperate." (p. 10)

*You can still preach on the resurrection and kick off a new series - be creative.

Your thoughts are welcomed and encouraged. Think differently? Planning something already?

John Dobbs

[john alan turner]

JD,
I think you've got to consider whether or not your church is a target for first-time visitors. For example, newer churches (or churches w/ a young demographic) are probably not a likely destination for an unchurched person on Easter. The kind of person who is currently unchurched and feels like they should look for a place to go on that particular Sunday, is more likely to go to the church they used to attend or to go w/ their mother to her church.

If your church isn't the kind of place where people grew up and dropped out and may come back to -- or if your church doesn't have a lot of older "mothers" who may bring their backslidden kids to church, then Easter may not be the beginning of your calendar; it may be the end.

In other words, Easter may be the time to say, "Some of you have started coming here over the course of the last year, and you've never had the opportunity to connect all the dots. Today, we're going to talk about the one event that helps make sense of everything you've heard since you started coming here."

Then you could almost summarize every series you've done since last Easter and talk about how none of it matters if there's no resurrection.

[John Dobbs]

Next time I need some rain for my parade I'll call you! lol Just kidding JAT, I know you're a straight shooter.

We do have first-time guests on a fairly regular basis (not always weekly, but for a church like ours and our size... pretty good). I do expect that there are probably less people in our culture today who view Easter with any kind of responsibility to go to church. However, there are tons and tons of boomers out there who did have a church background and who do have some feelings about going to church on Easter. Anyhow... your perspective is needed and noted...and I will ruminate on it some more. I think for now I'm going to run with the idea that (1) we will have guests on that Sunday and (2) I'd like to do whatever I can to encourage them to return. I don't think we're in disagreement on those principles at all.

John

john alan turner said:

JD,
I think you've got to consider whether or not your church is a target for first-time visitors. For example, newer churches (or churches w/ a young demographic) are probably not a likely destination for an unchurched person on Easter. The kind of person who is currently unchurched and feels like they should look for a place to go on that particular Sunday, is more likely to go to the church they used to attend or to go w/ their mother to her church.

If your church isn't the kind of place where people grew up and dropped out and may come back to -- or if your church doesn't have a lot of older "mothers" who may bring their backslidden kids to church, then Easter may not be the beginning of your calendar; it may be the end.

In other words, Easter may be the time to say, "Some of you have started coming here over the course of the last year, and you've never had the opportunity to connect all the dots. Today, we're going to talk about the one event that helps make sense of everything you've heard since you started coming here."

Then you could almost summarize every series you've done since last Easter and talk about how none of it matters if there's no resurrection.

[john alan turner]

Yes, complete agreement.

And, for the record, I wasn't trying to rain on your parade. I was simply suggesting that each preacher should examine the context of his church and determine whether Easter is best viewed as the beginning of a journey for folks or the end of that journey.

[John Dobbs]

I knew you weren't ... you've been a giant encouragement in my life and ministry.

I hope you will share your wisdom here often.

john alan turner said:

Yes, complete agreement.

And, for the record, I wasn't trying to rain on your parade. I was simply suggesting that each preacher should examine the context of his church and determine whether Easter is best viewed as the beginning of a journey for folks or the end of that journey.