How to Get Some of the Easter Crowd to Come Back
By Brian K. Dodd

Troy Page recently noted on TonyMorganLive.com, “Remember that the win is not how many people show up for Easter—it’s how many people come back. Shoot for 75% of your Easter crowd.”

Recently I was sitting in our church parking lot, waiting on my daughter to get out of her high school small group. Waiting gave me a great opportunity to listen to the conversations of those leaving our church service.

The most impactful conversation took place between a father and his young daughter. He asked the following questions:
1. Did you have fun today?
2. What did you learn about Jesus?

These two questions were a reminder of Page’s comments above and what constitutes a win for churches on Easter Sunday.

Whether you are a seasoned Christian parent such as the father above or have little or no church background, most parents generally ask the same two questions of their children when they get in their car after church:
1. Did you have fun?
2. What did you learn?

Churches do a great job of putting significant effort into their Sunday worship services. I would like to challenge all churches to put an equal amount of effort into their children’s classes and programming. The reason is because children can deliver the “win” of a 75 percent return rate.

Churches can often ambush unchurched or marginal parents with the love of Jesus through their children. Children will want to return to church the following week when they receive an age-appropriate, fun presentation of the gospel message.

The following scenario could happen at your church. A family gets in their car after Easter services and prepares to head home for their traditional lunch. A parent asks the child, “Did you have fun today?”

The child with great enthusiasm responds, “It was great! I had so much fun! Dad, can we come back next week?” Even the most hard-hearted parents will not deny their children the opportunity to attend church.

So while you will spend countless man hours putting on compelling Easter services (and you should), do not neglect the demographic of your church that can most affect the hearts of adult visitors—their children.
1. Did you have fun?
2. What did you learn?

If you do everything you can to ensure visiting children give resounding positive responses to both questions, you will likely see their parents return the following week.
What other things does your church do to ensure visitors return after Easter?

Brian Dodd’s daytime job is as a generosity architect and leadership consultant for INJOY Stewardship Solutions. During the last 10+ years, he has spent each day having one-on-one conversations with many of the greatest church leaders in America. He also also has over 25 years of church volunteer and staff experience. Check out his blog: Brian Dodd on Leadership.
From www.pastors.com web site. April 2014.

The above article, “How to Get Some of the Easter Crowd to Come Back,” was written by Brian K. Dodd. The article was excerpted from www.pastors.com. The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.