Ideas to help you celebrate Easter!

Last month, we asked for your ideas about how your church celebrates Easter. Here are a few great E-ideas to share with you:

Celebrate all week. Begin the celebration with a gathering on Palm Sunday. Gather each day of the week, concluding with the resurrection service on Easter Sunday.

Drama for evangelistic outreach. Practice and perform a play with the children, youth and adults in your congregation. Record the play to share on your church website or social media to reach a broader audience.

Fundraising breakfast. Take a special offering at an Easter breakfast (or meal) and send all the collected money to missions or other charity your church supports.

Maundy Thursday foot-washing service. Provide plastic bowls filled with warm water and have towels available. This can be modified to a hand-washing if that better suits your congregation.

Good Friday service. Have children carry palm branches (provided by the church and trimmed in advance) down the aisle to the front of a church for a song or as part of the service.

Easter flower cross. A large cross covered with chicken wire is placed at the front of the church or other significant place. Each person brings a flower (provided as they enter) to the cross and places it in the wire. At the end there is a beautiful, flower-covered cross to celebrate Easter.

Breakfast to bring the story to life. To represent Jesus cooking breakfast for his friends on the shore after His resurrection, provide grilled salmon and crackers (or some other simple meal) to those who are able to stay. Ask people to share how the resurrection has affected their life.

These ideas were shared by Ramon Arguello from Primera Iglesia Hispana (Pih) Ebenezer Church in Portland, Oregon
and Shelly Spencer from Butler Avenue Church in Fresno, California.