Easter is not a typical Sunday for more than just the message that you will be giving. Churches tell a different story than what is told for secular Easter — it might be obvious, but I'll say it: churches need to communicate differently on Easter.
For many families, Easter and Christmas time are the two Sundays of the year when they find themselves needing to be in your church building. So whether it is because of tradition, conviction, or something more, you will have a different audience in your Easter service. So how are you going to reach this new audience?
We have a few Easter church technology options for you:
1. Use a Couple of Videos
Your church may take love a traditional route of worship with some songs, a Bible passage reading, and the sermon from your pastor's hand-written notes. Maybe this week is the time to try out a video to introduce your sermon or use a new medium to preach the word.
More Resources:
- Easter Resources, ChurchTechToday
- Free Service Pack, Twelve:Thirty Media
- Easter Video Clips, DepositPhotos.com
2. Stream Your Sermon
Many churchgoers tend to travel this holiday season and may miss the service, but setting up a stream of your Sunday sermon could be a great first step in reaching more people in your community.
More Resources:
- Live Stream Your Church Services for Almost Nothing, ChuchTechToday
- Ready Your Church Audio for Live Streaming, ChurchTechToday
- SlingStudio Multi-Camera Live Streaming Platform Review, ChurchTechToday
3. Keep Communicating Even After Church
If you do a great job of communicating the heart of the Gospel and the vision of your church, why should you stop on just Sunday? If you have a blog, point them to it on Sunday, and if you do not, start today. Here are some blog post ideas to keep up the communication.
- 4 Questions Executive Pastors Should be Asking Themselves, ChurchTechToday
- 7 Reasons Every Church Pastor Should Have a Blog, Thom Rainer
- Should Your Pastor be Blogging, Church Training Academy
Get Everything Running Smoothly
If you do try out anything new or just continue “business as usual,” you will want to make sure that this service goes great. While messing up a PowerPoint or forgetting to turn up a microphone will not destroy any theological doctrines, it can disrupt the message being presented. Here are some tips to making your sermon run smoother:
1. Plan Ahead
There is so much planning you could be doing, whether it is establishing the audio input/output in the soundboard or putting notes into your MediaShout program. Ensure that you have enough extra batteries, cables for sound, backup bulbs, and even a backup volunteer in case someone gets sick. A great plan does not mean mistakes or problems will not arise, but it does mean that they will be minimized.
2. Practice Practice Practice
It is good to have a plan, but you need to go through the actual steps. Some of this is to simply work out the bugs that you may not have foreseen and some of it is to get the church tech team on the same page as the worship team and the preaching pastor. This practice will hopefully instill confidence in your team and make the process become natural for everyone involved.
3. Be Flexible If It Fails
I have a motto when it comes to technology in the church and using it for Sunday sermons, “Technology is a tool for worship and when it stops helping, you should worship without it.” Technology will fail you, whether a computer crashes twenty minutes before service and you lose the whole presentation slides, a bulb burns out on a projector and you cannot get a new one until next week, or you have run out of 9-volt batteries for your microphones. Do you know how you would bounce back from that? Great! But does your team know too?
Pray
As this season comes, pray for the congregation when they come into the doors to hear the Word of God. Some of them may be hearing about the grace from the Cross for the very first time while others may be deeply burdened by the sins on their shoulders that we may be able to bear. Pray for the pastors as they deliver the Word to the lost and the body of Christ. We hope that they make room for the Holy Spirit as they prepare and preach. Finally, pray for your tech crew as they continue to do their best to serve the church and hopefully know that they are spreading the Gospel through their part of the ministry.
