Ideas for Sharing Jesus in Lent and Easter

Written By Jeanne Jerks

Here are some ideas and resources to help share Jesus during Lent and Easter:

  • Have an Easter-Give-Away:  At the local food pantry or your church. Have Easter Baskets to give with Easter coloring books, Easter candy, devotional books, and other Easter items to give away along with the regular food distribution

  •  For the Good Friday service, or a community Good Friday service, have a cross processional through parts of town. Have one or more people carry a cross along with music. End at the Good Friday service location

  • A Palm Sunday 5K Run with proceeds going to a food bank or shelter. Palm branches at finish!

  • A Palm Sunday procession around the church or community. Pass out palm crosses and invitations to Holy Week and Easter services

  •  A focus during Lent on compassion, self-care and mental health with events featuring yoga, reiki, meditation, healing prayers and devotions dealing with stress and grief

  • Use resources available from the ELCA: https://www.elca.org

  • Create Social Media posts that members and friends can share on their social media sites that promote Lenten, Holy Week, and Easter Services

  • Focus on Jesus through Lent and Easter. Find ways to tell the story. Display pictures or figures around the church that depict Jesus’ journey to the cross

  • Easter Egg Hunt with Easter eggs filled with candy and bible verses about Jesus’ love

  • Hand out Easter eggs at a local farmers market or community event and invite people to church

  • Use the book The Invitational Christian by Rev. Dr. Dave Daubert for help with entering into conversations. Gain tools to help any congregation be invitational (book available on Amazon).

  • How can Lenten Services be places where people can make their testimonies about Jesus? – Use the book You Are Witnesses of These Things: Sharing the Story of Jesus by Bishop Craig and Chelsey Satterlee as a guide to preparing testimonies. (book available on Amazon)

  • Design Social Media posts that can be shared that talk about the special days in Lent and Easter like the meaning of Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and The Easter Vigil.

  • Have a public Easter Sunrise Service. Have it in a park or a cemetery. Invite everyone.

  • Take Easter Services to nursing home, assisted living, and senior living apartments.

  •  Invite. Give each church member a flyer, brochure, and/or an Easter Egg with a prize inside (candy) and an invitation to all the Holy Week and Easter services that they can give away to friends, neighbors, and people they meet.

  •  Have a Holy Week/Easter walk. Around the building or outside, have stops, like Stations of the Cross where people can walk and hear/see Jesus’ journey to the cross. End with a sign of the resurrection. See artwork and resources by Marry Button: www.marybutton.com/

  • Children’s Easter Drama – Like the Christmas Pageant, only tell the Easter story.

  • A Holy Saturday Event like one day VBS where kids learn about the Triduum with crafts, Bible stories and acting out scenes

  • A Sacred Spaces Open House where churches and worship centers in the community have a day when people can visit and get a tour and talk with religious leaders and hosts about the worshiping community and community outreach.

  •  A Lenten Free Store where people can come and get free personal care items along with devotional books and free prayer books

  • Use ELCA World Hunger Resources

  • Lent and Easter Resources:


Compiled by the ELCA Evangelism Network      

Jeanne Jerks
Previous

Liberating, Trustworthy Grace for the sake of the world
Next

We are Church together