The Chosen is back for Holy Week, the most pivotal event in human history. Tables are turned. Friends are betrayed. And powerful leaders plot the death of Jesus. The whole story comes to life on the big screen at local theaters with The Chosen: Last Supper (Season 5) premiering March 28. 

But the impact doesn’t have to end at the theater. Your church has a unique opportunity to extend the story by helping your community encounter Jesus in a deeper way. Thanks to a partnership between The Chosen, the Come & See Foundation, and Outreach magazine’s parent company Outreach, Inc., you can access free sermon series kits to continue the journey from the theater to your church.

These digital kits are designed to complement The Chosen: Last Supper and equip your church to share the powerful story of Easter:

* One-Day Palm Sunday Kit. Highlight the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

* Maundy Thursday/Good Friday Communion Kit. Focus on the Last Supper and the events leading to the cross.

* Three-Week Easter Series Kit. Delve deeper with a series starting April 6 and culminating on Easter Sunday, April 20. 

This Easter season, your church can create a meaningful impression by inviting your community to experience The Chosen: Last Supper at the theater and then join you for a powerful sermon series. To make it even easier, Outreach.com offers coordinated invitation tools to help you get the word out.

Let’s make this Easter unforgettable for your neighbors. Download your free kit today at Outreach.com and be part of sharing the hope of Jesus with those who need it most.

The Chosen: Last Supper is the must-see event of the Easter season. Don’t miss the chance to share it with your community.

1. Celebrate what God has done. 

One thing we often miss as leaders is the corporate “thank you” for what God has done. We thank God for the harvest, but here I think it is important to thank God for the leaders who served during the long days and even longer hours during the Easter services. Yes, you and I know leaders are supposed to serve; however, the acknowledgment of their service is key. Everyone from the parking lot to the pulpit needs to know that their role and part are the reason that we had this impact. 

I recently had Pastor Brian Bullock from Union Church Charlotte on my podcast, and he spoke about this point clearly. It’s the way Pastor Brian shares the vision of his church and the goal of each ministry. At our church, Kingdom Fellowship AME Church, we have a saying “We Together.” For us this statement is used to allow each part of the ministry to know that no part is more important than another. Everything and everyone must work together, and all parts are equally important. Celebrate your leaders and celebrate the win. 

If one new person came to the church during the weekend that is a win. If one person said yes to Jesus and the church that is a win. If one student visited the youth ministry that is a win. 

We are thankful for all wins large and small, and each leader needs to know the wins as we report them. If you don’t have a system to track engagement, try Church Metrics. It is free and what I use weekly at Kingdom for a quick report. Don’t forget to celebrate.

2. Engage those who are new. 

After Easter it is also important to engage those members of the community who are new. Those who watched the service for the first time, those who joined the worship experience for the first time or in a long time. If someone has been to your church or has not watched in months, then treat them like new people and try to engage them to become more connected. 

How? I am glad you asked. You should have something prepared for them, like a letter or video of welcome. It is OK if you didn’t have this planned; you can still do it now. Just draft a letter and/or film a quick video thanking them for visiting, and outlining for them the ways that they can get more connected with your church. You can also work to assign some of your more seasoned leaders to these new people to engage them and bring them closer into the core and not just the crowd or congregation—people who are close to the church and serve and who have a heavy commitment would be called your core, those a little more outside but still committed in some ways would be the congregation, and those all the way out on the edges are thought to be in the crowd. I don’t know who created this system, but I use it often. 

This is the simple point I pray is clear: after Easter it is important for us to engage those who are new so that we can help them move from outside to closer inside. How are you engaging them? 

3. Plan to study, serve and grow together. 

This final point might be the most important. After Easter—which we all treated like a very big deal, because it is—what is next? What does the person who is new do next with you and your church? How can they grow closer in their relationship with Jesus Christ and his church? In what ways can they serve with the church to impact the community and their brothers and sisters in need? 

The season after Easter is a great time to launch a new small group series or a new Bible study plan, and of course, to launch an outreach project for the church to join and make a major impact. This might seem like a lot, but as a leader you also want to get more leaders involved so each of these points or thoughts can be given to a leader to run from the small group launch to the Bible study plan and the serving opportunities. 

I say it often, but it is worth saying it here as well, the less you do the more you can do. It is time to do less and allow your team to do more so that you can impact more people all for God’s Glory. How are you going to engage now?

What are your plans for the season after Easter? What would you add to this list?

Read more from Russell St. Bernard »

These two post-Easter responses are very common.

“Let’s take a break.”

The work to prepare for Easter is easily enough for any church leader to say, “Hey, let’s take a break.” You may need a break, if so, get some rest, but the short post-Easter season is one of the best opportunities all year to engage those who have recently attended your church. What is your plan?

“We’re disappointed.”

If Easter didn’t go exactly as you hoped, it’s easy to feel let down in some way and perhaps become disappointed or discouraged. That’s exactly what the enemy wants. Don’t give in, hang in there, what you are doing matters.

Both responses are natural, but I’d like to encourage you to think in a different direction.

These next two to three weeks can change the trajectory of your church.

We all know that your attendance can spike to a high point on Easter, only to fall right back down to where it was the week before. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if we all kept pressing in, praying and asking God for favor after Easter?

3 ‘News’ to Lean Into Starting Today:

1. New Life

Our senior pastor Jason Berry gave a powerful and clear presentation of the Gospel for our Easter services. I personally appreciate that even though he communicated with great passion and his invitation was strong, he left plenty of room for the Holy Spirit to do his work.

Jason communicated that some people aren’t ready yet. And that’s OK.

Perhaps you were the one to plant a seed, or watered a seed that had been planted, but not yet sprouted. God brings the growth as we all do our part.

Our responsibility as leaders is to teach the good news of Jesus. That’s it. Each individual person makes their own decision in their own timing.

Thank God for the new life that took place over Easter at your church, and have no regrets for what hasn’t happened … yet. Let’s be grateful for those who said yes to Jesus and continue to pray for those who were not yet ready.

For now, focus on who said yes. Pour your heart and energy into anyone who gave their life to Christ. Make your plan to engage new Christians a top priority. That new life needs your attention.

Whether its one, 20, 50 or hundreds, it is our great responsibility to genuinely care for those who said yes to Jesus.

2. New Guests

My hunch is that you had a good number of new guests over Easter weekend. That’s great!

What is your plan for follow up? Who’s leading the process?

The real point of how many guests we all have at Easter isn’t about the size of our churches, it’s about the potential strength of the body of Christ.

Let me be candid.

If you quietly believe that most of your guests will not return, they probably won’t. The reason that’s true is because if you believe that, it leaks into how you lead.

I’m not suggesting a pie-in-the-sky formula that says, “Do this and all your guests will return.” But I can say that the combination of your faith, effort and practical follow up will make a huge and measurable difference.

Your faith, prayers and belief have as much impact on guests returning as your incredibly important follow-up plan.

Your actual plan is rarely the issue. Nearly any plan for follow-up will work well if you commit to it. I’m very aware, like you, that many guests may not return. But work, pray and serve as if they will return. That’s a picture of vision and hope. That’s how to lead the way.

Then, regardless of the actual number of guests who come back next week, you know you are in the game and doing everything you can.

The rest is up to God. And we need to be OK with that. That’s not surrender, it’s trust.

3. New Momentum

It’s often said that momentum is a leader’s best friend. Easter is one of the best opportunities that we have all year to realize new momentum.

Regardless of whether you had one guest and one conversion or dozens in your church, that can represent new momentum.

When we consider the impact of one new convert as new life, one new disciple as new potential, or one new leader as new progress, we begin to see and sense the power of momentum.

Candidly, how that affects your heart—whether you had one guest or many—affects how you lead.

There is something inside the mystery of the gospel that when your congregation publicly experiences the power of God in one conversion, they can’t help but be encouraged. They know the spirit of God is moving. They remember their own story.

New Momentum is generated at a personal and soul level.

New momentum starts with faith in a leader’s soul for what is coming, what will be. Momentum starts there before it’s ever seen or experienced by the congregation.

This is also true for a campus, department like student ministry, or a small group.

Action steps:

• Speak the vision over and over.
• Anticipate more salvations.
• Tell stories.
• Plan for baptisms.
• Believe in miracles.
• Pray like crazy.

I hope that these Three “News” for post-Easter encourage you to press forward with gratitude, hope and new energy to keep leading with passion.

Read more from Dan Reiland »

This article originally appeared on DanReiland.com and is reposted here by permission.

1. Contact someone you invited who attended church yesterday, and thank them for coming. Even if you thanked them at church, thank them again today. Let them know how excited you are that they came. By the way, I encourage you to use your phone and your voice to do this—as I generally recommend, as this post will show. 

2. Contact someone you invited who did not attend, thank them for receiving your invitation, and let them know they’re always welcome at your church. Sometimes a follow-up with people who did not come is the most unexpected follow-up—but a gracious response to these family and friends can go a long way.

3. Encourage and thank your pastors and staff who likely have been extra busy over the last several weeks getting ready for and leading Easter services. Almost nine years ago, I wrote a post about why some pastors struggle on Easter, and I still stand by those reasons. It’s not always the case, but your pastors may need more prayer and encouragement today than you know. 

4. Take time each day this week to pray a simple prayer for all those who heard the gospel yesterday and either (1) chose to follow Christ, or (2) did not respond positively to follow Christ. Either way, these folks need prayer support. A short, focused prayer for each group will require only a little time but can influence somebody’s eternity. 

5. Ask yourself: “Where do I need to let the resurrection affect my life more today?” Maybe you’ve been discouraged and hopeless. Perhaps you’ve been fighting battles that seem to go on and on. You might be leading a church that appears to be dying, and you’re not sure what to do. Or, your faith might be stagnant, routine, and lifeless right now. In all these cases, I encourage you to let the truth of the resurrection restore your hope. The end of hope and passion is not the end of the story in God’s eyes. 

6. Plan a personal or group study on “Reasons to Accept the Resurrection of Jesus as True.” Too often, believers rightly accept this truth from the Word but are ill-equipped to discuss it with nonbelieving skeptics. This past week, in fact, I read a Baptist Press release about a scientist who evangelizes with this approach—and I suspect more of us need to prepare for these kinds of conversations if we want to reach others. Don’t wait until next Easter to do this kind of study.

7. Worship the risen Lord today as much as you did yesterday. Sing praise choruses—and don’t worry about who’s listening. Spend your day talking to the Lord. Kneel in prayer at some point during the day, and be humbled by the Lord’s overwhelming presence. Let forgiving joy and saving power grab your heart. Every day is resurrection day for the believer! 

Read more from Chuck Lawless »

This article originally appeared on ChuckLawless.com and is reposted here by permission.

Just before Easter 2023, residents of economically disadvantaged northeast San Antonio, Texas, received a bag of groceries containing these food items and more. The food arrived courtesy of up to 90 volunteers from nearby Madison Hills Baptist Church who not only bagged the groceries but also fanned out across the area to hand out the bags to community members. 

“We wanted to go door-to-door to give them an Easter meal, no obligation, none whatsoever,” says Robert Bennett, senior pastor at Madison Hills, which has an average weekend attendance of 200 people. “So, we bought what we thought was amazing food.”

Bennett explained how the church, which spent about $6,000 on the groceries, decided it simply wanted to be a blessing in the lives of its neighbors. 

An elderly woman who received the meal confided in Bennett later that she had been contemplating suicide when a church volunteer bearing the food knocked on her door. The visit from a caring stranger stopped the senior citizen, who can’t get out much and has no family, from taking her life.

Next Easter, the church plans to distribute a meal to the community once again.

Providing these groceries is just one way Madison Hills has served its neighbors through food. In October, the church hosted a community barbecue. The church recently “adopted” local elementary schools, delivering bags of cookies, words of encouragement and Scriptures to teachers in December. 

Additionally, for more than six years, Madison Hills has contributed to a local high school’s food pantry, helping to combat food insecurity among homeless students. Bennett learned last fall that a group of students from this high school paid it forward and provided Thanksgiving meals to families in need. 

“That was amazing,” he added. “I mean, these kids don’t go to church here. They just wanted to give back. That’s been wonderful.”

Easter Playbook is a short PDF that offers a wealth of ideas and information about reaching your community, welcoming guests and keeping them engaged with your church. 

Click here to download this free resource.

This is for all the church planters and their volunteers on post-Easter Monday, struggling to make it from week-to-week, and for the leaders and members of established churches that are anything but “mega”—well below the 200 threshold in terms of average attendance.

I don’t know how Easter Sunday went for you, but I have a hunch. 

It was bigger than normal, but less than breakthrough. It was good, but not great. Your attendance was large, but not staggering; worth being happy about, but not writing home about. You are grateful to God but, now that Easter is over, there’s a bit of a letdown. You wanted so much more.

It was, in the end, a typical Easter Sunday.

And you are normal.

When you lead a church, you can’t help but dream—and dream big. I think that’s one of the marks of a leader. But for most, it’s not long before the dream comes face to face with reality.

When I planted Mecklenburg Community Church, I just knew the mailer I sent out (We started churches with mailers in those days.) would break every record of response and that we would be a church in the hundreds, if not already approaching a thousand, in a matter of weeks or months.

Willow Creek? Eat our dust. Saddleback? Come to our conference.

The reality was starting in a Hilton hotel in the midst of a tropical storm with 112 dripping wet people, and by the third weekend – through the strength of my preaching – cutting that sucker in half to a mere 56.

Actually, not even 56, because our total attendance was 56. This means there were 15 or 20 kids, so maybe 30 or so people actually sitting in the auditorium. 

(As a good church planter, I think we also counted people who walked slowly past the hotel ballroom doors in the hallway.)

Yes, we’ve grown over the years. 

But that’s the point. 

It’s taken years.

It usually does.

I know the soup of the day is rapid growth, but please don’t benchmark yourself against that. It’s not typical. It’s not even (usually) healthy. So stop playing that dark, awful game called comparison. It’s sick and terribly toxic. 

Really, stop it.

I don’t care who you are, there will always be someone bigger or faster-growing. So why torment yourself? Or worse, fall prey to the sins of envy and competition, as if you are benchmarked against other churches?

(Rumor has it the true “competition” is a deeply fallen secular culture that is held in the grip of the evil one. Just rumor, mind you.)

The truth is that on the front end, every church is a field of dreams. After a few months, or a year or two, it morphs from a field of dreams to a field to be worked, and your field may not turn out as much fruit – much less as fast – as you had hoped.

That’s okay.

You can rest assured that it probably has little to do with your commitment, your faith, your spirituality, your call or God’s love for you. 

I know it’s frustrating. We’ve got a lot of the world in us and thus look to worldly marks of success and affirmation.

But what matters is whether you are being faithful, not whether you are being successful. You’re not in this for human affirmation, but a “well done” from God at the end.

Did you preach the gospel yesterday?

Then “well done.”

Did you and your team do the best you could with what you had?

Then “well done.”

Did you and your church invite your unchurched friends to attend?

Then “well done.”

Did you pray on the front end, have faith and trust?

Then “well done.”

Ignore the megachurches that tweet, blog and boast about their thousands in attendance.

Yep, even mine.

It’s not that we don’t matter. We do, and we’re very proud of the hard work of our volunteers and the lives we have the privilege of changing. There’s a place for us.

It’s just that you matter, too.

And you may need to remember that.

And perhaps most of all on the Monday after Easter.

Read more from James Emery White »

This article originally appeared on ChurchAndCulture.org and is reposted here by permission.

1. Pray that the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus will refresh your heart in new ways. Too many of us take this story for granted, and we “celebrate” these events by simply having a big day in church. Instead, pray that Resurrection Sunday will have new meaning for you this year.
2. Pray for church members to invite their non-believing friends to the services. It’s not enough to invite only friends we already know are believers – whether they are unchurched or are unhappy at their current church. As you pray, be sure to invite your own non-believing friends. 
3. Pray for non-believers to be burdened about their need to be in church. Many unchurched folks will make decisions about whether to attend church this weekend. Pray they will make the right decision. Intercede specifically by name for friends you know.
4. Pray for the health of your pastoral staff. This weekend is a busy one, and stress can sometimes make us more vulnerable to illness. Pray for your pastors’ families as well.
5. Pray that the gospel is clearly presented during the worship services. In my opinion, some pastors overdo their sermons on Easter because this is their one shot to speak to some of the crowd. Folks may leave impressed, but without understanding the gospel.
6. Pray against the enemy snatching the Word as it’s proclaimed. He has so many ways of distracting people from hearing the Word, and he appears to work overtime during gospel proclamation. Even during the service itself, pray that you personally will first hear the Word, and then others will as well.
7. Pray for non-believers to turn to Christ and wayward believers to return to Him. Again, pray by name if you know folks who will likely attend; let your “heart’s desire” to be that people will be saved (Rom. 10:1).
8. Pray for the 4 billion+ people around the world who have never heard the Resurrection story – and for the missionaries who are giving their lives to get the story to them. This Sunday will mean nothing for much of the world. If that reality does not break your heart, you likely don’t fully fathom the miracle and grace of the resurrection. 

Take some time each day this week to pray using these suggestions.

Read more from Chuck Lawless »

This article originally appeared on ChuckLawless.com and is reposted here by permission.

Right now, Outreach Inc., the parent company of Outreach magazine, is offering a free digital bundle of Easter resources including a service countdown video, children’s Easter story video and several social media graphics. This limited time offer is available for immediate download through April 9, 2023.

Click here to get your resources.

Sure your communications, media, and tech teams want to do amazing things. So they bring out the fog machines, fancy lights and the worship leader reaches far beyond the capabilities of the choir or worship team.

And too often, it ends in disaster.

This next Christmas or Easter, embrace your size—because intimate can be a far more powerful an experience than epic.

A number of years ago, our family celebrated Christmas at a historic resort in rural New York. On Christmas Day a local pastor came to the resort to have a Christmas service. It was a hotel, so a small ballroom was all we had, and since it was a resort, not many people showed up.

But that pastor knew exactly what really mattered, and he was brilliant at orchestrating a small, intimate and meaningful Christmas service.

And I’ve never forgotten it.

Sure we want to stretch toward a greater potential, but not with the result of an inept and fake experience.

So for this next holiday service, stop trying to compete with the big guys, and start being you.

Your congregation will be grateful.

Read more from Phil Cooke »

This article originally appeared on PhilCooke.com and is reposted here by permission.