Today's chat dives into the importance of follow-up after big church events, like Easter. We share a real story about a church that put a ton of effort into their Easter service, but missed a key step: letting newcomers know where to find them afterward. It’s a classic case of excitement turning into disappointment due to a lack of follow-up materials. We talk about how easy it is to get caught up in the chaos of planning and forget about connecting with people once the event is over. By the end, we’ll have some straightforward tips on how to prevent this from happening to you and ensure those who show up can find their way back.
Takeaways:
When organizing a church event like Easter, make sure to follow up with attendees.
Working hard on an event is great, but without follow-up, the impact can be lost.
A simple flyer with meeting information can help people return after an event.
Church staff often forget about follow-up because they are overwhelmed with event preparation.
It's crucial to prepare follow-up materials before advertising your church events.
Many churches miss out on connections due to lack of communication after big events.
Welcome to the Ministry Miscellany Podcast A collection of tools, strategy and challenges for Bible teachers from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's been teaching the Bible ever since As a third grader, I started to teach the kindergarteners at my church about Jesus. I've never quit doing that, and along the way I've picked up some practices, strategies, and resources that might be useful to you.
Our topic for today is A really funny story about what can happen if you work hard on your seasonal event but forget after that.
This is a true story.
Though the specific event that I'm going to talk about is Easter, the lessons from it apply to really any special event that your church puts on. In addition to applying to any event, we can all identify with the situation here.
The challenges of ministry are huge and it's very easy to get overwhelmed in one area and totally forget about another one. May the Lord have mercy on us all and help us all. Now here's the story.
This took place in one of my church communication seminars that I used to do when at the break, a woman literally comes running up the aisle to talk to me. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, she said. Now I understand what went wrong."
I just been talking about the importance of letting people know what you do on a regular basis, maybe even where you meet regularly when you hold a special event if you want positive results from that holiday outreach. The advice had been helpful to churches in the past, but her response was more excited than most.
So I told her to tell me a little bit more about why she was so excited.
She then told me about a special Easter service that her church put on that was a huge amount of work, but it was an equally huge disappointment in the result. Now here's what she told me. They were a new church plant and they wanted to reach their community at Easter.
They were meeting in the local grade school, but they wanted to grow and to do that. After lots of prayer, they committed to reach their community for Jesus this Easter.
On faith they rented the high school gym so they'd have room for a huge crowd. They prayed hard and worked hard and they got lots of community involvement. Merchants put up posters. They got media exposure.
had over:
People from the church were also excited. The next week, back at the grade school, they set up hundreds more chairs, printed lots of extra bulletins.
They couldn't wait to welcome the new people, but they didn't need to go to the trouble. Almost nobody new showed up. The woman who shared this was now caught between laughing and crying as she continued, "I now understand what happened."
She was the pastor's wife and they'd beaten themselves up emotionally for whatever had happened to give them such a little response. They didn't know if people really didn't like them. Maybe it was a huge satanic attack. They didn't know what to think.
The reason for what happened was far more mundane.
"We didn't give them any follow up material," she said. "We didn't give them anything that told them where we meet regularly."
She realized that a simple flyer or business card that just said something like we're so glad you joined us today, come back next week at our usual location and actually telling them where the church met have made all the difference.
As she was laughing, she said, can you imagine how many people were probably wandering around the parking lot of the high school the next Sunday wondering what had happened to the church? And we were miles away wondering where were all the people? Their story was more dramatic than most.
I almost never see the necessary follow up communications or links to social media or whatever you need to do to to give out at seeker events so that people can come back because of that. Because there's so little follow up. And not just follow up, just giving people at the event some information about what you do regularly.
Because of that, many big events don't have the lasting results they could.
The reason that this happens, quite honestly, is the church staff or whoever is putting on the event is usually so time stressed and exhausted just before the event that they don't have time to get out follow up material. Now here's one of the things that you can do to prevent that last minute burnout and just oh well, people will know.
Whatever we can announce, we'll just make an announcement.
What I've realized is that before you even start advertising an event, do your follow up publications, then put together a little flyer, a postcard, again just a business card saying so glad you were here. Here's where we regularly meet. Whatever it is, but do it before you even start advertising. Put it away. It'll be done.
That way you'll have it ready to go when you need it. Especially if you hold your event at some place other than where you regularly meet.
Those little cards or handouts to let people know where you are will ensure that they connect with you and not wander aimlessly around some empty parking lot.
I trust you found the content in this episode of Ministry Miscellaney useful For links to any resources mentioned and lots of free material to help you know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible, go to www.bible805.com Let me close now with a reminder from the book of Daniel 12 where it says, "those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever."
That's you, someone who leads many to righteousness.
And in doing that, may you be ever growing in your reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, in the deepening of your friendship with Jesus, and in your trust in the goodness of God the Father, never forgetting in all the hard work you do, that you have a glorious heritage where you will shine like the stars forever and ever. Amen.
