Effective Easter Follow Up

You spent a lot of extra time and effort to make Easter a great experience for kids and their families. Things went very well and your attendance was above the norm. Seems like on Easter, everyone who is connected to your church in some way shows up on the same day. This includes your CEOs (Christmas and Easter only). And you had a good number of first-time guests. Many of your guests were invited by a friend. Others saw an ad on social media. Some just saw your building and decided to give your church a try. Catch your breath for a few hours and then jump into following up with these families. Here are some ideas that I have found to be very effective. Send a personal note. Thank them for coming. One big thought - make the note handwritten. In the day of everything digital, a hand-written note is gold. In the note, mention something personal about their family so they know they are not just another "number." An example would be a family that just moved to your area from Boston because of the husband's job. In your note, mention this. Offer a gift on their next visit. In the note you send, mention that you have a special gift for them on their next visit. Some ideas for this are...

• T-shirt with ministry name / logo on it

• Bracelet

• Free drink from your coffee / coke bar

• Bible

Call them. Yes, you may get a voicemail, but you can still make an impact by leaving a short voicemail. Don't make it a long call. Just thank them for coming and ask if they have any questions about the ministry. With their permission, add them to your mailing list so you can inform them about upcoming teaching series, special events, etc. Connect with those who made a decision to follow Jesus. Invite them to a new believer's class. You can get the resource "Starting Point" to use for this. It is being used by churches across the country. Starting Point is very, very effective at helping kids and parents understand what it means to become a follower of Jesus. You can get Starting Point at this link. Invite people who volunteered for the first time to join your team on a regular basis. Connect with people who signed up to serve one time for Easter. If you'll be intentional about this, you can see many of them join your team on a regular basis. Do your best to connect with guests within 48 hours. Stats show if you follow up in this window of time, you will see a higher return level. Emphasize any new teaching series that are starting up. Plan out your teaching series so that you have a new, exciting, relevant teaching series starting the week after Easter. Praying for you as you contact your guests and strive to see them get plugged into your church.