Church Marketing Sucks

Easter is the biggest Sunday of the year. Gearing up for it can ratchet up the stress for church communicators. Our new book, Super Sunday: Planning Easter for Your Church, has an entire section on how to survive Easter, and we wanted to go even deeper and learn more about Easter survival.

What are some practical things you do to make sure you survive Easter?

We asked seven church communicators how they survive Easter. Here’s what they said:

Plan, Don’t React

Andrew Hansen, communications director at Willamette Christian Church in West Linn., Ore:

Start planning now. The less reactive you have to be, the less stress on you as a leader!

Take Care of Yourself

Angie Shoaf, communications strategist at Christ on Capitol Hill in St. Paul, Minn.:

Plan as far ahead as possible on everything, get enough rest and pay attention to your health care practices (eat well, sleep, exercise and get out in nature as often as possible).

Focus on Easter

Katy Dunigan, marketing and social media director for OnlineChurchDirectory.com:

As a church staff member, I survived the Easter season by planning early, limiting my focus during that season to Easter itself—not starting any other new programs during that time, and being sure to take some time for myself to rest and reflect.

Shareable Timeline

Clarence Stowers, senior pastor at Mars Hill Baptist Church in Chicago:

We create a shareable timeline in Google Docs and work backwards from Easter. Our production team walks the point, roles are assigned, tasks are shared.  We discuss our progress during our weekly staff meetings and monthly leadership meetings.  This prevents vision drift.

Prepare Year-Round

Theresa Decker, communications director at Grace Fellowship Church in Johnson City, Tenn.:

I brainstorm year-round. I constantly have my eyes peeled for creative inspiration, even if it’s not related to Easter specifically. That way when Easter is fast approaching or I’m feeling burnt-out, I have a secret digital closet full of beautiful things I can sort through.

Another thing I do is set “hard” deadlines that are actually two to three weeks early. That gives our team some margin when something inevitably gets sent to the designer for another round of revisions.

Last but not least, stay really transparent with your supervisor. Let them know if you need to take a break from a project or schedule a recovery day post-Easter.

Remember, the assimilation process following Easter is just as important as the Big Day, if not more so. You’ve got to keep yourself super fresh for a few weeks so nothing falls through the cracks (like forgetting to put your ‘Church 101’ class on the homepage loop until the week of Easter… which I’ve never, ever done).

Connecting to God

Adam Legg, creative arts and communications pastor at ChangePoint Church in Anchorage, Alaska:

Ensuring that I am daily connecting to the vine really helps me not confuse being busy for God with spending time with him. While that is a reminder that is needed year round, it feels especially true during the busyness of Easter.

You Can’t Do It All

Crystal Kirkman, communications director at First Christian Church in Decatur, Ill.:

Realize you can’t do it all. You have to set limits on what communication vehicles you are going to use. Give the rest up to God.