There’s no busier season for church media staffers than Easter. Whether it’s designing that perfect sermon graphic, preparing all of the content for special productions, sending invite cards to print, finding a way to advertise an egg hunt that doesn’t seem too cheesy, promoting all of your services on social media, or just finding time to do all of your normal, weekly duties—it can be a bit overwhelming! Those who have attended church for any length of time know that Easter is the #1 Sunday for newcomers. Because of this, it’s the norm for churches to put their best foot forward and go “all out” as much as possible. The “excellence honors God and inspires people” speeches come out from pastors and team leaders. If there is a Sunday for you to have your “ducks in a row,” this is the time. And rightfully so. Visitors are important. Souls are important. The more people that we have plugged in to the local church, the better. And when a newcomer gets up early on Sunday, steps out of their comfort zone, and walks into your church—you’re going to want to know that you did your part to make it worth it for them.
Just yesterday, I spoke with a producer of one of the fastest growing churches in America and she spoke briefly of the crazy number of hours that their staff/volunteers have been pouring in to make Easter weekend special. For a church like them, where it’s already the norm to work super hard all week to make Sunday special, they’ve had to pull some very late nights to keep up during this season. One thing that stood out to me the most from our conversation was how joyful their team was about the opportunity to serve. I can truly say that these people were excited to work hard and put in late hours in preparation, because they understood that it was all about reaching people for Christ. So when their stage design volunteers had to stay up past 1am one night to finish painting props, for example, they did it with a smile on their faces. They understood that creating a loving, engaging atmosphere for people to walk into on Sunday could pave the way for lives to be changed. Seeing their selfless attitude when it came to these things made it very obvious why their church is so successful.
But here you are. You’re not a part of a “Top 10″ church. Your church’s media team might just consist of you and your laptop. You may not have the best equipment or software. You may not have a large pool of volunteers to pull from. But it’s still Easter and you want to do your best to make a difference. Why not start with your attitude? If you’re like me, being committed to come in and work is never a problem. I never mind putting my hand to the plow and knocking out projects. But it’s the other half of the equation that I tend to lack—having a smile on my face while I’m doing it. It’s so easy to turn into a busy grump as you work hard on these things. I have news for you—not only will working like this drive you crazy, it will kill your creativity and steer away any potential volunteers.
My biggest tip for Easter? Be cheerful. Find joy in serving the Lord, because it’s truly an honor to do so. Take time from the busyness for prayer. Take time to invest in people. Take delight in what equipment/resources/people that you do have and pray that God will use them to their fullest. Know that every small part of what you do for the Kingdom is important. When you have production hiccups this weekend, trust that it will be okay. And at the end of the day, Easter is about His resurrection—amongst all the craziness, take time to celebrate that.
