Pastors – Avoid After-Easter Disappointment!

Three Simple Strategies to Meet the Expectations of Your Returning Visitors

by Reba Collins

Easter 2013 rocked at your church! The Spirit was moving. The choir was on fire with Hallelujahs and Amens. The band should have been recording a “live” album. The message, of course, was inspired and inspiring. And visitors, oh the visitors, were standing in the aisles – literally. Everyone was so overcome with joy, they practically ran out the doors to go spread the good news of the Resurrection. 

Or maybe not. Maybe Easter wasn’t THAT over the top, but your Easter celebration was great– even grand, and much, much better than the same ol’ same ol’ worship service. Plus, you saw some fresh faces in the crowd who really seemed to be engaged and interested in your Easter experience. It was a good day.

And there’s the rub. You’ve created an expectation level for visitors that you know you won’t be able to pull off again this coming weekend. For regular attenders, this is no big deal because the truth is that most don’t expect another “wow” weekend on after-Easter Sunday. In fact, many are looking forward to getting back to “normal.”  But visitors don’t know what normal is, and they will judge their next worship experience based on their great Easter experience. And their first after-Easter may fall short of expectations. After all, good doesn’t seem good enough after you’ve had great. Does it feel like a no-win situation? 

It doesn’t have to be.

Imagine if you could prevent visitor disappointment. Imagine if second-time visitors actually felt more welcome than they did on Easter. And imagine if, in the process, you could begin to raise the satisfaction level of your regular attenders, too. It can happen by adding three simple steps next Sunday: 

1.       Introduce yourself again. On Easter, you focused so much on introducing people to the resurrected Jesus, you forgot to introduce visitors to your church community. Chances are they really can’t connect the dots all that well themselves. Now’s the perfect time to tell visitors how you – your church community – are the local expression of Jesus. What does a proper introduction sound like?

• “It’s good to see you again!” – A welcome to Easter visitors and a recognition that visitors are always welcome in the house every weekend, not just on Easter.

• “Things will be different this Sunday, but we are still seeking a relationship with God here.” An acknowledgement that your party personality is only one expression of your church’s love for God. There’s a lot more to your church personality to discover.  
• “Our goal here is to help you connect faith to life.” (Or, whatever your goal is.) It’s a brief description of the rest of your personality – including your church’s vision, mission, purpose, and an example of how you live these out. Verbalize your group’s walk with God. (Warning – If you can’t articulate these clearly, then visitor disappointment and attender apathy is hard to avoid.

2.       Invite them to join you. Think about it – their Easter experience brought them back, so take advantage of their interest. We’ve all had this type of experience. We’re captivated by someone, and we naturally become curious about them. If your relationship with Christ has captured someone’s attention, they are as curious about you as they are about Him. Visitors, and regular attenders, want to know where you are going and what you are going to do next. What does a proper invitation sound like? You could say: 

• “Leading up to Easter, we’ve been on a ____ journey. Now we are going to ________.” Offer a well-planned, relationship- focused worship series, and invite your return visitors and regular attenders to continue a transforming relationship with Christ that won’t disappoint anyone.
• “We’re all on this journey together, and we welcome you to join us by _______.” Give them an invitation to get to know your church community better. Show visitors Jesus’ character by treating them as Jesus would -- invite them to “come and see.” 

3.       Tell them what’s next. As good as your Easter experience was, people naturally want to know what’s next for them. To keep people from being disappointed, let them know you’ve anticipated their next relationship need. Chances are good that a returning Easter visitor has questions about your church community, God, Jesus, or all of the above. They hope you can help answer their questions. Offer visitors “Next Steps” to get to know you better, to ask questions, and to explore your ministries with no strings attached. However, an invitation to meet the pastor while leaving worship is not a next step. It’s a greeting and nothing more. An invitation to contact an unknown someone to get involved in the life of the church isn’t going to cut it either. If you don’t have a discussion environment ready for next Sunday, then make arrangements for one over the next few weeks.

At one of my Easter service experiences, the worship leader thanked us for worshipping with them, hoped we experienced God through our worship, and invited us to consider making their Church our church home if we didn’t have one. Whoa! That’s a big leap to ask anyone to take. And it’s disappointing because it assumes our shared experience at Easter has romanced us into a permanent relationship commitment. It’s like asking a person to marry you after a first date. Pretty intimidating!

The reality is that no one is going to entertain a relationship with anyone until they’ve been properly introduced, and until they get to know the other person. This includes a church.

As good as your Easter experience was; as good as their Easter experience was; no church can measure up to that expectation. So don’t even try. Instead, offer a new but different life-time experience. Give everyone the opportunity to know who you are and offer them next steps to join you on the journey. Then, people won’t be disappointed in their choice to return. And, neither will you.