Christmas or Easter?

Easter Attendance and Evangelism Opportunity

Kent E. Fillinger challenges churches to reconsider how much energy they invest in Christmas compared with Easter. Using attendance data, he argues that Easter often provides a stronger evangelistic opportunity and deserves more strategic planning and follow-up.

• Easter attendance increases consistently outpace Christmas attendance increases across church sizes.
• Churches may benefit from shifting some resources and planning energy toward Easter outreach.
• The article encourages leaders to start discussing how Easter can be used more effectively for evangelism.

By Kent E. Fillinger

Why do churches pay more attention to Christmas than to Easter?

If you surveyed a group of church leaders, the common response probably would be, “Evangelism”—we want to create welcoming environments for people to bring guests, and Christmas is an optimal opportunity to do so.

Easter Attendance Outpaces Christmas

Really? Businesses measure “return on investment”—whether a product or venture yields a return that warrants the investment required to offer it.

From the standpoint of a return on investment, Easter consistently dominates Christmas in attendance. For example, the average megachurch experienced a 74 percent increase in attendance on Easter, compared with a 41 percent attendance jump at Christmas. The margin was even greater last year for the emerging megachurches, where attendance increased 63 percent at Easter and only 17 percent at Christmas. Similarly, with large and medium churches, Easter attendance jumped 59 and 48 percent, respectively, compared with only a 5 percent attendance increase at Christmas.

Rethinking Evangelism Resources

What would happen if your church shifted some resources away from Christmas and focused more of its energies and efforts on planning for and following up with the hosts of guests who attend at Easter? What would happen if your church spent less on Christmas “presents” for your community? What additional organizational energy could you harness in a new direction if you were not so consumed by trying to fulfill everyone’s Christmas wish lists?

The facts consistently show that Easter provides a significantly greater opportunity than Christmas for reaching more people with the good news of Jesus Christ. So why don’t you use that to your evangelistic advantage as a church?

Start the discussion now. Pray for God to guide your church as you discover what “could be” instead of settling for what “has always been.”

Author: Kent E. Fillinger

Kent E. Fillinger serves as president of 3:STRANDS Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and regional vice president (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) with Christian Financial Resources.