Many would consider Easter the pinnacle event of the church calendar as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and His promised return.
It comes as no surprise then that preparing for Easter Sunday and the Lenten season leading up to it is a big job.
During this time, your church is likely to have new studies or classes, special musical or drama rehearsals, fellowship events, and more. And of course, there’s no doubt you’ll welcome dozens (if not hundreds!) of visitors to your church at some point during this season and for Easter services.
Navigating the organization and administration of all the moving parts and pieces of Lent and Easter is made much easier with Realm®. If you’re still operating “manually” with a pen, paper, and/or a spreadsheet, read on to see how Realm makes work much easier and more effective.
How Realm Makes the Easter Season Easier
Let’s take a look at a few typical challenges you may face as you plan for Lent and Easter this year—and then let’s see how Realm can help.
Your congregation is reading a Lenten devotional together, beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing through Easter morning.
You don’t want to blanket-email everyone on the church’s list. You need a way for people to sign up and then a way to automatically email those people the daily devotion. You also want a way for participants to discuss what they’re reading and share prayer concerns.
How Realm can help: Realm’s Communication feature can handle all of the specialized email needs so that you’ll only reach the people who want to participate when you add them to a Group. They can even set their own notification preferences so that they can read on their own schedule. With the Connect-Mobile App, Group members can contact one another via the newsfeed or privately through a phone call or text message.
The choir and drama team is rehearsing a special Easter musical and will perform it the week before Easter.
They need a way to set up rehearsal times when the church is available and also want to organize, share, and collaborate on their music and scripts.
How Realm can help: Using the Groups feature, members of the choir and drama team are able to share and discuss files and photos easily. The Events feature shows a churchwide calendar so everyone knows what’s going on. This makes scheduling events easier because you’re less likely to double-book or choose a time when others have a church-related conflict. You can also ask for RSVPs or request that participants bring something.
The children’s ministry is preparing for the annual Easter egg hunt, which is an outreach to the neighborhood kids.
You need to gather enough volunteers to stuff hundreds of eggs with candy, hide the eggs, and work the morning of the hunt. You also need to gather the information for those non-members who will bring their kids to the hunt and want to know more about your church.
How Realm can help: Get the word out for your need for volunteer help using Realm’s Communications feature. Once visitors arrive, ask them to complete the self-serve Check-In process. Optimized for accuracy and speed with minimal staff involvement, parents use a touch-screen optimized interface to indicate which children they’re checking in and quickly print name tags. Once the parents and children are in your system, your staff can follow up with them after the egg hunt.
The Lenten season and Easter week at your church mean special services for Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter morning.
You’ll likely see many new faces visiting for the first time at any or all of these services. You need to welcome new visitors and assimilate them into the congregation accordingly.
How Realm can help: The Pathways feature is fully customizable based on how your congregation welcomes newcomers. Create a Profile for those who visit, and then assign them to a Pathway, which may include receiving a welcome email, inviting them to a Bible study, completing the new members’ class, and then, finally joining the church. You can create multiple Pathways with a variety of steps of your choosing to help people plug into church life, depending upon your goals for visitors.
Get Realm For Help This Easter
Planning events and services, leading small groups, and welcoming visitors don’t have to be intimidating—even at Easter. Realm makes navigating every season of the church calendar easier and more effective.
Through its dynamic platform and multi-purpose components, Realm is the tool you need during Lent and Easter.
Find out more about Realm and how it can work for your church!
- Attend a Demo: Register for an Overview Webinar, watch a Recorded Demo, or take a Self-Guided Tour.
- Call us at 1 800-736-7425 or send us a message from our Contact Page.
