Post-Easter Connections

by Eddie Pipkin

Happy Easter week! I know it’s been a busy season for you all. Thank you for your hard work, your passion, and your commitment to helping people connect to a deeper spirituality. It’s that connection part that I’m always thinking about. All those beautiful visitors and Easter-only attendees have been joining you for all these special services, so what happens next week when they are all done and things go back to “normal”? Now what happens?

Although I’m going to share some principles for getting people connected and specific ideas for how to put those principles into practice, the truth is these principles and ideas will probably be most useful for events down the road. But you can definitely evaluate your current connections strategy against these ideas, and you may be able to make some highly effective last-minute changes for this post-Easter season.

Whatever tactics you are employing to get people connected as they join you for Easter-related programming, please, please, please commit to doing this one essential, all-important thing:

ACTUALLY FOLLOW UP WITH PEOPLE!

It is heartbreaking how many local churches forge an initial bond with folks, only to botch the critical step of following up with them afterwards. Don’t make that mistake, either by inefficient design or by putting the wrong people in charge of the process. Don’t treat this opportunity to build new relationships as an afterthought.

Do these things:

Make contact! It is astonishing how many local churches never even reach out to visitors (or acknowledge formerly regular attendees who have shown up for the first time in forever).
Be sincere! A generic postcard or form letter (or an electronic version of those old school standbys) won’t cut it. Contact should have a personal, handcrafted touch. It should have the tone of the beginning of a conversation.
Provide a pathway! Give people a clear direction of how to learn more, get active, ask questions, make a friend. A list of opportunities, programs, and events is not sufficient. Think of all the hesitations and questions a person will have, and do what you can to pre-empt those.
Make them feel important! Let people know how special it was to you that they attended your event, not that they were a visitor data point who generated a standardized reaction, but a unique human being whose attendance is worthy of celebration.

To do those things successfully and consistently, there are some basic procedures that should always be someone’s sacred responsibility:

Make sure your media is current. It is unfortunate that, even in a week as huge as Easter, when we know that many people will be visiting our websites and checking out our social media feeds, we have errors, incomplete and out-of-date information, broken links, buggy apps, and confusing design.

Have a clear process in place for how people get more deeply connected. It could be a membership class, a “brunch with the pastor,” or a program that partners people with “church partners” to help them become part of your community, but it should be well-organized and well-led.
Spruce up your Hospitality Teams. Is your team fully staffed and well-trained? Are your physical hospitality points in good shape and well-stocked? Is all of your signage in good shape and accurate? Think about how people move through your physical spaces. Is it a comfortable and confidence building experience?

None of these things happen unless someone reliable and passionate is responsible for making them happen. There has to be a point person. If we treat these connection and hospitality aspects as afterthoughts, they will be sloppily done. This is unfortunate because these are the points at which we have direct contact with those who have shown their interest in knowing more about us by showing up. They have taken a leap; they are waiting to see if we will catch them.

There is one point I want to add that I think makes all the difference in the world for people who are expectantly hoping to hear from us once they take that initial leap of faith and show up.

GIVE PEOPLE A PERSON TO CONTACT IF THEY WANT TO KNOW MORE OR NEED HELP.

Not just a webpage; not just an email address; not just a card they can fill out.

Give them the name of a PERSON to whom they can reach out, an honest-to-gosh human being. Of course, in a perfect world, your point person will reach out to them as the beginning of the process: “Hello, I’m _____, and I was just reaching out to let you know how delighted we were to have you join us for Easter. How can we help you on your journey?” Now, that perfect approach many not be logistically possible in your setting, or for your context that approach may seem a little over the top, but the next best thing is to send that thank-you note or follow-up-text and have an actual person’s name in it that the visitor can reach out to if they want to know more or if they have questions.

Depending on how big your church is, obviously, no one person will be able to handle conversations with every single visitor who wants to engage more deeply, but a person who is gifted at these conversations and who is highly organized and focused, can be the lead contact who then can connect them with other reliable people who can help move the conversation forward.

So often in our local settings, we have electronic bulletin boards where we have these comprehensive lists and explanations, and it’s a whole lot of information of which we are very proud, but there’s nothing interactive about it, and the next step – if any – is a generic electronic form to contact the church office. Bravo, to those church offices who process these requests in a personal, caring, creative, and efficient manner, but that’s not the standard. More often, it’s like making a doctor’s appointment.

We can do better!

We can treat people as the sacred resources they are, worthy of our detailed attention, exciting as prospective friends and ministry partners. It’s Easter weekend! Hallelujah! Let’s resurrect our connections process and see the good work that springs forth from our efforts.