Kids love Easter egg hunting, but does that mean we should have one at church? This is an issue our pastoral staff has been working through over the past several years. My first year at the church, I carried forward their existing program called Easter EGGstravaganza.
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It was a Saturday morning Easter egg hunt that doubled as a massive outreach effort. We did the works – door prizes, crafts, resurrection eggs, and more tubs of stuffed plastic eggs than I care to remember. The event took weeks of planning and a full roster of volunteers to make it happen. We mailed postcards to 500 households with children. The publicity budget for the event was close to the VBS level.
Turnout was great and everyone had a wonderful time. There was only one problem – the event did not meet its goals. No prospects from that group visited our church for Easter. None of the children were enrolled in our Wednesday nightclub program. None of the follow up efforts showed any promise. Six months later all I could show was a mailing list for future ministry events.
That was the end for EGGstravaganza. In fact, we haven’t had any Easter egg hunt since then. For me, it wasn’t a theological decision as much as a programming choice. Our resources are better directed toward events that advance the church’s disciple making mission.
What do you think about Easter egg hunts at church?
Do you see it as a helpful outreach tool? Are you concerned about detracting from the real meaning of Easter? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.
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The entire Easter celebration is a lie starting with lent, to Good friday (you cannot get three days and three nights from friday afternoon untill early Sunday morning) ,Sunrize service (Baal worship) easter bunnies , Easter Eggs, (fertility Gods) . I would take a real hard look at where these customs come from, then look in the word of God to try and find were God stands on these pagan Holidays. As for me and my family we would not attend your church with your Easter Egg Hunts.
< Steve Harris
I truely beleive in the meaning of this time, of the Resurrection of christ, and how he came to be known as our Salvation, the man we cal Jesus christ. Coming from a previous religion where paganist is abundant , catholism . i have seen how sects can influence the young to be moulded into what is considered tradional and doctrinual, but unfortunely , untrue. The use of these pagan symbols have and are still being used today with even greater influence thanks to the media and unschooled church leaders whom are meaning in their own agendas, bringing people to Christ. Is and has always been the focus of what the Lord is commanding us to do. But if we read the Word of God it clearly states that we must not use any craven images to have any worship. remember the people of isrealites when moses when up to the mountain because he didnt come back in a few days . They turned to Arron and instructed him to build a golden calf and what they they do The Jews started to worship it. What does this mean ? It means that our Lord god has given us his Son Jesus Christ and he is the final sacrifice for our Sins. thats why we have salvation . Now do we continue to use the Pagan symbol ,the Egg , or Rabbit by the way , this is the way the Babylonians worshipped their Gods Easther , also know as the fertility Goddess . where she was worshipped by bringing a Rabbit to the temple,. The Rabbit represented fertility when a couple wanted a child thats what they would do. Sacrifiice rabbits to this Goddess and what the Egg represents is the rebirth of the god ,her son naned Nimrod also know as the God Tammez. Lets remember history. As leaders of Christian churches we must be awre of the history of each symbol that is used because the adults are the teachers of the young. We must not misled them
Well, no one has to worry, I’m fully aware that bunnies don’t lay eggs…
I came on staff at my church just over a year ago as the Children’s Ministry assistant and was put in charge of planning and organizing the easter egg hunt. It was not detailed as an outreach event and I was not encouraged to make it so. Not discouraged, mind you, just not given that direction from the director to make it so. There were no first-time visitors, only many families who had not regularly attended. Wanting to incorporate the resurrection story into the event (which was held in between services during our standard sunday school time), I organized a story/lesson-time just prior to the egg hunt. With advertising and announcements…not one family brought their child to the story/lesson. They only participated in the egg hunt.
I became the kidmin director as of this last January and wanted to bring a deeper experience to the traditional children’s programming. My pastor got completely on-board with the Journey to the Cross program, which we are holding this palm sunday so as not to interfere with the family brunch held on the following sunday. However, this past week a few families asked my pastor about when the church easter egg hunt was going to be. He has approached me and requested that I also plan a small program for easter sunday including an egg hunt.
I have agreed for two reasons…though it took me a few hours to let the initial frustration wear off. As a director, my plate is very full right now with a brand-new program launching this sunday, and being approached with this last-minute after initally having support was…well, I was not happy. But after consideration, here are my reasons and (I suppose) my response to the initial post.
1. Though unsuccessful as an outreach event in the past and eventually morphing into a fun activity for kids during a family meal, clearly the congregation has placed a value on having this fun event for their children. As a church, we do not promote any form of idol/pagan worship through the hunt of some candy-filled eggs. It has essentially turned into a game-time. Are games and physical activities important to the growing child? Does it help the teachers/volunteers connect with the kids? Does it help the kids connect with each other? Though not an outreach to the “unchurched”…I believe it still has value as an outreach to connect with the children in our congregation.
2. Being very intentional with a deeper-meaning (not to mention true-meaning) program prior to this gives me, as the director, confidence that the children have been reached out to and communicated with about the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. Combining the two ideas last year failed…but this way I know that we have served and worked to honor Christ through biblical education.
Gauging the response of a new church-family to the changes I would like to see in kidmin, I have to realize that I’m new to them too. And this prepares me to pray, plan, and envision for next year how to create connection with true meaning and value behind it. It’s not all fun and games…but with kids…some of it has to be! Long-term, I do hope to eliminate the egg hunt. But it must be replaced with something meaningful that still allows kids and their families to have fun and connect.
I’m sorry this is so long, I just realized. Hope this lends itself to the discussion!
I am a sunday school teacher at our local church and I’m planning to have easter egg hunting. I just want a memorable way of informing our children about easter. In our community, most of the children are not aware of what easter is. They only know Christmas. So I am planning to have this activity not as an outreach program but as a lesson to help promote that we should also be thankful at the death of Jesus coz that is what He came for(to die and save us).
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