At Easter time, children’s ministries have to walk the line between the secular and the biblical and sometimes it’s a tough line to walk. If you’ve been in children’s church leadership long you know that parents, grandparents and sometimes the entire community expect you to host some sort of Easter egg hunt or a pageant for this holiday. That’s part of your ministry plan, I’m not knocking it, in fact, I think this kind of outreach does some good for getting into your neighborhood. However, don’t neglect the teaching of the bible. Use Easter stations at your Easter event and make sure that kids and families know the true biblical story.
About Easter Stations
Begin by choosing where you’ll place your Easter stations. I advise funneling kids through the Easter station areas before you let them loose on the Easter Egg Hunt. Once they take off, they’re gone to eat candy and peel eggs. Set up the stations in a single room, a couple of classrooms or in a larger area like a gymnasium or fellowship hall.
Decide which biblical scenes you will display. That could be the empty cross, two angels dressed in white beside an open tomb, the woman testifying that “He is alive!” Arrange the stations and don’t be shy about asking for help from teens or adults.
For a fun twist, choose an Easter egg color to represent each station. For example all the purple eggs represent the empty tomb. Inside each egg insert a slip that says, “Visit the Empty Tomb in Room One.” Kids will open the egg, read the slip and follow the directions. Have an Easter egg bucket outside the door of each station to collect the eggs once they’ve been opened. Kids who show you an empty basket can go outside and line up for the egg hunt.
There are a bunch of different ways to use Easter stations at your Easter outreach!
Read more from Mimi by visiting her blog at Tools for Kids Church.
- The Backwards Easter Egg Hunt (with a message!)
- Amp Up Your Easter Egg Hunt
- Open Forum: Does Easter Egg Hunting Belong At Your Church?
- “Easter Miracles” Lectionary Lesson from John 20:1-18
- 7 Creative Easter Egg Hunting Ideas (with a Surprise Twist)