Imagine you’ve been entrusted with the greatest message of all time. How would you steward it? How would you care for it? How would you share it?

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Easter Sunday is a day that is solely focused on celebrating the resurrection of Jesus — the day death was defeated, sin was conquered, and hope was restored. It marks the fulfillment of prophecy and promise and the open door for us to have a full relationship with our creator. The empty tomb means we can experience an abundant life with God. What greater message is there?

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The greatest message of all time sits in our hearts and the opportunity to share it rests in our hands. It’s too good, too transformative to keep to ourselves. Easter Sunday is one of the biggest evangelical opportunities of the year. It matters more than ever that we’re telling the story and inviting people to join us on the journey.

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As we gear up to launch Easter 2023, it’s been crucial for our programming (worship, creative, and production), operational, and data teams to work together. There are two main areas we’ve been focusing as we plan:

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The Experience

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As we considered each element of Easter, one thing we kept at the forefront of our minds is that people will be joining us in the room for the very first time. We don’t know their story or what burdens they are carrying, but we know the solution. Our hope is that they feel welcomed home and pointed toward Jesus.

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We looked at Easter as a collective experience, starting with Palm Sunday, then Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Our goal was for each service to focus on a different aspect of the Jesus story while keeping a cohesive feel across each experience. As our programming team planned out service flows, we focused on two core elements

Worship — building a robust worship experience with opportunities for first time guests and weekly attendees to praise.

Storytelling — Telling the Easter story trough creative and unique ways that point back to our guiding message, Ain't No Grave.

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The Invite

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Just as important as the day-of experience is the presentation of our external invitations. As we designed, we wanted to ensure the invitation was engaging, clear, and straightforward.

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Our data team worked in close proximity with our location directors to define which service times would be best across our three brick-and-mortar locations. Precious RSVP and attendance data from last year informed which times we should anticipate the highest turnout, helping us decide how to alter our typical Sunday service times to accommodate higher attendance.

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From there, our web team built a new RSVP system to track and store guest information by service time and location directly on our Easter website. This website was a collaboration between web, design, and communications teams to create a landing page that highlights different Easter weekend elements:

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Guiding Language — sets the reader’s expectations for the Easter weekend experience

Service Times — differentiates between Good Friday and Easter Sunday services

Easter Egg Drop — our annual Easter outreach event

VOUS Kids — we have a space for their children to experience an Easter service specifically for their age group, removing any barrier for those attending church with family

Easter Invite — a text invite people can copy and send to their community

VOUS in Israel — weekly video content recorded in Israel that is centered around Jesus’ ministry

VOUS Worship — links to a special experience of in-house worship that we recorded in Israel

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Each piece was designed to point back to the message of Jesus and invite the reader to be part of the full Easter experience at VOUS.

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As you prepare for your Easter experiences, we encourage you to continue thinking of the one. Consider the one who will be entering the room for the very first time. Recall the time when you were the one. Think about the presentation of the gospel — the greatest message — to a lost and broken world. God is present in our preparation, guiding our steps and leading us in the direction he wants us to go.