Easter is coming. And it’s coming online whether you’re ready or not.
There’s no cavalry arriving to save your in-person services. No last-minute government reversal. No miracle timeline that gets your congregation back in seats by Resurrection Sunday. The sooner you accept that reality, the sooner you can stop grieving what isn’t happening and start building something that actually matters.
Jeff Reed and Rey DeArmas brought in Creative Pastor Heredes Ribeiro of Grace Family Church for exactly this conversation — and it’s one every church leader needs to hear right now.
Stop Waiting. Start Building.
The biggest mistake churches are making right now isn’t bad production quality or clunky streaming platforms. It’s hesitation. Leaders are still emotionally negotiating with a reality that isn’t going to change. Every day spent hoping Easter goes back to “normal” is a day not spent preparing an online experience that could reach more people than your building ever held.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your Easter online could be your biggest Easter ever. People who would never walk through your doors will watch a service from their couch. Curious family members, skeptical neighbors, lapsed believers — they’re all stuck at home with nothing but time and a smartphone. The question isn’t whether they’re reachable. It’s whether you’re ready to reach them.
Creativity Isn’t Optional Right Now
Heredes brings a creative pastor’s eye to this conversation, and that perspective matters more than ever. Online church done lazily is just a camera pointed at an empty stage. Online church done creatively is a genuine encounter.
What does that look like practically?
- Rethink your format. A 90-minute service designed for a live room doesn’t translate to a screen. Tighten it. Cut what’s filler. Every moment needs to earn its place.
- Personalize the camera. Preach to the person watching alone on their couch, not at a phantom congregation. Change your language. Change your eye contact. The camera is one person, not a crowd.
- Design for participation. Build in moments for comment interaction, live prayer requests, response prompts. Don’t just broadcast — engage. The chat window is your congregation right now.
- Think in shareable segments. That Easter message? Cut it into a 60-second moment for Instagram. Pull the worship clip. Create a quote graphic. One service becomes a week of content if you plan it that way in advance.
Your Production Floor Is Lower Than You Think
Here’s what Heredes and the team reinforce: you don’t need a broadcast studio to pull this off. You need intention. A decent smartphone, a ring light, a quiet room, and a well-prepared communicator will outperform an expensive setup with a distracted, unprepared team every single time.
Stop comparing your stream to Elevation or Life.Church. Start comparing this Easter to last Easter’s reach. How many people attended? How many could watch online? The math on digital is radically different — and radically better — if you lean into it.
Survive vs. Thrive — There’s a Difference
Surviving Easter online looks like: scrambling last minute, throwing your normal service at a camera, crossing your fingers, and counting down until you can “get back to real church.”
Thriving Easter online looks like: intentionally designing an experience for the digital viewer, mobilizing your online community to personally invite people to watch, following up with every single new viewer the week after, and treating this moment as a missional opportunity rather than a ministry inconvenience.
Romans 8:28 doesn’t promise comfortable circumstances. It promises purposeful ones. This season is not an interruption to your mission — it is your mission, wearing different clothes.
The Week After Easter Matters as Much as Easter
Don’t blow all your energy on Sunday and go dark Monday. Easter online without a follow-up strategy is like casting a massive net and then dropping it before you pull it in.
Plan your post-Easter touchpoints now:
- Personal DMs or emails to everyone who engaged during the service
- A follow-up video from your pastor dropping Monday morning
- A clear on-ramp to your online community — a Facebook Group, a Zoom connect group, a next steps page
- A series that starts the week after so new viewers have a reason to come back
First-time Easter attendees don’t become disciples by accident. Build the bridge before Sunday.
Listen to the Full Conversation
Heredes, Jeff, and Rey go deep on all of this — the creativity, the strategy, the mindset shift, and the practical tools your church can use right now to make this Easter count.
Listen to Episode 057 using your favorite podcast app — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Play, or the RSS feed.
Then take one idea from this episode and implement it before Easter Sunday. Just one. Move from consuming to doing. That’s how your church doesn’t just survive this season — it thrives through it.
