ONLINE Lent + Holy Week Ideas in 2021
Well here we are – Lent once again.
Who thought we’d still be in quarantine at this point?
Honestly, have we ever left?
With all of your newfound technical skills – thanks, COVID-19 – you may be wondering how you can make this Lent, Holy Week, and Easter better than the scramble that last year was.
Below, we offer some covid-safe tips to reach your people effectively in this holy season. A few of them are carried over from our Advent and Christmas 2020 video (our most popular video so far!). Hopefully we don’t have to use that one again this Winter…
Click here for the video version!
Important Reminder
As mentioned in Advent, please take hold of the fact that this is an incredible opportunity to try something new.
You can do something “because it’s Lent” or for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, or Easter… and if you and your people hate it – never try it again.
This is your opportunity to try and fail, no strings attached.
Ideally, by next year at this time we are out of this quarantine mess. What will you wish you tried next year this year, so that you can justify how amazing it went and how much you’d like to keep it?
Or what do you need to try this year so that next year you can take even bigger risks?
Don’t waste this opportunity, friends.
Back-End Ideas:
Share Your Lent Plans Now
We were a bit gentler about this suggestion in the Fall, so perhaps we’ve earned the right to be a bit more direct here…
You need to share your lent, holy week, and Easter opportunities now.
Right now. This week.
And we aren’t talking about in your email newsletters or in a Facebook post.
These opportunities need a home.
If you have a website, put your worship and season opportunities on the front page, loud and clear.
If you have a church Facebook, quickly draw up a cover photo in Canva and make your church’s page cover photo a list of your Lent, Holy Week, and Easter plans.
If you have a church Instagram, don’t just post these plans. When you post them, share that post to a story and save it as a highlight. Check out our post on Instagram Hashtags for Churches for some ideas. It needs to be one of the first things people see when they visit your profile, not hiding down below somewhere people have to hunt for it.
Decide on A “Next Step”
You’re going to have a lot of touch points with your people over the next few weeks.
Between special services, Bible studies, and extra opportunities to connect with your community, you need to consider what your one ask is of your people.
What is one thing (read: not two or three things) that you can encourage everyone who comes across your church to do as a next step.
This can be literally anything you want it to be and can range widely based on your goals.
Do you want people to be connected to your congregation after viewing one of your online services? Maybe you repeatedly ask them to fill out a virtual connection card or like your church Facebook page.
Would you prefer they took an action to spread the love of Jesus in their own lives? Maybe you ask them to reach out to someone who needs it, donate to a local charity, or join a community activism campaign.
Your “ask” could even be an upcoming event that you would like people to attend.
Whatever you decide, make it clear and repeat it often over the next few weeks.
Like, really often. People won’t hear it every time you say it. So don’t be shy!
Community Ideas:
Low-Key Livestream
One Advent idea that works any time of year, especially through Lent and Easter is the Low-Key Livestream.
A low-key live stream involves you setting up a livestream video feed for an activity that is very… low-key.
This could mean you light a candle and let them flicker for an hour in the church.
This could be the snow falling in the parking lot.
A silent Good Friday prayer session with your pastors.
An Easter Vigil campfire.
An Easter morning sunrise.
Stream it on a platform that makes the most sense for your people and they can log in and view whenever and as long as they wish.
Sometimes all people need is an opportunity to connect.
Even without a verbal message, these videos are powerful, meditative, and form a bridge for isolated viewers to join in community at a time they likely need it most.
Be Active on Social Media
Unless you’re giving up social media for Lent, now is the time to be active on your church accounts like never before.
Most people want to see something different during Lent – a daily devotion, weekly reflections, or more opportunities to connect than usual.
Now, we know you’ve got a lot on your plate – global pandemic, Lent in quarantine… yeah that’s enough for one person, but there are always other things.
The last thing you probably want to do right now is search for copyright-free pictures or try to craft your own, so be sure to check out our Lent + Holy Week Social Media Image Pack full of over 25 images for your church’s Facebook Page and over 25 corresponding photos for Instagram.
Posting more regularly throughout Lent will not only remind people of the opportunity to connect with your church, but will give them more constant reminders of the hope, healing, and life they can find in Jesus… and we’re all about sharing that message with as many opportunities as we get.
Scavenger Hunt
We’ve seen quite a few churches planning some sort of Scavenger Hunt throughout the Lenten season. This is typically completed by inviting participants to search around their community for specific images or items and then taking a photo of it to send in.
If you do this, you could offer a prize to incentivise the opportunity or just encourage healthy competition.
This not only gets your people out and about more than they might otherwise plan to in this season, but allows them to connect with others who are completing the same task they are.
Make your items Lenten themed… or not!
Have fun with it, remembering you can still enjoy activities with one another, even if you need to stay socially distant.
Deliver or Collect
Just as people often give up something or add something into their lives for Lent, you could add or collect something from your people.
Adding something into their lives could look like a bag or box delivered with an infinite number of items:
- Candles
- communion cups
- prayer cards to place around the house
- anything interactive that goes with your sermon
- Greeting cards to fill out and share with others
Alternatively, you can invite your people to bring in their bags and boxes… collect food, clothing, toiletries – anything that you know will be helpful to an organization in your community.
This allows your people to give and receive, all while staying covid-safe.
Online Choir
Here’s another one we mentioned in Advent.
And yes, it might seem a bit unreachable without some help… so don’t do it yourself.
Organizing and offering every single song you sing as a fully produced mix with multiple people might be impossible for your community, but what about one or two songs?
Could you make a special Easter or Good Friday song be the one song that you choose to have professionally edited? Or, at this point, do you even have enough time to pull it together in house for free?
It may be a lot of effort, but it could just be worth it to hear your choir singing all together again – even online.
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross is such a meaty topic… In fact, it deserves an article all to itself. Next week, we’ll be diving all-in on what the Stations of the Cross could look like in 2021. Sign up when you see the popup to make sure you don’t miss out when it goes live!
That’s all for now, Digi Friends.
Remember that you are not alone in this.
We’ll continue to walk with you through Lent 2021 providing weekly tips along the way and of course an affordable Lent + Holy Week Social Media Image Pack to make it as easy as possible for you to reach your people online with the love of Jesus.
Peace.