Share The Gospel At Easter Egg Hunts

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Use an Easter egg hunt to share the gospel with families who may not know the reason your small church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter.

For two years, my church has held a large Easter egg hunt in our community, during which time we aim to share the gospel with the primarily unchurched families who attend.

In the beginning, we have an area for registration and donuts (ours is in the morning). We lead the kids and their parents through rotations in age-specific groupings. The middle schoolers who came ended up going with their younger siblings. Rotations included hunting candy-filled plastic eggs (with a door prize for each age group), dying an Easter egg, decorating a white rock with permanent markers, and listening to the entire story of Easter. 

This article details how we shared the gospel message through our story time.

Small Church Easter Egg Hunt Outreach

We used resurrection eggs to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Resurrection eggs include telling the Easter story, starting with Palm Sunday and ending with the resurrection story; the storyteller opens 12 eggs as the story progresses, and each egg has a special object in it that communicates that aspect of the story.

After the first year, my church learned that a lot of the young children who come to our events know little of the Bible or Jesus. So, one of our Easter traditions is to provide a framework for Jesus’ death and resurrection, we decided to spin the traditional idea of resurrection eggs by sharing the gospel through storying the entirety of the Bible. 

Splitting the children by age helped make the groups more manageable and is a great way for us to tailor each activity to their skill level. For the pre-K kids, I shortened our story considerably. For the older kids, I included more interaction. Whether or not you divide your audience into age-specific groups, be quick to read their personalities and adjust accordingly.

Keep Your Easter Message Simple

Prior to telling the story, think about what you want your listeners to walk away knowing. Most of your audience will have little Bible knowledge. If you want them to retain the truth of the gospel in your story, those truths must be narrowed down and communicated repeatedly.

For our gospel presentaiton, I emphasized the following truths:

1. God loves people and wants people to have a relationship with Him.
2. As people, we have sinned, and sin must be punished.
3. Jesus took the punishment for our sins, and that allows us to have a relationship with God.

Note: When I share the gospel, I use the word “sin.” When I do this, I explain its definition to my listeners. I also remind them throughout the presentation of its meaning, either overtly or through context clues. You may choose to explain sin in more familiar terminology, and that is perfectly OK.

The Greatest Story With Easter Eggs

Below is an example of how I told the creation to Christ story using Easter eggs, including:

• The goal of each egg
• Object we hid inside each egg
• Sample dialog for each egg

Egg 1 – The Bible

Goal: Explain the basis for the rest of what we are going to say. 

Object: A Bible (I used a tiny book and created a “Bible” book cover)

Sample Dialog: This is a story about God’s relationship with people. This is from the Bible. The Bible is a book that contains many stories that tell one true, big story about how God loves us and wants us to have a relationship with Him.

Egg 2 – World

Goal: Explain who God is and how He made everything.

Object: A globe (I created a globe with a green Sharpie and blue ping pong ball.)

Sample Dialog: Our story starts at the beginning. God made the universe and everything in it. He made everything we can see and everything we cannot see. God is perfect; He knows everything and is in control of everything. 

Egg 3 – People

Goal: Explain why God created people, that people sinned, and that sin has consequences.

Object: People (I used LEGO® people.)

Sample Dialog: Out of all that God created, people were His most special creation. God made people to know Him and have a relationship with Him. To have a relationship with God, people have to follow God’s plan. 

In the very beginning, the people’s relationship with God was perfect. But one day, the people decided that they didn’t want to follow God’s plan. They thought their ideas were better, and they decided to disobey God. This is called sin. 

When people sin, they cannot have a relationship with God. The Bible even says that sin must be punished. 

Who here is a person? Right, we all are! And all people are God’s special creation. But just like those first people, we sin too. What are some things we do that disobey God? We cannot have a relationship with God, and our sins must be punished. 

Egg 4 – The Promise 

Goal: Explain that even though people sin, God still loves them, and He promised the first people that one day He would defeat sin.

Object: Fake engagement ring

Sample Dialog: What is this? It’s a ring! What does it mean when a boy gives a girl a ring? Right, he promises to marry her. After those first people sinned, God made them a promise. He said that He loved them, and He would make a way for sin to be defeated: One day, He would send someone to take care of it for us.

The people knew that God’s promise would one day come true!

Egg 5 – Sacrifices

Goal: Explain that God takes sin seriously, and sin must be punished.

Object: A lamb 

Sample Dialog: Guess what happened? People kept sinning and disobeying God. God still loved people, and He still wanted a relationship with them. But God still needed to punish their sin. 

God told the people that when they sinned, they needed to tell Him about it. They also needed to kill an animal for their sin. The animals would die as a punishment for their sins. Did this make everybody happy? No! But this reminded the people that sin must be punished. 

People would make an animal sacrifice, but guess what? They would keep on sinning. They would need to keep making sacrifices!

Egg 6 – God’s Promise Came In Jesus

Goal: Explain that God kept His promise and who Christ Jesus is.

Object: A heart (You can also use a baby; I didn’t have one.)

Sample Dialog: God still loved people, and He still wanted a relationship with them. Then one day, it happened: God kept His promise and sent someone to take care of sin. God sent Jesus, the son of God, to earth as a baby. Jesus was God, but He was also human. Jesus never sinned, and because He was God, He was perfect. 

Egg 7 – Jesus Is God Over Nature

Goal: Explain how Jesus has power over nature.

Object: A boat (I used a Polly Pocket boat to illustrate when Jesus calmed the storm; you can use an entirely different story and object.)

Sample Dialog: Jesus did many things to show people He was God. One time, Jesus’ disciples were with Jesus on a boat during a very scary storm, and His friends thought the boat would sink. Jesus said, “Be still,” and the storm stopped. 

Jesus is God and has power over nature.

For a printable copy of the gospel story using Easter eggs, fill out the form below!

Egg 8 – Jesus Healed And Forgave

Goal: Explain how Jesus has the power to forgive sin and to heal sickness.

Object: A bandaid (The story can vary. I chose the man on the mat; you can use an entirely different story or object.)

Sample Dialog: Jesus loved people. Another thing He did to show people He was God is He healed people who were sick. One time there was a man who could not walk, and four of his friends carried him to Jesus on a mat. When Jesus saw this man, He told him his sins were forgiven. Then He told the man to get up, carry his mat, and go home! The man could walk!

Jesus is God and has power over sickness and the power to forgive sin.

Egg 9 – Jesus Taught 

Goal: Jesus taught what is true.

Object: ABC magnets (anything that represents a teacher)

Sample Dialog: Jesus taught people how to follow God’s plan and have a relationship with Him. One time, He explained that whoever believed in Jesus would not be separated from God, but they would be able to live with God forever! 

Jesus is God, and He only speaks the truth.

Egg 10 – Jesus Died On The Cross

Goal: Explain how Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Object: A cross 

Sample Dialog: Some people believed that Jesus was sent from God and they loved Him. Others did not believe Jesus was from God, and they eventually killed Him on the cross even though He had never done anything wrong. 

But this was part of God’s plan! Do you remember the promise God gave the first people in the Old Testament? He promised that person would take care of sin.

The only way for that to happen is for Jesus to die as a punishment for our sins — just like the animal sacrifice. Only Jesus was God, and He was perfect. He was better than an animal. 

After Jesus died, nobody needed to make animal sacrifices anymore! People could trust that Jesus died as a punishment for their sins.

Jesus is God, and only He could take care of our sins, just like God promised.

Egg 11 – Jesus Rose From The Dead

Goal: Explain how Jesus rose from the dead and conquered the power over death.

Object: A rock

Sample Dialog: After Jesus died, they took His body and placed it in a tomb. They rolled a big rock in front of the tomb so that nobody could get in or get out. That was on a Friday. Then, two days later, something amazing happened! What day is two days later? Yes, Sunday! 

On Sunday, the big rock that had been rolled in front of the tomb was rolled away … and the tomb was empty! Jesus was not in there because He was alive again! This is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday!

Jesus is God, and He has power over death! 

Egg 12 – We Can Believe In Jesus

Goal: Explain that when we believe in Jesus, God gives us gifts.

Object: A small wrapped gift (I used some Christmas earrings.)

Sample Dialog: God loves people, and wants us to follow His plan. He sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins so that we could have a relationship with Him.

God wants us to admit that we have sinned, and we know our sins should be punished. He wants us to believe that Jesus was God, that He died for our sins, and that He rose from the dead on the third day! God also wants us to stop living for ourselves and live for Him. 

The Bible says that if we do those things, He will give us gifts: 

• He will forgive our sins.
• We can have a relationship with Him.
• He will be with us when we are here on earth, and after we die, we will get to be with Him.

That is the story of Jesus and how God loves you. If you ever believe you are ready to follow God’s plan, you can talk to one of the grown-ups here, and we can help you learn more.

Follow Up With Easter Egg Hunt Visitors

There are a couple of ways to follow up with families after they hear the truth of the gospel in a group setting.

The first way, which my church hasn’t done but aims to implement next year, is to include a team of people whose sole job at the Easter egg hunt is to engage parents after the story is shared. My vision for this next year is to have another rotation after the story where the kids do something that needs little parental supervision (i.e., can be handled by church volunteers and leave the parents available to talk).

1. Ask, “What did you think of the story? Have you heard our story before? What did you like/dislike about our story?”
2. Share the gospel story again through a conversation, and ask if parents would like to respond.
3. Ask parents how you can be praying for them.

The second way, which is how we are doing follow-up this year, is to contact families after the Sunday morning Easter egg hunt based on their contact information provided at registration. We have found, with other outreach events, however, that this can be hit-and-miss.

Praise God For His Goodness

We do pray that He would take our faithfulness to proclaim the good news and use it to further His kingdom.

Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

May His name be magnified in our neighborhoods and other dark places, for He is worthy to be praised.

More Easter Events:

10 Steps To An Easter Egg Hunt On Wheels

Ready! Set! Go! Help Easter Visitors Feel Welcome

The Dos And Don’ts Of Planning Worship For Easter And Christmas