How do you start a meaningful conversation about Easter? 🐰 ✝️

August 2, 2021

Easter for me as a kid involved waking up to baskets of candy, going to church and maybe an Easter egg hunt. It always felt like a weird, uninteresting holiday that no one really knew what to do with.

Several years later I was baptized on Easter Sunday and my life has never been the same. For me, Easter now represents more than Jesus’ death and resurrection. It represents the new life I have because of my relationship with him.

I think Easter is an opportunity for meaningful conversations about Jesus that’s too good to miss.

So I hope these ideas help you start a conversation with someone you know about the meaning and relevance of Easter.

Find a safe environment for your conversation

Take advantage of what churches in your area are doing. Invite your friends, family, neighbors or co-workers to a service, or an Easter egg hunt. Or you could also host a lunch after a service.

Your goal is to provide a comfortable environment for the conversations you want to have.

Start a conversation by asking questions like:

What does Easter represent for you?
Do you have any significant memories associated with Easter?
What do you think the message of Easter is?
What do you think of the idea that someone could rise from the dead?

Try to help the other person understand why the resurrection is so important to the message and story of Jesus. It’s about Jesus demonstrating his ultimate victory over death and providing a pathway to new life for anyone who believes in him.

Talk about resurrection in terms of hope

We’ve all experienced the sting of death. It might be in a literal sense through the loss of a loved one. Or it might also be the death of an ambition, a relationship, or a future we had hoped for.

We are looking for common ground with the person we’re having a conversation with. The need for hope is something we all share, so thinking of resurrection in that way can help.

Resurrection becomes our source of hope once we recognize that we live in a dying world in need of new life.

So what if you created space this Easter to talk about the hard things in your life that you need God to breathe resurrection power or new life into?

Here are some questions you could ask in conversation:

How has COVID-19 affected you and your family?
What is one thing you wish was different about the last year?
Do you ever feel like life is not the way it’s meant to be?
What gives you hope for the future?

This is an opportunity to empathize with and relate to the other person’s story through your shared or similar experiences.

Your personal story can help someone understand resurrection

My resurrection story is about Jesus setting me free from the need to achieve perfection. It centers on that Easter Sunday in 2011 when I was baptized. Ever since that day God has continued writing chapters in my story by helping me find new life in him.

Talk about ways you experienced spiritual death and discovered your need for the hope you’ve found in Jesus. Here’s one way to share your story.

Ask permission. When it feels appropriate, say something like, “Can I share why Easter is so meaningful to me?”
Pick a theme. Try identifying one area where Jesus has brought you new life. This makes your story easier to follow.
Start with death. How did you experience hopelessness apart from God? Why did this feel like spiritual death to you?
Make resurrection specific to your life. What is it about the resurrection that gave you hope in that situation? How have you experienced new life?

At the end of the story, continue the conversation by asking something like, “Is there an area of your life where you’d like God to bring new life?” The person’s answer might open a door to communicate more of the gospel or another part of Jesus’ story.

In a world desperately in need of hope, there is good news. Jesus is alive!

I hope this Easter is extra meaningful for you as you invite people to discover resurrection life.