Roads and Country Lanes: Preparing Your Holy Week Posts

Palm Sunday is this coming weekend and it is time to make sure that we have included meaningful and helpful online posts as part of our communications for all the events that will take place during Holy Week. This means preparing posts for the website and any social media sites your parish has.

The first thing we have to take care of is answering the questions people have when they come to our sites this time of year: What times are the various Holy Week services? When are confessions? What is the Mass schedule for Easter Sunday?  If that information is not on your website already, post it there this week.

Now that you have satisfied the visitor’s primary purpose for visiting the site—what else are you offering them? Is it clear in the presentation of the times for services that visitors are welcome and that the parish is here to serve them in other ways as well? You might need to do a little spring cleaning on your website to be sure that all the information is up to date and presented in an attractive and inviting manner. This is a time to put your best face forward on the Internet.

On Facebook and other social media platforms, you will want to post the Holy Week Schedule which can include a link to your website. But you will also want to do daily posts inviting people to the various Holy Week events. These posts ideally include times of the services and inspiration related to the specific day. The inspiration can be as simple as a brief scripture verse related to the day. People are busy this week juggling work, family and church—so a simple uplifting message can be a blessing to them especially if they can’t make it to church for all the services.

On Easter Sunday—consider posting an Easter-themed Facebook Cover that can last for the entire Easter Season. Posting a Happy Easter message for all your followers is always a good thing to do. Many parishes and religious sites post a picture of their sanctuary or some other place that is decorated for Easter. That works really well.

Suggestion: If you do not have photos of your Church decorated for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter, take those pictures this year—so that you will have them for next year.

To do lists are really long for those in church ministry leading up to and during Holy Week. It is important that online communications be on that list. The extra effort to extend invitations online throughout Holy Week is part of our missionary discipleship. It is how we go out to the “roads and country lanes” to invite people to the great feast of Easter.

Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. Luke 14:23