If you missed our recent AI workshop, here's a less than 10-minute hack you can still use before Easter!
As you know, Easter is the highest attendance day for most churches, but the lowest retention moment. (In the last 20 years, back-to-school and Christmas Eve services have had higher retention than Easter.) What if you could increase retention by how you inspire with compelling vision-casting at the end of your sermon?
The attached prompt will help you quickly create a powerful 3-minute vision-casting moment to close your Easter sermon. Simply adapt the prompt with your church's details, paste it into ChatGPT or Claude and you'll have a customized message that encourages Easter visitors to become regular attendees. This approach is warm and inviting rather than guilt-inducing, focusing on the meaningful benefits of ongoing church attendance.
Even if you've never used AI tools before, this prompt is designed to be straightforward and effective. The entire process less than 10 minutes from prompt to polished message - giving you one less thing to prepare during this busy Easter season.
Here is the one we did live on Tuesday this last week, with a volunteer who sent in his manuscript during our workshop. Pastor Tom leads Linden Road Presbyterian in Mansfield, Ohio.
A Vision for Community at Linden Road Presbyterian
As we close our time together on this Easter Sunday, I want to take just a moment to speak to everyone here—whether you're a familiar face we see each week or someone who felt drawn to join us on this special day.
In our sermon today, we explored how Easter isn't just about Jesus' resurrection, but also about our resurrection. Remember Thomas Merton's beautiful insight that "God is shining through everything all the time"? Friends, this divine presence becomes most visible when we gather regularly in community.
Here at Linden Road Presbyterian, we've discovered something profound in the rhythm of weekly gathering. Like Dostoevsky after his life-changing experience, we've found that regular worship helps us to see the world differently—to notice the blades of grass, to savor each moment, to truly see one another. When we gather week after week, we practice awakening to the new life Christ offers us.
Throughout Mansfield's history, our Presbyterian congregation has been known for thoughtful engagement with Scripture, meaningful service to our community, and for creating space where people can ask honest questions. The Presbyterian tradition has always valued both the heart and the mind, believing that faith seeks understanding, and understanding deepens faith. This balance is something we cultivate together, Sunday after Sunday.
In this busy world where Mansfield families juggle work responsibilities, children's activities, and the demands of daily life, our church offers something countercultural—a place to slow down, to remember what truly matters, to be fully present with God and one another.
When you commit to regular attendance, something beautiful happens. You begin to form relationships that extend beyond Sunday morning. You find people who will celebrate with you in times of joy and walk with you through seasons of grief. You discover opportunities to use your unique gifts in ways that bring meaning to your life and help others.
As the Apostle Paul reminded us, we are "seated with Christ in heavenly places" and called to "walk in newness of life." This isn't something that happens in isolation—it unfolds in community as we learn from one another, challenge one another, and encourage one another.
So as we leave today, celebrating that Christ is risen, I want to extend a warm invitation. Whether you're considering attending church for the first time or returning after some time away, know that there is a place for you here. Next Sunday, we'll continue our journey together, exploring what it means to live as resurrection people in our everyday lives.
No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, Linden Road Presbyterian is a community where you can grow, serve, question, and belong. Because together—not just on Easter but Sunday after Sunday—we're learning to see with new eyes the ways God is already shining through everything around us.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! And we rise with him, together, as we gather in this place.
Please craft a 3-minute message to close my Easter sermon that casts a vision for regular attendance at our church. I'm looking for a warm, inviting approach that emphasizes the meaningful and practical benefits of ongoing commitment to our church community, without shaming people who attend infrequently.Our church is [CHURCH NAME] in [CITY, STATE]. Please incorporate our local context to make the message relevant to our specific congregation and community. Also, please highlight some distinctive strengths of our [DENOMINATION] tradition that would resonate with both regular attendees and visitors. The message should connect naturally with my sermon theme of [BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SERMON THEME] while pointing forward to the ongoing life of our church beyond Easter Sunday.
Feel free to customize this prompt by adding specific details about:
Remember that this brief vision-casting moment should feel like a natural extension of your Easter message rather than a disconnected "commercial." The goal is to help people see how the resurrection life we celebrate at Easter is cultivated through regular participation in community.
I introduced a good friend and strategic partner at RunFree.Co, Eric Kidwell. We covered Top 10 Ways to Use AI this Easter. In addition I shared how valuable Eric's tool is to turn your website from a static, passive digital page, to a proactive pastoral voice. Check out LiveAI.co
Our clarity tribe at RunFree.Co can get a 10% discount for LifeAI using the code RUNFREE10. (And get a 30-day free trial with no credit card.)
