Churches Spring Into Action With Helicopter Easter Egg Drops
A helicopter drops multi-colored plastic eggs during a church-sponsored event in Greenville, South Carolina. Creative Commons photo via Greenville Today.
As churches large and small seek to draw in infrequent worshippers on Easter Sunday, helicopter egg drops have become an increasingly popular strategy. But some observers of evangelical culture question the tactic.
This weekend and next, churches across America — from California to Maine — are promoting helicopter egg drops. “We’ll be dropping over 3,000 Easter eggs from the sky, and we want your family to be a part of it,” states an online post from Clear Lake Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
Many megachurches are doing large-scale events. But some relatively smaller congregations, like Beaverdam Baptist Church in central Virginia, also have a chopper booked to fly overhead during Easter weekend — the church’s first egg drop event.
“We’re out in the middle of a rural area, miles from anything civilized,” Pastor Gary Stewart told The Roys Report. He noted the church’s average weekly attendance runs about 250 people. “But we like to think big and trust God for him to give us his vision and endeavors to get engaged in.”
Stewart said church staff and volunteers had seen online videos of helicopter Easter egg drops and discussed it as a team. Then, a day later, a man in that meeting called Stewart and said his friend, an experienced helicopter pilot, would drop the eggs for free.
It’s a substantial donation. A spokesperson for Platinum Helicopters LLC said the company has a half-dozen egg drop events booked for churches in the coming weeks. She noted they’ve done these increasingly “over the past five years” and that each trip costs $400 to $800, depending on how far the church is from the company’s home base.
At its event on the day prior to Easter Sunday, Beaverdam Baptist will be giving away a total of 10,000 eggs to families, including thousands dropped from the sky.
“We’re excited to invite people out to have a good time with their kids,” Stewart told The Roys Report. “Everybody who joins us will hear about the true meaning of Easter as we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.”
Easter considered ‘Super Bowl’ for churches
For decades, many pastors have referred to Easter Sunday as their “Super Bowl” — akin to how even casual NFL fans prioritize engaging with the big game.
A Gallup poll on churchgoing habits released in December revealed that 24% of Americans report they “seldom” attend church. And multiple polls from Lifeway Research find Easter Sunday is the highest-attended service for Protestant churches in any given year.
As a result, many church leaders plan creative strategies months in advance to maximize the impact of that weekend. Stewart noted their church typically sends a direct-mail postcard to families in their zip code, which this year will mention the egg drop event.
“In all my years in ministry and missions, I’ve seen that most parents will go out of their way to do something fun for their kids,” said Stewart. “The helicopter puts a novelty into it and probably gets many dads most excited — they’d like to see a helicopter drop some eggs.”
Pastor and theology professor Jeremy Berg discussed church egg drop events in a blog post, noting that it feels like church marketing “taken way too far.” He asked: “Is this an appropriate way to celebrate the true meaning and message of Easter? Are we sending mixed messages?”
Yet one predominantly Latino congregation, Aguilas Centro Familiar Cristiano Church in Las Vegas, Nevada — which has for years staged a small theatrical production — is adding a helicopter egg drop to the festivities this Easter weekend.
According to a report, a helicopter will drop “around 10,000 eggs at the backlot area of their soccer courts” after April 9 services. A church representative stated that it sees the event as “an important opportunity to deliver the message of the Gospel to as many people as possible.”
The appeal of helicopter egg drops seems to cross geographic boundaries and denominational lines. Many Southern Baptist churches apart from Beaverdam Baptist have similar events planned. Dozens of nondenominational churches are promoting egg drops, too, from Church of the Cascades in Bend, Oregon, to Twelve Church in Hudson, Florida.
And First United Methodist Church of Marble Falls, Texas, is getting in on the trend as well. The church has an April 8 event featuring a petting zoo, “which will include a pony, mini donkey, goat, chickens, pig, rabbits, and baby chicks!” according to a Facebook post.
Outreach in an ‘over-consumptive’ culture
Author and New Testament professor Scot McKnight said he is skeptical of the strategy. “Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus, about the launching of new creation,” he told The Roys Report. “Conflating egg drops with the sacred event of the resurrection pollutes the Gospel message.”
Similarly, Berg said he understood churches desiring to be culturally savvy, but such events can reinforce an “over-consumptive culture” rather than challenge it. “God’s people are at the football field taking pictures with the Easter bunny, and kids being taught (implicitly) once again that life is about getting — more candy, more eggs, me — me — me,” he wrote.
Recently shuttered multi-site megachurch Next Level Church made helicopter Easter egg drops a significant part of their community outreach strategies over the past decade. In recent interviews with The Roys Report, church staff said it reflected the narcissism of disgraced Next Level founder Josh Gagnon. “Church has become everything but what God intended it to be,” said former creative director Alex Goff.
The pastor in Virginia responded to critics of the strategy. “We’re definitely not taking away from our purpose centered on the gospel,” said Stewart. “If we did not do it, then I believe a lot of these children might not get to hear the true meaning of Easter. The positives far outweigh whatever negatives there are.”
Past reports indicate egg drop events do not always go as planned. For its first community event, Elevate Life Church in Jacksonville, Florida, staged a large-scale helicopter drop in spring 2011. But Elevate’s pastor termed it “pandemonium” when they “significantly underestimated” the crowd, with several thousand people showing up.
“Even with 20,000 eggs, there were so many kids that some didn’t get any,” stated a local news report. While the church did not respond to inquiries, its social media makes no mention of an egg drop this year or in recent years.
At Beaverdam Baptist, they expect a “good-sized crowd,” but Stewart anticipates their staff and volunteers will be able to handle logistics. “We’re doing it so that we might be able to develop a relationship with these families, to do something nice for them and their kids,” he said.
Stewart, whose church runs a school that serves preschool to seventh grade students, added that the recent shooting incident in Nashville hit “close to home” for them. “In a time of anxiety and heart-breaking tragedy, we’re hoping to shine the light of Christ,” he said.
This piece was originally published at The Roys Report.
Josh Shepherd is a freelance journalist who writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his wife live in the Washington, D.C. area with their two children.