There are a ton of things you can do. I believe that what you do for outreach should be all about values.
What we don’t do.
VBS
Harvest Parties
Ect.
Do I hate these things no not at all I just felt that they were robbing from the resources that we had to do what our values say are important to us.
Here is the basics of our outreach philosophy
1. Focus a lot of time and effort into the weekend – We do a lot of outreach focused stuff for the weekend. We want to reach people who don’t attend church somewhere many times special events draw primarily other christians.
2. Get people talking – Not falling in the trap of becoming gimmicky but do stuff that brings people – We are going to do “The Circus comes to Uptown” next summer I can’t wait. Clowns, real circus performers and an elephant. All during a weekend experience.
3. Get people to see what you do and what you value – We are going to be renting our newly renovated kids wing out for birthday parties as an outreach tool. We want families in our church to invite their neighbors to see our church and their kids to see Uptown and who knows maybe they will come see Uptown on a weekend.
Tomorrow outreach mistakes we make….
I’m loving idea #3! What a great way to leverage your building to reach your community.
(…and could people pay more to get you to dress up like a clown and pass out balloon animals?)