7 Tips For Putting on an Effective Children's Outreach Event

There are so many creative ways to put on a children's outreach event. VBS is a great form of outreach. As is camp, sports awards nights, and holiday events. For this article, I'm going to focus on a special evening outreach event that is not a part of another event that is focused on children.

One of the best ways to create long-term impact is to host a special night for families in your community. You should consider making this a monthly or quarterly event at your church where daycare is provided for children under 5 while families attend a fun-filled evening with their 6-10 year olds. From a budgeting standpoint, I suggest you base it on desired attendance. So if you want to plan an outreach for 50 people, a $500 budget makes sense. But if you have grander plans for 1,000 people to attend, then a bigger budget of $10,000 would be wise.

How can you maximize the effectiveness of this strategy? We suggest seven things:

#1) Build Relationships With Local School Leaders - One of the best ways that your local community can see your church as relevant and a needed influence on the community's children is to invest in the schools. Today... families are not just walking into your church like they used to. You have to go to them! When you bring in a talented ministry, meet with local elementary schools to offer a "non-faith" school assembly program that focuses on positive character issues such as telling the truth, respecting your elders, saying no to drugs, etc. They can perform this assembly the morning of your evening outreach event.

#2) Send materials home with children - In exchange for the school assembly you're funding, see if school officials will send home flyers, brochures, and other info about the evening program that is coming up. We recommend having materials that answer key questions that parents may ask such as What Will Happen This Night? Who Will Be There? How Do We Get To The Church? Is Daycare Provided for My Littlest Ones? Is There a Cost?

#3) Create a Follow-Up to the Outreach - How can you connect with the parents and the kids that attended this evening? Today, you have more choices than just filling out a response card. Plan ahead to invite families to a special community group where they can meet other people with children their age. The best way to do this is usually a family located in their neighborhood who can follow up on them in a personal way.

#4) Pray for the Outreach - God chooses to show up and make an impact when people pray. Don't just pray by yourself, but invite Sunday School classes and Bible Study Groups to make it a priority to pray for this effort. People tend to pray more specifically and more urgently when there is a specific date when the event takes place.

#5) Train People To Share Their Faith - Get the members in your church involved by taking them through training on how to present the Gospel. The truth is that most people do not share their faith because they've never done it. An event, gives people a deadline or a goal to learn to share their faith and to put it into practice. Once a member has shared it once, it becomes easier and easier to share it again and again. The event becomes a "catalyst" for evangelism in your church!

#6) Host it at the school - We've found that the numbers of any outreach event will increase by as much as 50% if you host the event in a neutral, non-church location. We find that a school theater or gym is more familiar to parents and is more likely to attract non-church goers in your community than your church building. While pastors want to get these groups on their church campus, we would encourage you to weigh that desire with the impact of connecting with a greater number. In our experience, creating some key follow-up activities that will guide a person to eventually attend your local church may be the answer.

#7) Make it About The Kingdom - Pastors are under so much pressure these days to add members to their congregation. Which is a great goal, but it can sometimes lead people to put on less than effective outreaches. Put the Kingdom first. If you do this, it will open up the door to other possibilities such as partnering with other churches, hosting the event in a neutral location, and helping grow other churches in your community if it makes the most sense.