Posts Tagged ‘outreach ideas’

Posted on October 27, 2009 - by kelly

Trunk or Treat

We tried a new event this year called Trunk or Treat.  The idea was to have groups of  people decorate the trunk or their car and invite children from the community to “trick or treat” from car to car in our parking lot. 

Adding to this event; we planned indoor games (seed spitting, slimey/gooey guessing game, pumpkin golf, tattoo stations, etc.), put together an outdoor corn maze, planned a hayride, invited local food vendors, and inflated the jump houses. 

As we do with all of our children’s events, we sent out email inviations to our data base composed of people that have: attended a children’s event in the past, attend our week day preschool program, our church data base, as well as invites given out at the food vendor’s sights. 

Because this was something we had never tried before we had to explain in detail how we needed our church members to participate.  Our video team put together an awesome video and  the following were the steps we included in a “How to Treat out your Trunk” brochure:

“What is Trunk or Treat?” from CHRIST’S CHURCH OF THE VALLEY on Vimeo.

Step 1:

As a family or group, choose the car you are going to decorate.

Step 2:

Choose a theme.

Think about Sports (skiing or Eagles), Halloween, Time Periods (the 50’s), Places (farm, jungle, or zoo), Disney, Kids’ Movie Themes (the Wizard of OZ), Nautical, Vacation Destinations (Hawaiian Luau), etc…

 Step 3:

Consider adding a game component for kids to play.

(Bean bag toss, football throw, fishing game, duck pond, etc.)

Step 4:

Consider dressing up to match your car theme.

Step 5:

Have candies or treats to pass out.

Step 6:

Be at the CCV parking lot at 5:00 pm on October 23rd for this great outreach event!

 The church rallied like they always do and we had lots of volunteers excited about the evening.  The weather fore casted rain so we sent out a ”rain or shine” email and  CCVers rallied in a big way.  The volunteers graciously brought their car themes indoors and we set up stations around the perimeter of our large worship space. 

Not knowing what kind of crowd to expect (especially because of the poor weather), we waited in anticipation.  I’m happy to say that it was a huge success.  Hundreds of children came dressed in costume and had a great time meeting people from the church.

With any outreach event, our goal is to connect our community with the people in our church in hopes that they see other people just like them and may consider checking us out on a Sunday.  Events like this also give our church families something to invite their friends and neighbors to that may not be as intimidating as a church service.

Posted on October 12, 2009 - by kelly

Movie Night – An inexpensive way to showcase your Children’s Ministry

Looking for an inexpensive family event to invite church families and friends too?  We have discovered a cheap and easy way to promote upcoming children’s events as well as giving our church family an opportunity to invite their non church going friends to come onto our campus and check us out – movie night.

We have sponsored movie nights in the past with varying results, but recently stumbled upon a formula that resulted in a huge turn out. 

1 – Look for the upcoming DVD releases and choose something that will be released that week, guaranteeing that not many people have seen it other than at the theatre.

2 - Design and print out movie tickets with the necessary information to hand out in the classrooms and adult service.  Encourage kids to take extras to pass out to friends at school.

3 – Send an email invitation to your church data base one week prior, as well as following up the morning of the event reminding them to come.

4 – Pop lots of popcorn ahead of time!  You don’t want to run out or have lines waiting.

5 – Have greeters at the door in themed outfits welcoming your guests and then handing out an invitation to the next event as they leave.

6 – Have a sign up area to gather contact information for individuals that would like to be notified of other great events.

Our Valley Kids Team is always thinking of ways we can give our children opportunities to invite their friends to church.  This is one of those events that allows this to happen for families who aren’t quite ready to check us out on a Sunday morning.  The more they are exposed to the people and the building, the more comfortable they feel, and who knows what it will lead to.