Easter is almost here. I know many of you are doing community outreach during this season. There are so many opportunities to impact kids and families who don't know Jesus.
This past weekend, my home church, City Church, hosted an Easter family outreach event. When I am not traveling, I serve as a children's ministry volunteer at this church (and I love every minute of it).
I thought you might want to see some of the highlights. It might spark some ideas for you.
If you'd also like to share what you are doing for Easter Outreach, we'd love to see what you are or will be doing. You can share your ideas and strategies in the comment section below.
Here's what we did:
The event was called the "Spring Fling...a community event for families.
2 weeks out - we walked around the communities surrounding the church and gave them an invite card.
We used social media to help spread the word as well.
We offered 3 times: 9:00 am & 10:00 am & 11:00 am.
Families started out on the front lawn of the church. We had games set up that they could play as a family while they were waiting to enter the church for the first part of the fling.
The next stop on the Fling was our "Family Show." We had a 15 minute "pre-show" and then started the show at the top of the hour. The show lasted 15 minutes. The family show was highly interactive and entertaining. If you would like a copy of what we did for the family show, just shoot me an email (dale@buildingchildrensministry.com) and I'll be glad to send you a copy.
After the show ended, families moved into the craft area. They had the opportunity to make Easter crafts with their family. The biggest hit was the rabbit ears craft where they made a bunny hat complete with big ears and lots of decorations on it.
From there, the next stop was the "Hall of Treats." We had a long hallway they went down to get eggs and candy. We decorated the hall doors for Easter.
After the Hall of Treats, they headed upstairs where we had carnival games set up. Kids could earn tickets and get prizes. We also had a cake walk as part of this.
We also had a picture spot in this area where families could take pictures with the Easter bunny. Here's a tip for you - don't use your "church" camera" to talk all the pictures. Take the pictures using each families' cell phone. Why? Because they are going to send that picture to social media and spread the word much farther than we could on our own.
Here were some of the "big wins" we had by doing this event:
We reached a lot of unchurched families. At the last show especially, the auditorium was full of families who had never stepped a foot in our church.
We were able to see a lot of unchurched people come inside the doors of our church. They were able to be in the auditorium and see the children's ministry area. This will make it easier when they come on a Sunday to know where to go and be somewhat familiar with the building.
Our church family stepped up and served big-time. We could never have done this without the many volunteers who served.
We were able to share the Gospel with kids and families.
Below are a few pictures from the outreach event. I pray this will spark some ideas for you. Blessings.
