RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

Churches across the country are hosting fall festivals this time of year.  In most churches, one of the goals of the event is to reach unchurched families in the community.

Fall festival is definitely a great time to connect with unchurched families.  With the right advertising (which includes print, social media, invite cards for your regular attendees, community papers, etc.) you can see lots of families walk on your church property for the first time.

But the big question is always - HOW DO WE SEE GUESTS RETURN FOR A CHURCH SERVICE AND EVENTUALLY BECOME A PART OF OUR CHURCH FAMILY?

Let's look at 5 effective ways to follow up with fall festival guests.

1. Get their contact information.  It's hard to follow up with guests if you don't have their information.  Here are some ways to do this.

• Have people register for a free gift that they receive right on the spot.  It might be something as simple as a full-size candy bar for their kids.  With all the mini-candy bars being passed out, you'd be surprised how many people will give you their contact info. just to get a large candy bar for their child.

• Have a drawing for one or more nice gifts that evening.  Things like a TV,  family movie tickets, gift certificate for a restaurant, tickets to a local family entertainment place like mini-golf, an amusement park, etc.  Set it up so families can enter their information online with their smart phone or a standard paper form or both.

2. Start an engaging weekend series in close proximity to your Fall Festival.  Use a relevant topic like a marriage series, parenting series, how to survive the stresses of life, big questions people ask about God series, etc.

You can also start a fun, relevant engaging series for kids.  Here are some series ideas at this link.  If you get the kids excited about coming back, you'll be able to get their parents to come as well.  Kids don't drive themselves to church.

Get information into guest families' hands about the upcoming series.  You can do this by email, text, a letter, postcard mailing, etc.  You can also include a coupon the guests can bring back for a free gift they can receive at the weekend service.

3. Have your Fall Festival as part of your weekend services.  Many churches engage guests in their weekend services right up front by having the event as part of their weekend services.  This can be very effective.  I know several churches that do this and their fall festival weekend services end up being their most attended of the entire year.

One way to do this is by having the event right after your weekend service.  I know one church that makes one of the doors coming out of their auditorium the entrance door into their fall festival.  Families first attend a short, relevant, engaging service and then enter the fall festival through that auditorium exit door.

4. Add them to your mailing list for big events.  While the goal is to see families come back immediately and attend a weekend service, the reality is that will not be the case for some families.  But don't give up on them.  Add them to your mailing list for future big events.  The more times you can get them to return, even if it's just for another big event, the more opportunities you have to see them come to a weekend service.

5. Take a family photo for them.  There's several ways you can approach this.  It starts with having family photo spots set up at clearly marked, key locations.

You can have a backdrop at the photo spot that has your church's name, website or a hashtag on it.

You can also provide props that families can hold for their picture such as an empty picture frame, pumpkins, funny hats, etc.  These props are another great place to put your church's name, web address, a hashtag, etc. 

One approach is to have someone there to take the family's photo with their own phone.  The good part about this is the family will then put the picture on social media and people will see the information about your church on the backdrop or props they are holding.  This has the potential to go to hundreds or even thousands of people as families tweet, Facebook, Instagram, etc. their pictures out.

Another approach is to have a professional photographer there to take their picture.  Offer to print out and frame a 8" x 10" picture of the family that they can pick up at a weekend service.

If you really want to leverage this, you could do both - let them take their own photo and offer them a professional printed and framed photo.

Be intentional about following up with families and a year from now you'll have stories to tell about people who were reached and are now part of your church family.

Your turn.  The floor is yours.  What are some other ideas for fall festival follow-up?  Share your insight and thoughts with us in the comment section below.

It's that time of year.  Churches everywhere are gearing up for their Fall Festival.  We're in the middle of our preparations.

One of the biggest questions churches ask as they prepare is, "How do we see the guests who attend come back on a Sunday for services?"

That's a question we wrestle with every year.  We've tried lots of different strategies.  We've tried big giveaways, follow-up emails, follow-up phone calls and starting an exciting new weekend series following the festival, just to name a few.

And to be honest...it has been with limited success.  Yes, we've reached a few families with these strategies, but we want to be more effective at seeing the guests who attend our Fall Festival return and become a part of our church family.

And I've got a feeling you're thinking the same thing.  I've yet to hear of a church that has cracked the code on this and been able to see a high percentage of guests return from their Fall Festival and become connected long-term to their church.

So with this in mind, we went back to the drawing board and have developed a new strategy that we're piloting this year.  I'm going to share it with you.

We're casting vision to our church familiy that the Fall Festival is a great opportunity to invite their unchurched friends, neighbors, family and co-workers to the church.  People will come to a Fall Festival that would otherwise never set foot inside a church...if they are invited.

We started this past weekend (4 weeks out) encouraging our church family to begin inviting people to come with them to the Fall Festival.  We showed this video and our campus pastors talked about it from stage. 



Provide invite tools.  We are providing invite cards that our church family can use to invite people with. 

We will have a guest VIP area at the Fall Festival that our church family can bring their guests by.  This area will be exclusively for guests who have never been to our church.  It will be stocked with extra candy and a gift for every guest.  The gift will be a ball with our children's ministry logo and website on it.  We will also have key staff and volunteers there to meet the guests and spend time with them.  Our church family will know ahead of time to bring their guests by this area.

We will give guest families an invitation to come back for a Sunday service.  At the guest area mentioned above, we will give guests an invite card to a weekend service.  The kids will be able to redeem the invite card for a free t-shirt when they return.  The t-shirt will have our logo on it.

We're casting vision for our church family to do the primary follow-up with the guests they bring.  The primary reason a guest is going to come back is because of a relationship they have with the person who brought them.  So we're going to be encouraging our church families to invite their fall festival guests back for a weekend service. 

We will provide photo opps with costumed characters for families.  We know families love to take pictures of their kids with characters.  They will stand for hours in line at Disney World for this.  The photo opps will also include our children's ministry logo as part of the background.  This will not only provide memories for families, but will also help us spread the word about our children's ministry as parents post the pictures on social media.

It will be interesting to see how this strategy does.  I'm excited to see what happens.

Your turn.  The floor is yours.  What are you doing to encourage Fall Festival guests to come back for weekend services?  Is there something you've done in the past that has worked well?  Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section below. 

It's almost that time.  Churches across the country will be hosting Fall Festivals.

We will be hosting Fall Festivals at 6 of our campuses with an anticipated attendance of 15,000-20,000 people.  Many of these people will be unchurched.

We've been strategically thinking of ways to connect with these families and see them return on the weekend for a church service.  Here's our strategy for this year.

1. We've been providing invite cards that our church members can use to invite their friends, family members, co-workers, schoolmates, and neighbors to the event.

2. We will be doing a family show during the event.  It will be 10-15 minutes long and will include music, puppets, games, and family fun.  The show will be held in our children's worship area and will be a soft touch to give kids and parents a feel of what weekends are like.  We'll have showtimes throughout the evening.

3. The night of the event we will be giving away several prizes such as iPads, game systems, etc.  The way you enter the drawings is by filling out a short contact form.  You can fill it out online with your smart phone or on paper.

4. Everyone who enters the drawing will also be given an entry they can bring back for a grand prize drawing that will happen on the weekend.  If they register online, it will come by email.  If they register by paper, they will be given a paper entry form.

5. The grand prize drawing will be for 4 tickets to Disney World.  This drawing will take place after the last service on Sunday.  The way you enter this drawing is to bring the entry referenced in #4 with you to a church service.

6. We will also be having special guest parties after each weekend service to meet those who come back. 

Beyond the prizes, is a commitment to give our guests a great, welcoming experience at the Fall Festival.  If we can get them in the door and love on them, many of them will return.

You see, when you do something nice for a child, you get the attention of the parents.  No matter how far a father or mother is from God, they appreciate someone who is kind to their child.  Provide their child with a great experience and you have an inroad to invite the family to come back on Sunday.

I'm thinking of a family who came to our Fall Festival last year.  It was their first contact with our church.  They came back on the weekend, gave their lives to Christ and are now growing in their faith and serving in the ministry.

What a great opportunity all of us have this year.  Whether you're hosting a Fall Festival on your church property, participating in a community event off-site, or being a witness in your neighborhood, I'm praying with you for many families to come to Christ.

Would love to hear about your strategies to encourage Fall Festival guests to come back.  Feel free to share with us in the comment section below.