My Top Ten Tips for an Outreach Event
1. Do something your non-Christian friends and family will enjoy.
2. Invite some people who are not Christians. (You’d be surprised how many times people miss this)
3. Set the goal of everyone (including YOU) being faithful to invite at least one friend. You can’t make them come but your job is to invite them. Remember, if no non-Christians show up you’re still successful if you actually invited them.
4. Tell your fellow Christ-followers who you’re going to invite. Accountability is very helpful and actually why should they do it if you won’t?
5. Pray for your people to come and for courage for those who haven’t invited their people yet.
6. Take whatever program you’re planning and shorten it. Most outreach programs I’ve attended spend way too much time talking and increasing the non-Christians desire to flee the building.
7. Warn your non-Christian friends what they can expect. Love and respect them enough to not try to trap them into hearing an evangelistic message. If your event is not a church service don’t surprise them with a sermon, singing or prayer time. If there’s a message, warn them that there will be a brief talk about life and what Jesus means to your church folk. (KEEP IT BRIEF!) If you tell them you’re going to play volleyball and then suddenly there’s a “church service” it’s like inviting someone to a picnic and then expecting them to pave your driveway.
8. Prayer is vital to outreach. But do it in another room.Set your prayer warriors up from prior to the event and all the way through it.
9. Keep the proverbial door open for your people to follow up with their friends and family. One exposure to Jesus and Christians is not usually enough to bring people to Jesus. Have some suggested follow up events or things to chat about. Even something as simple as “what did you enjoy about the evening?”
10. Debrief your people and encourage them to continue in outreach.
Ask questions like what did your friends think of the event? How might it have been more effective? How could we prepare you better for future contact? Then take steps to improve and continue in outreach.
