At a recent outreach retreat, one of our visiting children
decided to follow Christ. His parents came to church the next
Sunday. They said, "Our son came home so changed that we wanted to
find out why."
That's what outreach is all about-reaching out to people who'd
normally not come to your church. Listed below are ideas to help
your churched kids reach out to their unchurched friends and
families.
Take the time and effort to plan and organize well. Make sure
kids understand that you want them to invite their unchurched
friends. It won't be hard to convince them. When you provide fun
events, kids will eagerly let their friends know.
SPECIAL DAYS
Kids of all ages will enjoy these days.
• Art Day -- Invite a local artist to teach
cartooning, color and line, and perspective. Have kids make masks
or learn how to mix colors.
• Gym Day -- Rent or borrow a gym if you don't
have one on your church campus. Invite a local sports figure to
offer a clinic for your kids. Ask a local grocery for free drinks
and give a sponsor's award in return with your thanks.
• Game Day -- Have kids bring their favorite
table games. Hold a tournament and give prizes in each age
category. Or make your own games. How about a huge Twister using
various colored paper plates taped to the floor?
• Sidewalk Circus -- Have children make puppets
and create a puppet show. Take your puppet team to the city park
and hold a sidewalk circus. You can also have circus-type acts,
clowns, and balloons. Invite visiting children to come to your
church on Sunday.
• Music Day -- Have kids bring their own
instruments for a band. Or have a kazoo marching band.
• Ecology Day -- Teach about reuse, reduce, and
recycle. Have kids plant trees in your community or coordinate a
paper drive. Communicate the ecology message from the standpoint
that God created the world and gave us authority over it.
• Kite Day -- Fly high in the spring. After
morning worship, supply kite-making materials. Serve families pizza
or hot dogs for lunch. After everyone has eaten and made a kite,
enjoy flying the kites.
• Celebrate Friend Day -- Encourage each child to
bring a friend to Sunday school. Honor friends by having children
give their guests a special name tag and a helium balloon.
• Cookie Bake-Off -- With plenty
of adult supervision, have children bake cookies. Use simple,
pictorial recipes and premeasure all ingredients. After the cookie
party, have kids seal the extra cookies in plastic bags. Take
children to give the cookies to a shut-in, nursing home resident,
or sick child.
• Animal Crackers -- How about a petting zoo or a
parade of your favorite stuffed animals? Maybe a live pet show?
Kids could pretend to be animals in the zoo. Or you could re-enact
Noah's collection of animals. Set up in a neighborhood on Saturday
morning and watch kids flock to you.
• Children's Day -- Use this special day to
recognize children. Focus all the music and events around children.
Decorate with helium balloon bouquets. Have children assist adult
ushers and lead in prayer. Invite parents so they can be ministered
to as they see how much your church values their children.
• S.O.K. (Summer Outing for Kids) -- This is a
special day in the summer. Charge a nominal fee for these days and
encourage kids to invite friends. You can do any of the
following:
- Go to the zoo, a children's museum, or a farm.
- Have a cooking day where kids prepare and cook their own
lunch.
- Hold a day camp with planned activities such as crafts,
cooking, games, and stories.
• Kinder Kamp -- Get an address list of
unchurched preschoolers by asking young mothers for names of
unchurched mothers of preschoolers they know. On the Saturday
before preschoolers are promoted to their new Sunday school class,
invite churched and unchurched preschoolers and their parents to
Kinder Kamp. Have them come to their new Sunday school departments,
meet their new teachers, and see what they'll be doing. Serve
refreshments and give each child a school box and pencil. Children
and parents will be more excited about Sunday school after Kinder
Kamp.
PARTIES
You won't have to coerce kids to invite their friends to these
fun events.
• Design a T-Shirt Party -- Do this activity at
the beginning of the summer and have kids design a theme shirt for
the summer. Provide fabric paint and have kids bring T-shirts to
decorate. Then set kids free to create.
• Pizza Party -- Set up a topping bar and have
kids make their own pizzas on English muffins. Combine this
food-fest with a Frisbee golf tournament on the lawn. You could
call this one "Par Wars and the Pepperoni Strikes Back"!
• Movie Party -- Rent a movie with permission to
show the movie to a group. Pop plenty of popcorn. Have kids make
this a "drive-in movie" by making cars out of boxes before the
movie starts. Kids can sit in their "cars" and watch the
show.
• Make-a-Movie Extravaganza -- Use Bible themes
and re-enact biblical stories, or create your own theme. Give
plastic "Oscar" awards after the screening.
• Game Shows -- Run your own game show. It's fun!
Game versions of shows such as Double Dare are available at toy
outlets. Or you can make your own Wheel of Fortune game.
• Gong Show -- This is an amateur program based
on TV's The Gong Show. Kids can show off their talents and have a
great time. Plan silly adult talent acts for gonging. Use a hanging
metal trash can lid for gonging.
EXTENDED EVENTS
During longer events, there are greater opportunities for
churched kids to share their faith with their unchurched
friends.
• Snow J-A-M (Jesus and Me) -- You can call
this retreat for third- through sixth-graders anything you want-as
long as you keep the J-A-M for "Jesus and Me." It's Snow J-A-M in
our church because it's held in January and there's snow on the
ground!
Plan this retreat away from the church on a Friday night or an
all-day Saturday. And encourage kids to invite other kids. Invite a
speaker to address topics such as friendship, self-image, and
relationship with Jesus.
• Rainbow River Camp -- This four-day camp has
recreation, Bible stories, games, and worship for kids. Provide
enough adult supervision for quality one-on-one time for each child
at some time during the camp. You'll have best outreach results if
you have this in a city park.
Selma Johnson is a children's minister in Texas. Mark von
Ehrenkrook is a children's pastor in Washington.
