Christmas Outreach 2021
We're less than 60 days from Christmas. Let that one sink in. As we're heading into the holidays, here are some stories and ideas to inspire and help you as you're planning and preparing your Christmas outreach.
3 Stories and 7 Ideas
End-of-year service projects are great if they are simple enough to get massive engagement. Huge wins. Gets the word out in the community. Food drive for the local food pantry. Toys for local tots. Make it local and make it known. Partner with other organizations and get exposure outside of the church community.
City-wide service projects in advance of Christmas give you an opportunity to connect with people cold to your church. By serving them it gives you an opportunity to warm them to the person of Jesus. You may not see dividends in 2021, but a culture of compassion will pay off in 2022 and beyond.
Chris Banas, Associate Pastor, Spruce Grove Community Church:
"Last year our church decided to participate in a hamper outreach to our community. We did so, because of the need within our community. So many families were struggling and needed a little Christmas blessing. The response from the community was excellent. They felt noticed and cared for by the church. This was a step in the right direction as we are trying to build connections with our community. This has not only opened the door but led to monthly connections with most of the families that were part of the hamper initiative. We now offer a once-a-month meal for our community and most of the people that received a hamper are part of our monthly meals. This Christmas we will once again offer a hamper to many of these families and hopefully, connect with a few new ones."
The best marketing you have is in your building each week. Create Christmas-themed shareable content each week heading into your large Christmas services. Getting your people excited about the experience will get their friends to hear about the experience.
Be very public about the hook/attraction/event/surprise for your Christmas Eve service. Don’t make it a surprise. Be very vocal about what it is and that way it becomes a draw. The experience needs to be a magnet.
Joel Derdall, Connections Pastor, Eaglemont Christian Church
“In the summer of 2020, our staff had a vision of doing outreach through building a drive-in theatre that could be used as a hub for community connectivity and engagement. In the early fall of 2020, our church invested in equipment and built our own drive-in theatre at the back of our property. A key motivator in this was being able to run free Christmas Drive-in movies to our community on Friday evenings leading up to Christmas beginning at the end of November.
Thanks to the great ingenuity and expertise of some of our volunteers, we were able to create a theatre that could run even during the coldest and most turbulent weather. We developed our own pre-shows as part of the presentations which allowed some of our staff to have fun and become more well-known in the broader community. Each week we were also able to highlight a local charity in our community and invite those who would like to contribute something to donate directly to these charities (i.e., local food bank) through a created QR code.
Our church congregation got to engage with families as they directed parking in and out of each show. At the end of each show, there was an invitation to join us online that Sunday as our message series during this time tied into the theme of each week’s movie showing. We also included an invitation to our Christmas Eve service which we streamed online and at our Drive-In Theatre on Christmas Eve. The response we received from the community was overwhelming as double showings would repeatedly sell out within just over an hour of registrations going live online without any paid advertisement, followed by repeated messages of people trying to get on a waitlist.
We received more traffic and followers to our website and social media channels than we ever have. Over the Christmas season, we had 430 different vehicles take in a show – 372 of those 430 vehicles were families who do not regularly attend our church or have known previous connections with us. Through the past year, I have continued to run into people in our community who connected to our church through this and have seen the open doors it has brought to us as a church.”
If you don’t do Christmas Eve service physically, consider doing something online for both a physical and online audience. There are ways to do something tasteful and simple.
Think classic, nostalgic. For the experience, do something that’s traditional, old school. People want to re-live life the way that it used to be. Even something like an Advent wreath can go a long way. Fireplace. Going for the feels will break down some defences and allow people to be relational later.
Stephen Valcourt, Lead Pastor, Abundant Springs Community Church, Pincher Creek
“In my mind, an essential part of the ministry is knowing your people and their tendencies. Our congregation does not attend Christmas Eve services at church as many celebrate that evening at home. We have also seen that our attendance and volunteer availability plummet the weekend of or after Christmas. As a result, we often have outright cancelled services that weekend, telling folks that we need to give our volunteers and staff a much-needed break. While this is true, it seemed like a missed opportunity, especially with the year everyone had in 2020. So, we tried something different: a 30-minute Christmas special to air on Facebook and YouTube on December 22. Folks were encouraged to share the video and invite whoever they may be celebrating the holidays with to watch and interact with them. This Christmas special included a short message, Christmas carols, and Christmas multimedia. I know that a church's ministries often have a cumulative effect on its community. We are going to be doing another Christmas special this year, but with some changes. Namely, we will be doing more promotion further in advance and will continue to promote it until the New Year to try to catch those we may not otherwise. We will also be more intentional about encouraging viewers to reach out to the church privately for prayer and support.”
Now, how do you get people back in the building after New Year? Relationships.
The best way to get people to come back is through relationships. Put 75% of your energy into a relational invite-oriented culture, or serving community relationally, and 25% on a better experience. Having a digital expression of your service gives people an opportunity to invite people digitally, not just physically. If you created an online experience for Christmas in 2020 and it’s not dated, use it again. People can share an experience online even though they are on opposite sides of the country.
How you win people is how you will lose people. If you are winning people only by the pizazz of an experience, then you will lose them when your experience doesn't meet their consumer qualifications. Relationships keep people engaged. We're not called to make experiences, we're called to make disciples.
What is your church planning for Christmas Outreach this year? Please leave a comment below. Thank you.
Bob Jones is the founder of REVwords.com, an author, blogger, and coach with 39 years of pastoral experience. Bob is also an Advance Coach with the ABNWT Resource Centre. You can connect with Bob here.