Holidays, Advertising and Outreach
HOLIDAYS:
1. Will you have Christmas Eve services this year?
2. What age do you provide childcare/classes for your Christmas Eve Services?
Other (write in answer)
o We want our children in our Christmas Eve services with their parents.
3. Will you have in person services on Christmas Day?
Other (write in answer)
o Contemplating doing a very low key gathering - no volunteers required.
4. Will you offer a pre-recorded or live stream service on Christmas Day?
Other (write in answer)
o Yes, it will be our Christmas Eve service
o Possibly
5. Will you have “in person services” on New Year’s Day?
Other (write in answer)
o Yes, but it’ll be “Church in pajamas” where we focus on testimonies of what God has done in individuals this past year, and then a few simple worship songs.
6. What focus do your holiday services have?
Other
o Outreach and family orientation
ADVERTISING:
1. What forms of advertising have produced the greatest results of new guests coming to your church?
Pick your top 3 answers.
Other (write in answer)
o Physical building location, google search
o Banners on property
o Friendships and contacts through our school
2. What has been your most effective tool in getting new people into your church?
Visibility of location
Facebook, other social media and Google marketing
Digital Ads
Website searches
One on one, talks, having people over for dinner
Personal invitation (Neighbors/Friends/Co-workers/Family/Community invite)
Contacts through our schools
Outreaches, intentional marketing.
Radio broadcast
3. Do you use stock advertising materials (flyers, mailers, banners, invite cards, etc.)? from places like outreach.com or produce your own content?
4. Can you recommend any free-lance graphic artist? If so, please share their contact info here:
Joe Potter - joe@joepotter.com, 913-248-0009
Peter Schmidt at Granite Creative
Graphic Hero - produced our “Love the Margins” brochure. He’s housing insecure, refugee from Turkey and has a Master’s in graphic arts.
5. Can you recommend any free-lance photographers or videographers? If so, please share their contact info here:
Stu Duffy – 562-794-8793
Chris Willis and Rachel Enos
OUTREACH:
1. Please describe outreach projects or ideas you do for Halloween.
We do Harvest Fest that includes trunk or treat on the Saturday prior.
Harvest Festival – Food, fellowship and games.
Community alternatives. Harvest Festival: games, inflatables, food, trunk or treat, etc.
Truck or Treat
We no long do outreach on Halloween.
Cotton candy machines in neighborhoods for trick-or-treaters, with hot cider for the adults.
Fall Festival with candy and games.
Alternative Harvest party.
None, we don’t celebrate or observe that day, due to its pagan origin.
We have done a Harvest Festival in the past, but not currently.
Prayer walk with One Body, One Spirit.
Harvest Carnival until this year.
Chili Cook Off, Fall Festival, free pumpkins.
Trunk or Treat. Big sign near street. Always a huge turnout.
No tricks, just a treat. Give out large amounts of candy in a branded bag with an invite card.
None the last two years.
Fall Festival for families. Usually in conjunction with AWANA night.
None
2. Please describe outreach projects or ideas you do for Thanksgiving.
We have a Thanksgiving Eve communion.
Nothing this year. Last year we did a food packing event and a beans and rice fast. We also had a Thanksgiving Eve worship night.
Food boxes through local schools and our food distribution ministry.
Complete meals for families in need.
We simply have a family service outreach for Thanksgiving.
Gift baskets
N/A
It’s Sukkot, we reach out to friends at this point.
Provide food baskets with turkeys for 200+ families contacted through the school district.
Special giving to missions.
We have our annual Fall Harvest Offering. Raise and contribute money to local ministries in COS which helps families through the holidays. We put together Thanksgiving food bags for a complete Thanksgiving meal for families in need in the community.
All-Church dinner.
Harvest dinner on Sunday evening before Thanksgiving is very well attended. Wednesday evening praise service and pie fellowship has diminished.
Feed the homeless.
3. Please describe outreach projects or ideas you do for Christmas.
We have Christmas Eve community and sing along followed by a pizza party.
Shoe Drive with our series this Christmas. We do The Gift where our people resource our students to go out and buy gifts for underprivileged families in our community.
The children making gingerbread houses and a Christmas program.
Caroling in the neighborhoods, passing out of invite cards, Food Boxes as asked for.
Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Go to local craft fairs and events and set up a table with shoebox displays and an offer for free prayer and hugs.
Children’s talent featurette, fine arts theater production that is played at AMC theater, gift giveaways in worship service.
We’ve adapted Operation Christmas Child to our local school, using it to serve families in need.
Gift baskets and a toy drive for kids that come with their parents.
N/A
None, the origin of Christmas for us is pagan, so we focus on divine appointments for evangelism.
Our members are given invitation cards to our Christmas Eve service to invite others to come with them. We place a large sign at the street by our building advertising our Christmas Eve service.
Our Dare to Care Christmas Outreach is in partnership with our 4 partner schools who provide us the names of families who need assistance at Christmas. Our members then purchase multiple gifts for each child. 1-2 weeks before Christmas we host a Christmas party for the families. The kids are entertained with games and crafts while the parents are taken to the secret wrapping room. There they are presented with all the gifts for each child and they along with our volunteers help them wrap the gifts and tag them. **KEY: We want to give parents their respect back, as they are the ones to give the gifts to their children on Christmas Day. This has been a massive success for over 10 years.
Adopting under-resourced families to provide Christmas gift for them.
Food boxes, turkeys.
Traditional Christmas Eve service is HUGE for us. Lots of caroling groups are still appreciated at nursing homes, etc.
Feeding the homeless.
4. What local community organizations does your church support financially or with volunteers? Check all that apply.
5. Please share any local outreaches your church does that has not already been identified.
We have in-house food distribution every Thursday afternoon and Saturday and Sunday mornings.
We operate a care center that provides counseling services, a food bank and benevolence assistance.
Our church has been ministering every Saturday with another church in the Denver area for youth outreach on the 16 Street Mall for kids that are running away and have mental illness problems within the youth. Drug addiction, abuse from homes and other issues.
We work closely with two elementary schools. We allow use of our space for their graduation and performances, supporting teachers, reno of the teacher lounge, beautification projects and we just started a tutoring program on Tuesday. Planning to do an after-school program next year.
We go on corners praying for the community and giving out water this past summer.
Juvenile Justice Ministry (youth inmates), and Youth Offender Services in Pueblo (young men).
Mercy’s Gate, Fostering Hope, Hope and Home.
Sarah’s Home - Human trafficking, Tri-Lakes Cares, Care Portal, Beautiful Redemption, Lutheran Family Services - immigrants and refugees, Family Life Services.
The SanctChurch
1) From May-August we send our ice cream truck out to the city parks on Saturdays to pass out free ice cream treats and invite people to church. 2) Clothe the Children: Our partner public schools provide us with the names and sizing for kids in need of new clothes, coats and shoes. Our members adopt a child and go shopping for them. Gift bags are delivered to the schools. 3) We partner with four local schools and assist them with any needs the school may have. Remodeling the teacher’s lounge, upgrading playground equipment, luncheons or breakfast provided for the faculty, etc.
Free drink giveaway (give away bottles of water and soda on hot days). Community block parties and cleanups.
Various prison ministries - Good News Jail and Prison Ministry, Hook, Starting Over Youth outreaches. - Second Chance Through Faith; Fellowship of Christian Athletes Special Needs - Mosaic; Special Kids, Special Families, International Students, Shield 616 for Law Enforcement.
Process Skate Ministry, Second Change Through Faith
6. What percentage of your annual church income do you give away to local, national and/or international missions?
Other (write in answer)
We set aside 10% of budget but we also use a portion of our building fund to go directly back to our community. 25% of contributions to our ‘Those Not Yet’ fund are used to help families and organizations.
6%
More than 15%
20-25%
25% - including mission trips
