outreach ideas

The church exists to introduce people to Jesus, and this is why we constantly need to come up with new outreach ideas! We shouldn’t pour all of our energy and resources into erecting a wonderful, comfortable building with the hope that people will wander in—we need to be out building relationships with them.

That means we always need to be challenging ourselves to reach people in our communities. So here’s a list of 30 fun outreach ideas to help you brainstorm ways to impact your city.

HOW EACH OF THE OUTREACH IDEAS ARE LAID OUT

For each outreach idea, we’ve included some overview information to help you quickly evaluate whether it’s something you want to pursue. This section includes the following fields:

Time commitment: Some outreach ideas can be done in an afternoon, and some need to be committed to for months (or longer). This entry will give you a rough idea how much of a time commitment this idea will require.

Investment: You can expect to make a financial investment for any outreach, but some opportunities are going to cost more than others. Hopefully, you can expect a greater outcome with a larger capital investment. Here is how they are broken down:

  • $ (Up to $200)

  • $$ ($200–$500)

  • $$$ ($500–$1,000)

  • $$$$ (Over $1,000)

Volunteers: You’ll also need to consider whether you have enough people to run the event. I’ll give you a range of the ideal volunteers needed to run this event successfully.

SPONSOR A SCHOOL OR CLASSROOM

Time commitment: Ongoing
Investment: $$$$ (over time)
Volunteers: 10–20

If you really want to make an impact in your community, invest in a school or a classroom. This can include purchasing of supplies, volunteering as helpers or chaperones, or maintaining the grounds or equipment.

This isn’t a “quick-return” kind of outreach. To get the most out of this outreach idea, you’ll have to commit to something long-term. The amount of work and financial investment will wax and wane over time, but if you’re not in it for the long haul, any return will be negligible.

The likelihood for this to translate into a flood of visitors is pretty small. But what you can expect from sponsoring a school or classroom is a strong reputation, trust, and influence. You’ll be building important relationships with the staff and community. When you’ve established trust, you can almost guarantee that they’ll come to you with information about families that need help and assistance. It’s like you’re creating a perpetual outreach machine.

FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT

Time commitment: Ongoing
Investment: $$$
Volunteers: 5–10

Most churches have a great audio/visual setup. Why not use it for showing movies? This can be a weekly event that happens all summer—or all year! If you live in a college town, a movie night followed by a discussion about its themes and characters can be an interesting way to bring people into your church.

You might be surprised by the suggested financial investment and time commitment here, but this isn’t an idea you want to get into unless you’re willing to invest in the proper non-theatrical public performance license which can be pricey (dependent upon what kind of movies you plan on showing). If you’re going to spring for the license, you might as well make family movie nights a regular event.

SUPER BOWL PARTY

Time commitment: Once a year
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 5–10

The Super Bowl is one of the year’s biggest events, and it can be a wonderful opportunity to get people into church—but it has to be done correctly. Most people would prefer to watch this event at home or with close friends, so there needs to be some real thought put into how you’ll attract people.

Not only will you need commitment from your group to show up themselves (and invite their friends), you might want to invest in some items to raffle off. This can be done during the halftime show—which is often not something you want to associate yourself with anyway.

Most of your investment money will go into creating invitations, buying snacks and food, investing in some great raffle items (you can probably get donations or discounts from local businesses, too).

SUPPORT A SENIOR CENTER

Time commitment: Ongoing
Investment: $
Volunteers: 5–10

This is another idea that’s more about investing in the community than it is about getting an immediate return on your outreach. There are a number of ways you can invest in local senior centers:

  • Lead worship services

  • Serve during meals

  • Visit with seniors

  • Stock the facility with resources like books and movies

Not only can you really minister to the seniors in your community at a time in their life when they feel cast aside, but you also get to teach your congregation how to serve others. Your outreach spills over into the lives of the center’s staff and family members of the residents.

HOST A CONCERT

Time commitment: One time
Investment: $$$
Volunteers: 10–20

Depending on your goals, hosting a concert can be a bit of a risk. You need to ask yourself if you intend to charge for the event, take a “love offering,” or make it a free event.

If you have local talent, you can negotiate the cost for getting them to come play. This is your best bet for holding a free event. This can be a great way to make your church a place that’s known for supporting local artists. If you want to host a more well-known artist, you’re probably going to need to make a significant commitment to pay for them.

Pro tip: hosting a Christian concert can be an iffy outreach idea because most of the people who are going to attend are already familiar with the gospel and committed to their own church.

BLOCK PARTY

Time commitment: One time
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 10–20

If your church has nice grounds, or even a good-sized parking lot, you can put on an incredible block party. Make sure there are plenty of games, food, and entertainment, and you’ve got yourself a great way to get the neighborhood connected.

You’ll probably want to invest in some flyers or invitations, go door to door around the neighborhood, and create a Facebook event to help encourage families to attend. If your church isn’t the best location, find a couple different families in the church and host block parties from their homes. This is a great opportunity for a larger reach.

HALLOWEEN ALTERNATIVES

Time commitment: Depends
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 10–20

Lots of families are looking for safe, fun things to do on Halloween. This is a wonderful way for your group to step up to the plate. If your group would prefer not to have anything to do with Halloween, you can host a harvest party and provide games, snacks, and candy. This can provide you with an opportunity to get to know parents as their kids play.

You can also put on a Trunk or Treat where people from church gather in the parking lot, fill their decorated trunks with candy, and allow kids to trick or treat at all the cars. Trunk and Treats are generally well attended, but it can be kind of chaotic and hard to make genuine connections with visitors.

COMMUNITY GARDEN

Time commitment: A year
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 10–30

If a member of your group has an acre or more of garden-worthy land, you can put together a public garden. With plowing, planting, maintenance, and harvest, you’re committing to a year-long project (at least). You need someone knowledgeable to head it up and make sure you have a really good idea of what’s needed:

  • Volunteers

  • Tools

  • Plants

  • Watering system and cost

  • Fencing

A well-run community garden can really pull people together, and it can also provide some food for local shelters and food pantries.

FREE LUNCHES

Time commitment: Open
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 1–5

Is your church surrounded by businesses? Why not set up some barbecues in the parking lot and offer working people free lunches once a week? I mean, who doesn’t love a free lunch? You can even deliver!

You’ll need to market it to the businesses around your church. But if you set up well, it can give you an opportunity to get to know some of the people working near your church, and help you build relationships with local businesses.

Pro tip: When you’re trying to get the word out to these businesses, start with the executive assistant or someone in HR—they’ll know how to get the message to the rest of the company.

PARENTS’ NIGHT OUT

Time commitment: Open
Investment: $
Volunteers: 5–10

Why not open your group up as a daycare for a Friday or Saturday night, and allow local families to drop off their kids so that they can go out and having a child-free date? All you need is a couple of adults, some teenagers, snacks, and activities to keep kids occupied.

Remember: You want this to be an outreach, so don’t let it become a service you’re only providing for church members. Encourage people in your church to use this an opportunity to double date with couples who don’t attend. This isn’t just a win because the new couple gets to have an awesome experience with the church, but they also have an opportunity to spend the evening building a closer relationship with church-member friends.

MOTHER’S MORNING OUT

Time commitment: Open
Investment: $
Volunteers: 5–10

This is similar to the Parent’s Night Out, except it’s happening during the morning and providing mothers an opportunity to get out and get some stuff accomplished without having to drag everyone along.

With both of these events, you’ll want to make sure you have a well-defined start and stop time.

COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING EVENT

Time commitment: One time
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 5–10
Partner up with a local restaurant and hold a free Thanksgiving dinner. Buy four or five turkeys and take turns the week before cooking them in one of the restaurant’s ovens. On Thanksgiving enjoy a meal together with those in the community who have nowhere to go or couldn’t pull off their own dinner. Including the restaurant owner in the process would be a great way to bless them as well.

COMMUNITY YARD SALE

Time commitment: One time
Investment: $
Volunteers: 10–20
Here’s an outreach idea that doubles up on the opportunity to reach out to your community. Think of something meaningful in your community you’d like to raise money for and put together a community-wide yard sale to raise funds. (Remember, as an outreach it’s best if you’re not just fundraising for your own needs.) Community members get to come interact with you when they donate their sale items to the yard sale, and then they get to interact with your church again when they come to the actual event!

Just a word of warning: Don’t underestimate the amount of volunteers hours that will need to go into sorting, cleaning, and pricing the items that people bring. It’s time-consuming.

FREE CAR WASH

Time commitment: One time
Investment: $
Volunteers: 10–20

The key to this outreach is to not take any money. People will want to donate, but you’ll have the biggest impact if you don’t let them. Find a place with a good, central location with water hookup for your event. Set up a Facebook event and invite the community. Make sure that you communicate clearly that your church is looking to serve the community and will not be taking any money for it.

Have some cards made up for the event with your church location and service times and hand them out the people who are getting their cars washed.

FAIR BOOTH

Time commitment: One time
Investment: $$
Volunteers: 10–20

Most communities have some sort of fair. Setting up a booth for your church can be a fun way to meet people. You can give away Bibles or other fun giveaways. There are so many ways that a fair booth can be made into a fun opportunity to meet people in your community.