Outreach Tips for Success
3 Quick Tips You May Not Have Considered for Outreach
By Josh Roberie
Is your church involved in regular community service projects? If not, you are missing out on a fantastic way to reach your city with the love of Jesus. If you have an outreach project planned soon, how do you know your team is ready to get the most out of the event?
In this blog, we will discuss three tips for outreach success. Whether you have never done a service project before, are considering doing your first one, or have completed projects in the past, these tips should help you maximize your next outreach.
Tip #1 Start with the Big Picture
Too often, when people plan a community service project, they start with the details. This can be easy to do when trying to make the most impact with an outreach. It’s always best, though, to start with the big picture. Then, after you have the big ideas laid out, move on to the details of each area.
Look at planning your project as having building blocks. Don’t try to stack the tiny blocks on top before you get the big blocks in place first. When you have multiple areas to consider, figure out the most critical components before getting together all of the elements of one part of your project.
Once the big pieces are in place, you will find the team will fill in most of the details.
Tip #2 Build a Team of Leaders
An essential element of any service project is the people involved in serving. Once you have a general idea of where and when your project will take place, the team you build will determine what you can do.
The best way to recruit a fantastic serve day team is to start with selecting leaders. Once you appoint team leaders, you will be sharing the weight of the responsibilities. Since your leaders will have an area they are giving oversight, they will be motivated to use their circles of influence to add people to their projects.
To build a team of leaders, you will decide what projects you want to complete, recruit leaders to be over those projects and ask them to add people to their groups. This is the best way to add the most people to your outreach plans.
Tip #3 Take Care of Your Team at the Event
It takes so much effort to plan a community outreach that it can feel like you can start to relax once you get to the day of the event. In reality, the work is just getting started. Not only will the tasks of the outreach have to take place, but you will also have to take care of your team at the event.
Here are some suggestions to equip your team for the best outreach possible.
Send an update of all the critical information to the team the day before the event.
Start your event with prayer.
Give general instructions for the day and dismiss into teams.
Emphasize safety as the top priority of the day.
Have your team leaders give detailed instructions.
Leave the area better than you found it. AKA Clean up after yourself.
Keep Jesus front and center throughout the day by looking for ministry opportunities and reminding your team why you are doing the outreach.
The Benefits of Outreach
Outreach is a great way to communicate the love of Jesus to your community because it speaks a language everyone understands - serving. When you share the burdens of those you want to reach with the gospel, it opens the door of their hearts to hear what you have to say. Serving not only loves your neighbors well, but it is also fun for your team and creates buy-in from them.
There are many different outreaches and community service projects your church can do. These tips will help you have outreach success no matter what project you choose.
Josh is a ministry leader, communicator, and creative who helps train and coach church planters at the Association of Related Churches (ARC). He has written Believe Again: Finding Faith After Losing Religion and has contributed to many ministry publications, including Relevant Magazine. You can stay connected to Josh through his blog JoshRoberie.com and Social Media at @JoshRoberie.