Bring Your Friends vs. An Awesome Environment
A lengthy strange title, yes. I've been thinking lately about our strategy to bring new students into our Wednesday night high school gathering. We constantly tell students "Bring your friends!" I don't think this works. Now, hear me out, I'm not changing our strategy as Wednesday night being our front door for new students, a safe place to explore Christianity, and a contain a relevant message that applies to both believers and non-believers.
What I am changing is my approach to that. My focus in 2009 is creating a GREAT environment on Wednesday nights. I believe that if we create a place where students experience great relationships, relevant music that connects them to God, a fun time, and a life-changing message THEN students will bring their friends.
That's the type of experience I want to create this year. Yes, we'll still encourage students to bring friends, but our focus and hard work will be on creating a great environment. When God shows up and does something people will invite others to see it. Let's see what He does.
What I am changing is my approach to that. My focus in 2009 is creating a GREAT environment on Wednesday nights. I believe that if we create a place where students experience great relationships, relevant music that connects them to God, a fun time, and a life-changing message THEN students will bring their friends.
That's the type of experience I want to create this year. Yes, we'll still encourage students to bring friends, but our focus and hard work will be on creating a great environment. When God shows up and does something people will invite others to see it. Let's see what He does.
Labels: youth ministry
This entry was posted by Mike Lovato, on
Tuesday, January 13, 2009.
You can leave your response.
1:45 PM
How much of the whole church environment adds to it? Also, do you find that students come more from desire or out of compulsion? I think the more that come out of desire, the easier it will be to have a sweet environment and thereby making it more palatable for "friends"
1:51 PM
Good question, I think the whole church environment can be a factor - if the church is naturally an inviting place, it will bleed over into the student ministry. For us, MOST of our Wednesday night students are there because they want to be. Sunday is when we have MOST of our "forced to be there" students.
2:04 PM
Do you keep track of visitor numbers? How many on which weeks? For us, 95% of our visitors come to our saturday night service and virtually none on sunday am besides those whose families are visiting (if they can find the youth garage).
What will you do different to make it great?