We will not be using telephone surveys or door to door campaigns to get people into LifeSong. Our desire is to reach out to the community in love and service. We want to get to know them and introduce ourselves to them.
I am listing several ideas below. I'm hoping these will just get the brain juices flowing. Notice I have several categories. Don't worry about categorizing...just send me your ideas.
Neighborhood “get acquainted events”
Picnics – Father’s day barbeque
4th of July event
Harvest Festival
Christmas Caroling
Live Nativity in the park
Service events
Yard/house work volunteers
Play days
Recycling project
Free Car Wash
Back-to-School project: Passing out paper or pencils to homes with school children. Maybe a good way to find out where the children are so we can invite them to children’s events later.
Eection Service Project
School Related Events
Teacher Service event: helping them move in, bringing in treats 1st week of school, etc.
Art, drama or music events for Children
Teaching Events
Financial
Marriage Seminars
Child Rearing Seminars
Handy-man training
Church Events
Pot Luck
Special Music or Drama Program
Christmas Program
Introduction to Sunday School program
16 comments:
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goood job Cheryl
Hi! Like the blog idea. Haven't used one before either so will be a learning experience. Still home with whatever got me Tuesday night. Enjoyed getting together with Andy and hope to do more of that.
Galen
Nice job - and this "technology" fits in well with what Dave & Andy have been talking about.
Ok, I have some thoughts. I'll limit myself to ten for now.
1) How about an election debate where we present the issues and both candidates without vitriol. Perhaps a carefully structured debate between a democrat and a republican in our church. The goal would be not to win, but to inform. To serve, not to campaign.
2)How do we connect something like FPU to the community? Do we have small groups in the homes to help them process the ideas?
3)Arrange play dates for parents and kids in the park with but perhaps with supervised activities while the parents are nearby chatting?
4) Smaller block parties, particularly in blocks where we have RWCC or Lifesong members.
5) Dan Akroyd's birthday is in July. What if we had a Blues Brother's movie night in the park. show the blues brothers and let Phil and Gary do their schtick?
6) July is National Ice Cream month, designated by President Reagan. Sounds like an excuse for a big ice cream social in the park.
7) Could we organize basketball tournaments in the neighborhood for young men and women? Or perhaps younger against older or something like that? There's a lot of teens hanging out and several basketball courts I hear. Give those teens hanging out at home in two income families something to do while mom and dad are busy working hard.
8) Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959. How about a luau to celebrate?
9) National Hispanic Heritage month is September 15-Ocober 15th. Anything there we should do, given that a third of the neighborhood is hispanic?
10) Some event which allows us to share truth of the Gospel as well. Show a film which does it, or introduce a topic which allows us to speak to interested parties after the event or something? Ideas?
Hi All.
I like all the ideas and just wanted to say thanks, Cheryl, for all you do!
Thank you for your comments, especially all of Dave's ideas. Why am I not surprised that Dave has lots of ideas? I am focused on my family this weekend with Annna's graduation and everyone being home, but I will be adding some more thoughts next week. Again, thanks for your participation. Cheryl
How about we find out if there are any families of deployed service people in the area and see if they have any needs. An example; 1. mom's home with the kids and the swamp cooler needs to be setup for the summer. 2. The toilet needs repair. 3. Mom needs a break from the kids. etc.
I like Galen's idea a lot! Any suggestions on how to find these people?
No ideas on how to follow through on Galen's suggestion.
Another idea -- probably relates to some of the other music centered events. Maybe we can get Bob Samala's band to do an oldies night / karaoke kind of thing. Also, once upon a time some of the kids in the church were involved in fiddling. Don't know if that is something we could use somehow.
I'll check with some vets at work and maybe veterans services to see if they have any ideas.
Galen's great idea piggy backs well with Rod's idea about helping single mom's or young husbands who need some handyman stuff. Maybe a broader ministry here.
This is a great forum - some ideas:
1) Communication could probably be done via flyers posted on the mailboxes (do we need permission from the post office for that?) - it might be an easier way to find singles and vets....have them call us...or we could contact the base and see if someone can provide information on deployed service men/women or more than likely be a go-between.
2)Steve, Renee, David and I were talking about FPU for the community last night...we were talking that it might be a good idea to do it during the school year, instead of the summer, for the community. And as I was thinking about it further, maybe we do the whole kit and kabodle over a weekend (Saturday all day and then Sunday afternoon)...and then offer small groups in the months that follow for support - and the number of small groups would depend on the amount of people interested in continuing participation...or maybe a monthly follow up meeting for people to check in on a regular basis with how they are doing. Then after we do the Teen-FPU for RRCC to see how the whole Friday Night/ Saturday thing runs - we could offer another one for the community after the adults weekend - maybe a month later.
3)I know we are focusing on Northern Meadows, however, there are a couple of smaller parks in North Hills and I think we should be including them as well in these activities.
4) The park in Northern Meadows also has a big soccer/football field, so we don't need to limit the sports ideas to basketball - does it have a baseball diamond? or we could set up one - July - isn't that a big baseball or softball month? with a tradition hotdog barbeque type thing?
5)Can we do something that is focused on the 'tween kids? The middle school age kids tend to be either included with the high schoolers or included with the elementary kids...I think they would be delighted with something focused at them specifically. (Now the question is do I have any ideas about such a thing?)
6) In line with the band-ish ideas - could we maybe do some kind of talent show in the park? With a barbeque or some such thing?
Ok...I think that's it for now - starting to loose brain cells :)
Carol suggested flyers which are a very good idea. Two thoughts about that:
1) Flyers can be part of any event we do. In fact, I think we should make it a policy to never leave people empty handed. Sometimes it could be gifts, sometimes flyers, but always a plan to have people leave the event with something in their hands.
2)We need to remember the added force behind a good website (which we're going to have.) Rather than flyers which encourage people to call (which is fairly high risk and initiative) we could leave flyers which encourage people to check our website, than we can have a space on our website where people can "sign up", submit their information and ask for help in certain areas. This is much lower risk, and initiative for many people. Of course we can always give them the call us option as well.
I just received a hand-delivered plastic bag of flyers on my door last night...with a flyer in it that says that there is a local gentleman that will deliver and attach to door nobs 1,000 flyers for .03 cents a piece, or $30. And by local I mean, our local neighborhood....another idea...there was a flyer in there for another church in the area (I don't remember which one, not one I'd heard of before, but I can look again when I get home)
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