Been thinking about ways to get the word out about student ministry to the community. Sitting here in Tully’s Coffee, I’m thinking about RippleTV that I’m watching, and at the movies this weekend The Twenty looked like a possible outlet, too. There’s always Google AdWords, too … but all of it seems quite expensive and impersonal.
Obviously, handing out Dear God cards this weekend and asking students to hand them to their friends with a personal invitation is best … but I’m just enjoying thinking about other options, even if we can’t pursue them right now. How do you get the word out about your student ministry?
JG
Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
Definitely not by way of ink pens. Just jokin. Nothing beats word of mouth from student to student. The Twenty is not a bad idea though.
I take a big box and put it on the corner of the street and then I yell at everyone through a megaphone about how great our student ministry is…just kidding of course!
Word of mouth
Advertisement postcards
Personal invitations
Throwing in the “word of mouth” chip. Whatever strategy you choose, you are essentially training students about outreach. Do you want that to be a program-model, or a personal/organic model. The end result is not getting HSM’s name out there, it is (I hope) how students will be regularly out in the community for the rest of their lives. Then the personal model is the approach, people will actually see Jesus through the incarnation of those students who serve/reach out to the community.
I think the sky is the limit when it comes to ways to advertise, but we have a few regulars that we use.
1. postcards (to everyone in the church that has ever visited w/ students)
2. invite cards (personal invitation is #1)
3. emails (via constant contact)
4. youtube – posting a promo video that students can send to their friends
5. myspace and facebook
When it comes to promoting a bigger event here are a few EXTRA things we usually do.
1. phone campaign (call the semi-regulars that have not been around to hear what’s coming up
2. t-shirts – students wear to school to promote (check out my blog for an example – http://jodyearley.com/2008/02/special-delivery.html)
3. buttons – students wear to school to promote
I think that there hasn’t been enough “fun” or “innovation” thrown into the mix for this type of stuff. Usually I see ministries start relying on the whole “turn it up to 11″ factor for this sort of stuff. Bigger banners, more post cards, direct mail, email newsletters, a car painted with the ministries logo on the side…. All that stuff is good – but how about really taking a chance and getting super creative and actually out into the community.
Something like a scavenger hunt for an entire school over the course of an all day saturday. Have your students pass out post cards with the instructions that lead them to a simple website that explains the rules and the prizes. Make the prizes worth it, make the contest crazy where kids have to get pictures of people doing crazy stuff, etc.
Then have them all meet at a neutral / community type building where you have everyone come in to tally the results and get the prizes. While you are doing so you can say who the hunt has been sponsored by – which of course was your ministry. Since kids on are your turf you could even show a video of your weekend, etc. But don’t go over the top on self promotion keep the focus on the event and the fun that kids are having. Even see if you can get pics and video from the hunt on a screen as people are mingling.
Ending with a concert of some sort would make it a community event for kids to have fun – and it would reflect on your ministry.
This is a big hairy risk of an event – but boy would it be different especially as you rely on the viral spread…
Carrier pigeons have shown success.