Church events: How wide should we cast the net?

Over the Christmas period our church, like many others, had several evangelistic events. We had the classic Christingle and Nativity services, as well as a youth carol service.

We also had a meal for our youth to invite friends to, as well as a big, immersive theatre event for Year 2 children from local primary schools to attend.

As I look back over these events, I am aware of a tension that exists between the events that seek to reach the friends of those at church (like our youth meal) and those that try to reach as many as possible regardless of any connection (like our immersive theatre event).

While there are some that do both (we sent Christmas cards out to our neighbourhood as well as encouraging people to invite), this tension is one I always wrestle with when planning events.

Inviting as many as possible

On the one hand, why wouldn't you try to cast your net as wide as possible? Doesn't getting as many people as you can through the door increase the chances of someone responding positively to the gospel?

But the experience with these types of events is that it is often hard to gain any traction. Events focused on people bringing friends, while you might get far fewer guests through the door, seem to make it easier to make connections and are far more likely to get people to return.

This is the direction youth and children's ministry seems to be going in. Youth and children's workers are often encouraged not to think of themselves as evangelists, but to see their role as training young people and their families to evangelise to the people in their contexts.

Narrowing your aim

So if it works better to cast our nets less widely, what's the problem? Well, purely from my own perspective, I am aware that this approach is far easier and less unsettling. It is much easier to train others to step out of their comfort zone rather than having to do it myself!

So I need to make sure I am making a gospel-focused decision, not one that just makes my life simpler. But more than that, I need to follow Jesus' example in Matthew 14:14 when he sees a crowd and has compassion on it.

We have crowds of youth and children in this country who have no connection to a church or any Christian friends who might invite them along to something.

My big question to all youth and children's workers as you plan your evangelistic events is this: do you have compassion like Jesus did? I have challenged myself in this area recently and have found myself lacking.

Having compassion on the crowds must mean finding ways to cast our nets widely as well as encouraging our church families to bring their friends to events. And if this approach is less effective, let's work hard to work out how we can find ways to love those crowds and bring them into church as well.