How "Snow Day" Works as an Outreach Tool

There were a lot of comments made today about how wonderful it was to see all those kids and those young families streaming toward the church facility, gathering together for a fellowship activity aimed at children. As far as we can tell, with all of those bodies moving about on that pile of snow out front, approximately 80 children showed up, along with a good assortment of their parents, and were within the relational influence of our church body for about three hours.

So, how does this work for outreach?

We determined that slightly more than half of those who showed up today were not people we see in our fellowship on a regular basis. Some were people who have recently visited, some were people who have visited in previous months. There were several families who came as a result of the postcard we mailed to the list of new families in the neighborhood that we maintain in the office. Some came at the invitation of friends or relatives. There were several families connected with the ELC who brought their kids, and several families connected with Garden Oaks Home School Cooperative (GOCO) who brought theirs.

Several of our church members who came to help out went about the task of making everyone feel welcome. Through that process, invitations to come to Bible study and church on Sunday were issued. Though sometimes the results from those kind of conversations do not seem to produce immediate results, they do plant seeds and show an interest. Those conversations also give us information about whether or not the family already attends church somewhere, and through that process we discovered that about half of those in attendance today do not regularly go anywhere.

Those who were here with friends or relatives, with the ELC, or with GOCO fall within groups of individuals who have some sort of connection to our church. That is a connection on which future relationships can be build, and through which the gospel can be shared. We gathered four pages of contact information today, which can be used for future invitations to similar events, such as VBS later on in the summer. And today's contact hopefully built some ties which can be used to build some new relationships.

Snow Day also sent a message from our church to the community, "We want to get to know you!" Through an event like this, we are telling our ELC parents that we care about them. We are telling GOCO families we care about them. We are telling the school friends of our kids that we care about them and their families. We are willing to make an investment in the community for the sake of sharing the gospel message that we have.

We also had somewhat of a billboard on Shepherd Drive for about two hours today, as snowballs were flying, kids and parents were gathered and the traffic driving by was visibly attracted to look and see what was going on. Though that is a somewhat different kind of outreach, based on the attraction model, as people drove by, they did not see an empty parking lot and no activity. The sight of kids playing in the snow in Houston is a definite attention getter. I was a little worried that we might cause an accident, but fortunately, that didn't happen. But we got a lot of slowing down to take a look, and that's a good thing, too.

In the coming days and weeks, we need to take advantage of the outreach opportunities that will come our way as a result of this activity.

We've got another big one coming up February 16, with the Al Melson Memorial Men's Venison Barbeque.