8 Questions To Get Ready for Your Church Events
Put on the best church events by planning everything you need as far in advance as possible. Don’t just sit back and relax as the leaves turn red and brown this fall – get your ducks in a row and organize the best holiday events you have ever thrown!
Feel ready for whatever the holidays throw your way by answering these eight preparation questions you can start thinking about today.
1. What Events Will You Host?
This one may sound obvious (Christmas and Thanksgiving, duh), but considering the details of each event will open your mind to the different ways you can celebrate each holiday. You might keep it simple with a Thanksgiving church service, throw in a food donation event, or even switch it up with an artistic mural of thanks completed by the community.
For Christmas, you have classic events like midnight mass, the Christmas Day service, and carol singing, but your church can get creative with so much more. Read this article by Church Plaza for ten exciting events to throw this Christmas, including volunteer work with the needy and retellings of the Nativity story. The sooner you start planning, the more varied and exciting your events can be.
2. Where Will You Host Them?
Some things, like sermons and prayer, will probably take place at your church, but other activities might need a little more planning. Family church events like pumpkin carving might have to take place on a pumpkin patch or other place prepared for mess and fun. A harvest festival-themed event like apple bobbing will definitely need to take place outside too!
3. What Is Your Budget?
To know how far you can take your events, you first need to understand what budget you are working with. Planning huge church events that your income can’t keep up with is a bad idea, as your people should come first, but skimping out in times of celebration is no fun either! Work out an overall budget using these simple steps, then break it down for each of your holiday events.
4. Will There Be Food and Drink?
Some events are based around eating together and breaking bread as a community, so make sure you think up a tasty spread. It won’t have to break the bank, as your church Thanksgiving dinner could be a pot-luck-style meal where each person brings a different dish. For events during the day, you could recruit the lemonade-making services of local kids and get some fundraising going too!
5. Do You Have Sufficient Furniture?
This question may sound somewhat boring, but preparedness goes all the way down to how many seats you have available. Lifeway Research found that 6 out of 10 Americans attend church on Christmas, so you had better get ready for the extra bodies. Liaise with local businesses or charities to see if there are any extra chairs you can borrow for the special day or tables and accessories to use throughout the season.
6. What Decorations Will You Use?
Now onto the fun part… decorations! Planning Christmas church decor offers a chance for creativity, as you can design the finishing touches to bring your events to life. Minimize your budget for decorative pieces by getting your children’s ministry to lend a helping hand with some of the decorations like paper chains, snowflakes, and bunting. Sweet homemade touches like these will illuminate the heart and soul of your ministry while giving your kids a chance to feel proud of their work.
7. How Will You Share the Invitation?
Not every event needs to be published far and wide, as you might prefer some things to be a little more intimate, so think this through to decide how you will share the invitation. If you want everyone in the neighborhood to attend, share it on your church Instagram story and plaster it on your digital signage outside the church to gain the most attention. Smaller-scale events can be shared by word of mouth or on the interior bulletin board.
8. Have You Updated Your Website?
Your church website is the first place people will go to to find out more details about your holiday events, so make sure it's up to date and ready for the extra traffic. A user-friendly homepage design goes a long way, so have a clear subheading for ‘events’ that visitors can quickly navigate. Most importantly, make sure the information is correct. As it gets closer to the date, add them to your Instagram bio or include an events section on your Linktree.
Are Your Volunteers Ready?
Who is going to make these church events run smoothly? Your hardworking church volunteers! Working during the holidays isn’t always fun, so ensure you have the work roster out and published far enough in advance that your volunteers can adjust their plans accordingly. Preparing your schedule months in advance means you have time to work around any bumps in the road without crashing.
To-do lists are your best friend when it comes to organization, and the good news is you can start writing them now! Use a church event planning checklist so you know you’ve thought of everything for your thanksgiving parties and Christmas church events. For more tips on event planning, check out our blog on the ten best practices.