The why:
Why even do big invite/event nights? Our Wednesday nights are an outreach service where our church kids can invite their non-churched friends to come hear about Jesus. Attractional ministry has gotten kick back, as do all models of ministry I’m sure, but I love what my friend Justin Herman from Mariners Church right down the freeway from us says, “An empty seat has never said yes to Jesus.” 
 
Plus, our church is passionate about those who are far from God and we want to bring them near to God. Our senior pastor is big on this thing he calls “One Life”. Our church believes the best evangelism is one-on-one. Every believer is challenged to have a “one life”, a person who does not believe in Jesus, in their life and intentionally invest in their life through relationship, friendship and community. That through this relationship they would come to know Jesus. We have adapted this into our student ministry, this vision from our senior pastor, and it has been incredible to watch. 
 
Usually when students think of evangelism, they think they need to get up and teach to everyone. We want to teach them it’s about a relationship. Evangelism can look like a friendship with friends you already have by being there for them, being with them through the hard times, having fun with them and as they live their life, Jesus would shine through them and they would be able to share the Gospel with them themselves. We put on One Nights to give a student an opportunity to invite their non-churched friends to church and hear the Gospel.
 
The what:
We do One Nights 3 times a year. In the fall, right after winter break and beginning of summer. In all honesty, we put on a normal service with an event afterwards. We don’t want to change up the service to give a false idea of what we do every week. We might have some special elements but the service as a whole is pretty normal to what we do. We know that whatever we do that attracts new students there will be the things that keep them there so we don’t want to do too much. We just make it fun. What the kicker is is the event after service. That will usually be an hour long (nothing is worse than an event that should have ended 30 minutes ago. Short and sweet and leave them wanting more). 
Here is a break down of what we did:
 
  • Our patio and cafe opens at 6:40pm. Students are outsdie with our volunteers hanging out with good music playing. The vibes are great and enegetic.
  • The doors open into the service at 7:15pm
  • The band was playing a song as they walked in and every seat had toilet paper on it. It was a few minutes of crazy as it errupted in a big TP session. We had these awesome toilet paper leaf blowers we made (you can see it on my Instagram: justinknowles3)
  • Welcomed everyone.
  • Played a bucket ball game/impossible shot where you can win penny boards, movie tickets, and a free trip to summer camp.
  • Music (3 songs)
  • Message.
  • 1 song after the message.
  • Then the silent disco. (Click HERE for the link to the company we used)
  • Everyone had headphones and foam glow sticks
  • Event was done and over by 9:45pm.

The how:

We have an amazing team and amazing volunteers who love students. 

 

@justinknowles3