Newspaper Issue

How do you make people who come church once want to come back. That's a question which I think many church groups work on, agonise over and wish there were easy answers for. The youth work in our church is struggling with chronic low numbers and we would desperately like to see more children in our church. The catch is that kids don't come alone, they have to be brought by parents; parents that probably don't want to get up on a Sunday.
We are hosting a children's club event at our church on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas (click the title for a reminder from an earlier post) and the likelihood is that we will have a full attendance at the club and similarly a full church at the children's Christmas Eve Crib service. Naturally we will bend over backwards to display the love of Christ in our lives and church fellowship to try and make people feel welcomed and wanted. But at the end of both events how can we keep contact with these people and hope to entice them back without making them feel targeted? Obviously some will firmly intend not to come back and we can only pray for them in their absence.
Others may be impressed with what they've seen and heard from their children. They may only want a reason to come. This hope is the basis for a silly little activity that I am planning at the moment. I am creating a fake newspaper - a four page spread to be handed out at the end of both the Children's event and the Crib service. The content will lightheartedly reflect the subject of the club and service, i.e. the nativity story. It will also feature all the contact details for our church and youth group with a list of future activities. I'm calling the paper the Bethlehem Evening Star and headlines may well include: Angels Spotted, Shocked Shepherd Speaks and Health Service Crisis, Baby Born in Cattle Shed. The printing cost of this venture will be tiny (black and white only) and hopefully they will make enough of an impression to stick in the mind before they are recycled. My hope is to cheerfully and gently build a link with the recipient through this paper and firmly invite them back through it. You've got to try.

Peace Dave.