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Is your small church looking for school outreach ideas to reach your community and show the love of Christ? Just imagine the impact you could have by providing for a need and being a presence in your local schools while supporting teachers and students alike. Outreaches, like the ones we will suggest, are prime opportunities to connect with new families in your neighborhood and provide a great way for your small church members to get involved! Let’s explore the possibilities together.
Why Focus On Schools?
By having a plan for outreach to your local schools, you are demonstrating your concern and interest not only to the school staff, but also to the students and families who are part of your school district. Our small churches have an opportunity to be involved in our communities as representatives of God’s love. What a privilege!
Even small outreach projects can speak volumes into the lives of students, and encourage teachers and support staff. Using fun events can open doors to connection and relationship building. Use these events as a stepping stone to inviting students and families to attend the various ministries of your small church. So where do we start our planning?
What Are The Needs Within Your Local Schools?
The first step to planning a successful school outreach is to make sure you are targeting real needs within the school. Remember, this is the beginning of a relationship that your small church is building with the school, so let’s make sure that you are serving them well.
Here are a few steps that can help your team decide on what outreach program would work best in your community:
Connections
Talk to the right people. Set up meetings to introduce yourself and find out what kinds of needs are prevalent in your local school.
Good places to start are the principal or vice principal, key administrators, and school counselors, even the head of the Parent-Teacher Group.
Utilize Your Own Small Church Members
Do any of your church members have connections in the schools? Maybe a teacher or staff member who attends your church, speak with them first. They may be able to give you information or a connection that will lead the way for you to get involved.
Ask Questions
Speak with the students in your Youth Group. They will feel valued that you care about their opinions, and will provide opportunities to build connections within your own small church family. Students have a unique perspective on school life. This is a great way to get them involved with the outreaches and learn how to be a light in their own community.
Do Some Research
Check-in with local government offices, the mayor, town council, School District Superintendent, town manager, etc. They are well-versed in the needs of the community.
Online research is helpful for learning the makeup of your town or city. City-data.com is a site with lots of information about any area of the country. Stats you can find include school populations, demographics of your community, average income, crime rates, etc. If you live in an area where the median income is high, then focusing outreaches that target low-income families probably won’t work for you. Knowing your community data can help you to plan.
A Few Tips To Help Your Church Community Get Started
Now what? It’s time to put a plan into action. Gather a team to help with each aspect of your outreach. Enlist prayer warriors in your church to pray for the event. Spread the word and announce your plans to your small church community so they will be excited and want to be a part of it.
Here are a few tips that may help you plan:
Choosing A Date
When choosing a date for your outreach, check all school calendars and community calendars so that you are not in ‘competition’ with another event.
Some outreaches may actually work well in combination with a school event, i.e., sporting event, early dismissal, holidays, or start and close of the school year.
Check The Law
Make sure you know the local laws about being on school property. Some towns may require a permit or schools may have their own regulations. Always check! If you are going to be directly working with students, all volunteers need a background check.
Volunteer Job Descriptions
When recruiting people to help with your school outreach, consider writing out brief job descriptions of what you are asking them to do, when they will need to be there, and for how long. By doing this you are setting up your volunteers for success.
Training
Gather all your volunteers together before your event and do a training party! Serve refreshments and take time to thank them for being a valued part of the team. Encourage your volunteers by giving them outreach tools, like sample conversations on how to engage and connect with people. Make sure everyone is knowledgeable about the ministries of your church that are available to students or families. If you are handing out literature, be sure to get permission from the school.
Praying It Through
One of the most important aspects of any outreach is to bathe it in prayer before, during, and after! This is a great way to encourage your senior members to get involved. They are wonderful prayer warriors. This allows them to participate even if they are not physically able to attend the outreach event.
3 School Outreach Ideas To Help Out In Your Community
Here are three ideas we would like to share with you, but don’t feel limited by this list. There are plenty of other school outreach ideas out there that you can try!
1. After School Programs
This works well, especially in elementary or middle schools. Many parents have a hard time finding after-school care for their students. What if your small church hosts a weekly after-school Bible club or a Craft Club?
A Simple and Consistent Schedule Works Well:
- An after-school snack: A must after a long day at school. Some students in your area may suffer from food insecurities, this may meet a need in their family. Partner with some local businesses to provide snacks or donations to purchase snacks. This allows them to care for families in the community too.
- Fun games: For everyone to participate in. If you have access to outdoor space, you could do larger-scale lawn games. It’s important to incorporate both gross motor movement (physical activities), as well as fine motor skills (using smaller muscles in conjunction with our brain for things like eating, writing, word puzzles, arts & crafts, jigsaw puzzles, etc.) to keep students engaged.
- Bible story time: This provides students with an opportunity to learn about God and the Bible. It may be the only time that some students have ever heard about God’s love for them. Provide a chance for students to ask questions and to connect personally with the church members who are helping.
- Extra Activities: Consider having a time when you provide homework help for students in reading or math if needed. This could be a need that is revealed to you from your pre-event research.
You could enlist your small church members to volunteer as tutors. You may have some retired teachers who would love the chance to help or you could even engage some of your older teens to help in this way. - Arts & Crafts: Provide an avenue of creativity for students and give them a sense of pride when they take home a completed project. Engage church members in the event by asking some to teach a craft or skill to the students. Assistants are always needed to hand out supplies and be a cheerleader to the budding artists!
This outreach will give you an opportunity to build relationships as you spend time with students. It is a great way to help students discover that your church members are fun and caring. They will be much more likely to attend future events at your church because of the connection that you have made at your school club.
2. Host A Life Skills Workshop
Work with your local school to see if your church could host a monthly Life Skills Workshop for middle and high school students. Many students don’t have anyone in their life who has the time to teach them basic skills, your church could fill this gap. This outreach is a great way to engage your small church members to share their talents, time, and skills with students. Invite local businesses to get involved in this outreach as well.
Workshop Ideas:
- Basic Car Maintenance: How to change a tire, check oil, basic engine knowledge, and proper care for a car, including detailing. Perhaps you could partner with the local police department to teach a session on bicycle safety, proper equipment, and riding skills. Ask local businesses if they would donate towards a new bike to give away in a drawing at the end of the school year.
- Culinary Class: How to use kitchen tools, use spices, complete healthy recipes, how to make homemade pasta and other specialized dishes. Knowing guidelines for safe food handling, setting a party table, and how to serve. Speak to a local restaurant and see if their chef would come and teach the kids how to make a specific dish.
- Sewing 101: How to use a sewing machine, make repairs to garments, follow a pattern, and make simple projects. Learn how to dye cloth, and make your own tye-dye project. Pick out fabric and make a simple wall quilt. Find someone who knows how to do simple clothing design or can teach decorative skills to accessorize tote bags or t-shirts.
- Woodworking Skills: Learning about woodworking tools and how to safely use them. Making a project from start to finish, learning about paint, stains, and finishing projects. Learn how to embellish projects with wood burning or stenciling. Ask your local home improvement store or lumber yard for donations of products.
- Cake & Cookie Decorating: Learn how to make and decorate cupcakes and cookies with various techniques. Discover different recipes for decorating, learn skills to use a piping bag, decorating techniques, and presentation skills. Partner with a local bakery to see if they have instructors, or would be willing to donate materials.
The possibilities are many. Network with your small church members as well as local businesses to build a plan. Wouldn’t it be exciting for your students to host an end-of-school showcase where they use their new talents to provide refreshments and make displays of their projects? Invite your small church members, parents, and teachers to come and applaud the efforts of the students. This gives value to the kids and connects everyone with their families.
3. Fourth Friday Freebies
Arrange with the school to give something away on the Fourth Friday of each month. What you give will depend on approved items from the school first, your budget, your local connections for donations, and church member donations.
Ideas For Giveaways:
- Snacks: Granola bars, popcorn, popsicles, chips, cereal bars, cookies, etc. Try to have some items for those with dietary restrictions like no nuts, gluten-free, and vegan.
- For younger kids: Puzzles/ activity books with pencils. Small toys, elastic bracelets, gospel bracelet kits, and craft kits.
- New Testaments: If you have a Gideon’s connection in your area, speak with them. You can also order New Testaments online in bulk and most often get a discount, especially for churches.
- Socks: This doesn’t sound really exciting, but get some fun and bright colors, designs, and possibly seasonal prints to give away. Parents may appreciate this more than students!
- Gloves or mittens: This is especially for the beginning of the cold months, if you live in a colder region. If you live where it’s warm, consider sample-size bottles of sunscreen or bottles of water.
- Notebooks & pencils: Sometimes children need more school supplies in mid-year. This could be just the right thing to help them finish out the year.
- BIG BLAST: At the end of the school year celebrate big. What about having an ice cream truck come? Get gift cards to the local fast food place or a coupon for a free cookie or treat at the grocery store bakery. What about giving a snack and a voucher they can turn in at Youth Group to receive a prize? This gives them the invitation to engage with your small church and a chance to show love with a small gift.
This is a recurring event, which gives you the opportunity to connect with kids again and again. They will associate your small church with this fun event, and tell their families and friends about it. This outreach is a great way for church members to get involved. Some can be working at the school, others working on gathering donations and items to give away … Still, others can be engaged on the prayer team. This is a multi-generational,whole-church outreach project.
This Is A Catalyst
These are just 3 ideas, we know there are many more. It’s just a matter of deciding on which one will work for your small church and school community.
These outreach events can be a catalyst for reaching people in your town. As you show God’s love to the local schools and invest your time into these projects, the teachers, students, and families will begin to see that you have a sincere desire to make a difference. After you spend time with them, learn their names, and recognize their faces, you will see relationships within your community building. You may even see that the school starts to come to you when they have a need. Your church family will build trust with the families of the students you serve, that’s how God opens doors for ministry to happen.
So, you have done your research, you know the needs, you’ve made an outreach plan and your church team is praying and ready to go. The only thing left is for you to just do it! When you do, please share it on your social media pages, it lets the community at large see what you’re doing. We’d also like you to share with us about your school outreach projects on our Creative Solutions for Small Church Ministry Facebook page. We’d love to hear about your events and it might encourage others in small churches to give it a try!
Read More:
How To Expand Your Small Church Outreach
