Big Days Ideas:
Big Days are special days that draw up excitement and a focused reason for members to invite friends and family to church. Every Sunday has potential to be someone’s first time so we want to make sure we are giving each week our best. However, throughout the year you want to include some Big Days to help give members an additional incentive to invite, and create excitement in your community.
As a general rule of thumb Big Days should happen 3 to 4 times per year. Christmas and Easter are two built in Big Days. Below are some additional ideas to help stir interest from your community.
One rule of thumb for Big Days is to connect them with your Sunday service. An event outside of Sunday will often attract people to that event, but not to church. Many churches experience this with Fall Festivals. If you partner a Big Day with a Sunday you have the opportunity to double your attendance on a Sunday.
•Bring is a special guest. A comedian (everyone loves to laugh), a celebrity who is a Christian, a professional athlete who follows Jesus, or a college athlete who is a Christian are some examples. This should be someone that would help draw un-churched and not just Christians from other churches.
•First responders Sunday. Have a Sunday where you honor all police officers, fire department, and EMTs. Spend time promoting it. Invite the departments. Honor them with a special gift.
•Teachers Sunday. Honor all the teachers before the first day of school. If possible give them an amazing gift before they kick off the school year.
•Mother’s Day. Mom’s typically like church more than dads. Often a mom’s request to her family is for them to go to church with her on Mother’s Day. Why not make this day extra special? Some ideas to think about..Offer free photos by professional photographers. Your church most likely has some photographers that would be willing to volunteer their time. Do one BIG give away per service to a mom that is in need. Everyone loves a good story. Bless a mom who needs a good win and it will be a win for everyone. Give away some great tasting chocolate. What mom doesn’t like chocolate? The point is to wow the mom and then think through the rest of the family. A simple invite to dads during the service can go a long way. For example, “Dad’s, if you thought today was great just wait until you see what we have planned for Father’s Day.” Just make sure Mother’s Day is great!
•Family Month. Unchurched people aren’t thinking about your church. The truth is even churched people are thinking about church less often these days. When a person is laying awake at night one of the things that is keeping them up is family. And yet often, in the church, we are silent about this. Family month is a chance to focus on family. Treat this as an area wide event. Give our wristbands the week before to promote the event, have each family commit to pray for a family or person to invite with them during the series, provide a photo op for families for one week in the series, for another week do something special for the kids’ environments like bring in a fire truck or a petting zoo, and then end the series with something fun. This could be a cookout, inflatable games etc. Promote it all ahead of time. People need help with family. If you repeat this each year this becomes a draw to your community.
•Your Church’s birthday. This may be easier for church plants, but it’s doable for all churches. People like to celebrate. Why not celebrate a churches’ birthday? If you use this as a way to give back to your community it can become an exciting Big Day for your church. For example, one year I used our churches’ birthday to give a gift of an orphanage. We raised money and gave it away. People love to be a part of something bigger than themselves. The idea of being invited to a party is fun. Celebrate BIG.
•“It” Sunday. Every Sunday is a chance to share the gospel, but some Sundays the entire sermon is built around it. On those Sunday’s your people wish they had a heads up. If you strategically plan for “It” Sunday your members will know this is a week they should work extra hard to invite.