What sort of things can I invite parents and carers to?
Session 2.3 · Note 1
What to Invite Families To
Do be encouraged - invitations work! Recent Talking Toddlers research reported that 47% of toddler parents who currently don’t go to a church group said they would welcome an invitation to come along – invitations are important!
If families start to take part in other things you do as a church, it helps them to discover more about the church community and connect to it. There’s a really helpful clip on BRF Ministries YouTube channel from one of Rachel Turner’s ‘Lunch with Leaders’ webinars on ‘Engaging Fringe Families’, starting at that explains this well, starting at 29 minutes and 20 seconds.
Even if you don’t have a big children, youth and families programme, you probably do things that you could invite your parents and carers and families to. Here are some ideas you could use and the next question will help you think through ideas for doing this as effectively as possible.
Key Ideas
- Natural links, such as festival seasons:
- Crib service – could you ask all your Messy Church families if they’d like to participate or invite your tots children to be stars and sing Twinkle Twinkle?
- Easter – invite to Easter Sunday and the Easter Egg hunt
- Mothering Sunday
- Harvest
- Light party at Halloween
- Pancake party on Shrove Tuesday
- Church activities for adults
- Alpha course or equivalent
- Events like games nights or arts mornings
- Mens or womens groups
- Parenting courses or events
- Dads and kids stay and play
- Church activities for everyone
- Churchyard tidy up
- Christmas craft afternoon
- Family fun days
- Uniform bank or swap shop (inviting people to donate unwanted items and take any they need or would like)
- Simple things you can do as an extension of your existing group
- Posada at Christmas
- Messy Christmas service in church
- Summer stay and plays
- Holiday club for kids,but with a parents and carers cafe on the side
- Straightforward one-offs
- Tea and tissues after the first day at school drop off
- Baptism reunion picnics
- An autumn welly walk or summer holiday picnic
- Christmas craft morning
- Invite parents and carers to help
- Continue as a helper when kids have left the group
- Use the expertise they can offer - website design, a health visitor who could do a short talk, a gardener to give advice on planting the churchyard, for example.
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