SBTC Church Planting

We are excited to announce our next engage training for currently funded planters called Kindness Cohort. Kindness Cohort is a free 4 week cohort (45 minutes each week via zoom) where we walk planters through how to engage your community with the Kindness of Jesus in practical and tangible ways. This training has given practical tools for over 200 churches nationwide to get their church involved in something that is outward, easy, yet effective.

Our next Kindness Cohort starts tomorrow, Thursday October 27th @ 2Pm. If you want to join the cohort, or are interested in cohorts we will offer in the future, contact our outreach consultant Austin Cooper or comment on this post.

People are moving to Texas in droves, and this presents an opportunity to engage those that have relocated to your community. Here are five ideas from our outreach consultant Austin Cooper that your church can do to reach people new to your area:

1. Door to Door Outreaches – Anytime a new neighborhood is built in your community, send a team there to serve that neighborhood by providing a gift or act of service for each home. This could include free movie night outreaches where you provide popcorn packs and a gift card to a streaming service, Dr. Pepper Giveaways before the Superbowl, pumpkins around Halloween, watermelons in summer, gift bows around Christmas time, leaf raking, lawn mowing, etc.

Anytime a new neighborhood is built, our church sends a team there within the first few months of people moving in. We serve them and ask to say quick 10 second prayers with those that we are serving. We have noticed people who have just moved to our area are super open to the service, prayer, and even an invite to our church. Plus, Ring door bells have taken away the door to door stigma for the most part!

2. Neighborhood Block Parties – Not many outreaches display the culture of the Kingdom of God quite like free block parties. We throw block parties in neighborhoods all throughout the year. Most new neighborhoods have pages that you can advertise the free block party on (usually through a member of your church that lives there). This outreach not only creates community between your church and the neighborhood, but also helps neighbors meet each other and produces community for new move-ins

3. Gifts for New Residents – We have partnered with our city, that has put together a gift basket for people that have just moved to our city. In this basket we provide a coffee gift card and an outreach card that says. “Just for you, just because, we hope this small gift brightens your day. There are no strings attached…we just want you to know God loves you.” With some info about our gathering times on the back of the card.

4. Neighborhood Missionaries – Chances are you have people in your church who live in neighborhoods where a lot of people move in and out. Consider empowering them to be “Neighborhood Missionaries” where they keep tabs on people moving into the neighborhood. When they see a new family or individual move in, provide them with a gift basket to drop off with some goodies and outreach cards. This also is a great opportunity for the neighborhood missionary to invite them over for dinner or get to know them on a deeper level.

5. New Move in Letters – We have a woman who loves outreach, but she has seizures and can’t be outside very often. So, what we have empowered her to do is to write kind letters, welcoming people who have just moved into new homes. In the letter we usually include a free tea or coffee card and one of our outreach cards. This is a great way to empower those in your church that might be elderly or shut-ins to still be a part of engaging the community for Christ.

If you have any questions about any of these, let us know!

4 Holiday Outreaches to Try by Outreach Consultant Austin Cooper

1. Christmas Eve/Day Donut Giveaway

No one likes working on Christmas Eve or Day. This presents a great opportunity for your church to show God’s love in a practical way. Buy several dozen boxes of donuts and have your church go store to store dropping off donuts for employees, telling them thank you and offer to say a quick ten second prayer for them.

Our church has done this going on 11 years now, and we have seen God move in powerful ways through the donuts and prayers in His name. In fact, we are known as the donut church by many businesses in our community.

2. Free Gift Wrapping

Find a store that will let you set up a table and do free gift wrapping. Usually local stores, not chains, are best as they are more likely to let you serve people in this capacity.

We typically wrap the two weekends before Christmas and have wrapped over 8,000 gifts in the years we have done this. We tell people who ask why we did this, that we think Jesus is best seen when the Church is serving with no strings attached. We pray for them and give them our outreach card.

3. Glow Sticks at Christmas Event

You can literally serve thousands of people in an extremely affordable way by bringing glowsticks to Christmas events. Work with your city, and tell them your heart for serving with no strings attached and they will most likely let you have a booth at the tree lighting, Christmas market, Light maze, etc. Sometimes we don’t ask, and we just show up offering free glow sticks to people.

Have a few signs that say Free Glowsticks, don’t look creepy, and people will flock to your booth/area.
One mom recently told us that giving her son a glow stick was a way to show them God’s love in a practical way because when it got dark, she knew where he was.

4. Christmas Blanket Giveaway

Everyone loves Christmas blankets. Wal-Mart has some very affordable Christmas blankets that you can give away at sporting events, red lights, Christmas events, hospitals, and nursing homes.

Our church has served our adopted nursing homes and hospital in this way every year. The patient’s and resident’s spirits are always lifted. Obviously going into nursing homes and hospitals is not an option for many of us, but you could collect the blankets and drop them off outside with handwritten notes of encouragement from your church.

We are excited to announce our next engage training for currently funded planters called Kindness Cohort. Kindness Cohort is a free 4 week cohort (45 minutes each week via zoom) where we walk planters through how to engage your community with the Kindness of Jesus in practical and tangible ways. This training has given practical tools for over 150 churches nationwide to get their church involved in something that is outward, easy, yet effective.

Our next Kindness Cohort starts Wednesday August 17th @ 2Pm. If you want to join the cohort, or are interested in cohorts we will offer in the future, contact our outreach consultant Austin Cooper