Planning a Fall Festival
It’s officially fall! And pumpkin spice is everywhere you turn. Along with the cooler temps and changing leaves comes the time of year to plan impactful outreach opportunities at your church. These are designed to reach your community and spread the message of the gospel. They can even encourage people to get connected at your church. One of the best ways to do that is by planning and promoting a church fall festival.
Whether your church fall festival has a small number of people or the whole town attends, it’s important to put in the work ahead of time so you can ensure the event goes off without a hitch. Here are a few tips to help you plan the best fall festival yet.
Time and Place
Be strategic in the timing and location of your church fall festival. Of course, you can always host it at your church, in the parking lot, or on the grass. But you could also consider finding a local park to use to reach the community. Some people won’t show up to a church building, but they might be inclined to attend a fun fall fest in the community, even if it is a church that is hosting it. Another consideration is to start the event earlier in the afternoon/evening to appeal to families with young children. With a family outreach like a fall festival, you’ll want to be able to accommodate all who desire to participate.
Activities
This is the fun part! Make sure you have plenty of activities planned for attendees of all ages. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Life size outdoor games: Jenga, Connect Four, Cornhole
- Biblical scavenger hunt
- Craft stations: coloring pages, salvation bracelets, leaf painting, etc.
- Face Paint
- Lawn bowling with pumpkins
- Hay maze
- Photo booth
- Pumpkin decorating
- Eating contest: hot dogs, pie, gummy worms, apples
Volunteers
You can’t host a church fall festival on your own. You’ll need a team of volunteers that is ready and willing to serve the church and community. This is a fun and exciting event, so hype it up and encourage people to use their spiritual gifts. Some volunteer positions could include a welcome team, volunteers at the craft and game stations, and people offering prayer during the event. You will definitely want to recruit some help before and after the event for set up and tear town.
Helpful tip: Use forms on your church website for volunteers to sign up!
Promotion
You could have the most amazing fall festival planned, but if nobody knows about it, it won’t be successful. This is where promotion comes in.
Your church website is one of the best tools you have for promoting your fall festival. Create a page dedicated to this event that lists the details like where and when, as well as creates excitement with some of the activities you’ll be having. You could even include some photos from a previous festival if you’ve done it before.
Social media campaigns are powerful and effective for event promotion. Plan various posts that promote your event and are branded with your church and fall festival theme. In each of these posts, point people to your church website for more information.
Don’t forget to update your church members via your mobile app. You can include all of the event information in the app and people can even sign up to attend or serve.
Word of mouth is always a great way to promote your festival. Give your members invitation cards to hand out to their friends, families, and coworkers. A personal invitation always speaks volumes.
Helpful tip: Put together a series of promotional graphics that you can use for an outreach campaign in your local and online communications. Try our friends at ShareFaith free for 7 days for all your church graphic needs.
Outreach
Most importantly, this is an incredible outreach opportunity for your church. It’s a way to connect with your community and get more people involved, and of course, be able to share the gospel with others who might not normally hear the good news. Have guest cards that people can fill out so you can gather their contact information. Also, plan to have volunteers stationed around that are solely there to talk to people and make them feel welcome. Finally, have gift bags that people can take that have an informational card about your church with service times and your church website on it.
