Recently we did a blog post about 10 ways to Make your Church Aware of Awana. One of the comments suggested a blog post on making Awana known to your neighbors. Instead of personal neighbors, we focused on church neighbors.
So here it is …
1. Be friendly. Be careful not to park in front of their driveways or allow your clubbers to run across their lawns. Say “hi” to them when they’re out and about.
2. Plan a carnival/fair or other outdoor event in the church parking lot and invite neighbor kids to attend. Or, if you can get permission from the city, have a family drive-in movie night – showing a Christian movie in the parking lot and handing out popcorn and punch to the audience! Be generous with Awana brochures so they know who you are.
3. Pass out coupons for sundaes/popcorn/snow cones for club. Coupons come with an “about Awana” brochure.
4. Send a card and thank them for being good neighbors. You could have the clubbers handwrite the cards.
5. Plan a backwards scavenger hunt. Instead of asking for something from the houses in your neighborhood, give things away. (Think gift cards, calendars, Frisbees …) Include a brochure about your church/Awana with each giveaway.
6. Hold a free car wash. Give car-owners a brochure about your church/Awana. (Make sure you do a great job washing the cars.)
7. Do a snow or leaf blitz. During the fall or if you live in a place where you get a lot of snow, have teens go through the neighborhood raking or shoveling. (Or, as one youth pastor did, ride your snow blower down the sidewalk, clearing everyone’s walk.)
8. Go door to door asking what you can do to help. No leaves to rake or snow to shovel? Have teens go door to door offering an hour or so of their time to help with whatever kind of yardwork is needed. (Remind teens to be friendly and polite – you don’t want them to spoil their effort by goofing off and not taking the job seriously.)
9. Hang a large, brightly-colored sign in front of your church, inviting kids to Awana. Include an email address or phone number (or both) so parents can get more information.
10. Go throughout the neighborhood singing Christmas carols. Give a small gift at each house. Calendars work well or “cookies in a jar” where the ingredients for a batch of cookies are layered in a Mason jar.
Have fun, but again, make sure your kids realize that they are being a testimony to those around them. Remind them to be friendly and polite. Make sure you have enough leaders to accompany the kids to keep anyone from being too rambunctious. You never know the results of a well-shoveled walk.
