Outreach & Witnessing

Plan a Kindness day with four or five kindness things the group can do. When we did this we asked everyone to meet at a designated time and asked everyone to bring with them: 1.) canned or non parishable food items 2.) a couple of dollars 3.) finally,we had already collected a new or gently used stuffed animal. These must be brought to most hospitals or old age homes so they can be checked out prior to coming.When we met, we began by buying bagels and cream cheese and went to a local fire station and gave them the food, being sure to thank them for their hard work. Next, we went on the local tollway and paid for a couplecars to go through the booth. Next, we went to the downtown hospital where they have a huge medical ward for children, many charitycases. Although we chose a hospital, you can also go to an old age home. When we got there, we split up, each with stuffed animals in hand, and began passing them out to people in the hallways and went into different rooms and gave them out. We were amazed at how grateful, suprised and excited people were. Finally, we went to a local shelter and dropped off the canned food. We had a marvelous day.
Other Ideas: 1.) buy Mc Donalds booklets and pass out to homeless people. 2.) Collect coats and blankets and donate or pass them out on a cold day.3.) Collect old books and donate to a shelter or childrens hospital. 4.) Create Valentines cards or just everyday cards and bring them to and old age home (make sure you do alot so you have enough for all) The ideas are endless, and the benefits last even longer!

Most churches have a number of senior citizens in the congregation who would love to decorate their homes for Christmas with trees, outside lights, etc., but just aren’t able to do it physically. Announce to your church this year that your youth are volunteering to provide a Christmas decoration service to all senior citizens. Place a sign-up sheet in a prominent location and assign a group of youth to each home. Pick one or several days in late November or early December where everyone can gather together and go to the various homes.

Idea for Father’s Day that was done in our church:

Send a letter to all the dad’s in the surrounding community inviting them to church on Father’s Day. In the letter/package, include 1 dress sock. State in the letter that in order to retrieve the matching dress sock, they must be there for the morning service on Father’s Day. Just a neat little thing to do for Dads and it might actually get some to come to church that normally wouldn’t.

This is designed for youth groups where the majority are Christian and are for the most part timid when it comes to evangelizing.

Have the youth get into pairs. One person is person “A” and the other is person “B”. “A” then is instructed to witness to “B”, that is, to explain what it means to be a Christian or why “A” decided to be a Christian. After “A” is finished, “B” will do the same thing to “A”. You can share some of the answers that were given. Then have all the “A”‘s stand to one side and the “B”‘s to the other. Explain that “A” is going to persuade “B” (pretending to be non-Christian) to become a Christian. “B” can respond positively or negatively. “B” might be very open or “B” might be closed, but “B” at least should be open to hearing what “A” has to say. While giving “A” a couple of minutes to think of what they will say, ask “B” to try to think of a couple of questions for “A”, that is, questions about problems they have with Christianity. Ask them to base it on excuses people give for not accepting Christianity. Then let “B” and “A” go for it; “A” persuading and “B” maybe asking questions.

After a few minutes, get some feedback; what worked, what didn’t, did anyone convert, what could work better? Then divide “B”‘s and “A”‘s again, this time having the “B”‘s evangelizing the “A”‘s.

Since the group probably knows each other well, they will probably feel more comfortable doing this with each other. From the results of this exercise, you can decided what the next step is to getting them excited about sharing the Good News with friends, family, and strangers.

This Hallowe’en our we had each youth bring a pumpkin to the meeting and we supplied the paint and paint markers. Each member painted a pumpkin and signed them “Happy Halloween from UMYF.” We then delivered them to the shutins of our church. It was a lot of fun, and a great project for our youth. They also are less messy than carved pumpkins and they last a lot longer! We received a great response from the both the kids and the shut ins!

Check with your local city or county offices and see if they have facilities that need painting. Most of the time they will furnish the paint if you do the labor. Spend the entire day scraping and painting with your group. They will have a ball. For added fun, have some sort of water fight at the end of the day or during a break to cool off and help wash the paint off your skin.

Our Teenage Group cleaned out their closets and collected clothing from others (that would have went to Goodwill, etc.) and set up a “Community Closet” in the parsonage of our church. Anyone who needed clothing for their children were welcomed to come in and “shop” for whatever they needed. There was no charge for any of the clothing and the Group assisted the shoppers in filling their needs.

Make it a fun, workout, group day. Volunteer to paint, touch up, and clean a Senior Citizen home or a local neighbor’s home, who maybe elderly or handicapped. Show them that teens can do it, when they pull together and help each other. And there’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint to put new life into a home or senior’s center!

Have the senior ladies of your congregation make pies and deliver them to the church. Go to the local hospital or other public place and let your youth give the pies away.