Outreach & Witnessing

Many highways invite groups to adopt a stretch of road and come out to pick up litter. Make this a quarterly event at least. Give prizes away to those who collect the most trash. Recycle what you can.

A really simple yet effective way of encourage youth to get excited about serving the community is to go to a public place – e.g. the entrance to a shopping centre – and hand out free Coke cans to passers by.
A few 24-cases of coke is all you need – and this isn’t too expensive once you split the price.
In our experience, the youth were quite nervous about it at first, but after they saw the leaders do it, they chimed in! It really makes the whole idea of “serving” a practical one.
P.S. – Make sure you get permission from the shopping centre or wherever you are doing it! And it’s probably best to steer clear of busy intersections and potentially dangerous places.

On a certain day in the week (maybe Saturday afternoons) open up your youth room as a free band practice room for Christian and non-Christian bands (use your common sense here as to what you think is acceptable in a Church). We have our own PA equipment that we let the young people use and we let some of them use our amps, mics and drums etc. Have some of your Christian young people around to serve and to love the young people that have come in – set up the sound for them, give them drinks, print out songs for them. This has proved very successful in our youth group and has already built links with many non-Christian young people and served as a way to share the Gospel with them!

We were preparing our youth group to attend a service project to homeless children in our city. In order to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless we collected several cardboard boxes (refrigerator type). It was late October, which is fairly chilly in our city. We advertised a campout and told kids to dress warmly. The group spent the night in our wooded lot in cardboard boxes (with the luxury of a sleeping bag). We had a fire in an old barrel (with Fire Marshall approval), roasted hot dogs on the fire, snacks were served in a new garbage can. Youth group members had to dig through wadded up lunch bags to find the snack they wanted. We played kick the can and other no-cost outside games. We had great support for our homeless project!

Many of the youth groups in this area take their youth members out trick or treating. But instead of collecting candy, they ask for donations for the local food bank.

We did this with the junior highers and it seemed to keep them interested and excited:
First I passed out a blank envelope to each teen and told them to write their name and address on the front of the envelope (address it to themselves). We didn’t tell them why, so this piqued their curiosity.

Next, for the lesson part, I shared with them how I wanted to challenge them to minister to just one person this school year (this is good for a new school year, a new year, etc.). It didn’t have to be a classmate, but it could be anyone God had laid on their hearts that needed to be ministered to, preferably, one who was unsaved. I then shared several verses with them about evangelism and ministry, letting your light shine before men, etc.

Then, I passed out a notecard to each teen, and told them to write the name of the person they wanted to minister to on one side of the card. On the other side, they had to write a verse that would encourage or remind them of their person.

Then, they put the notecard inside the envelope, sealed it (I told them this is confidential) and gave their envelopes to us leaders. Once all had turned in their envelopes, we prayed over them.

I told the teens we would be sending these out to them sometime in the coming weeks or months in order to remind them of the challenge we made to them. They will not know when the envelopes will come, but we will probably wait about three to four months before we send them out to them. This will remind them to continue to minister in case they forget.

Our Christian school sells Christmas trees for our scholarship fund. Last year we had about thirty trees left over. We contacted several community service agencies like those that deal with the poor, children with cancer or chronic illnesses, the elderly, etc. We got the names of families who would have no Christmas at all, then delivered the trees to them. This was a simple way to share the love of Jesus. It only took a couple of hours on the Saturday before Christmas. This year we are adding decorations, food, caroling, etc., and asked for corporate sponsors of trees. This was an incredible blessing to the families who participated.

Want to begin doing service projects with your youth group, and don’t know where to begin, here’s an idea.
Do a Cookie Bake for some of the shut-ins, seniors, etc in your church or community. Have your youth group bake cookies (keep the recipe simple, or buy a mix — Pillsbury and Quaker has some good ones). Make cookies that anyone could eat – stay away from chocolate, nuts, etc because of allergies. Maybe get some parents to help out in the kitchen.
After your cookies are ready, put them in as many cookie tins as people or homes you are going to visit. In advance find someone with a computer and printer who will type up cards for your group to sign, make sure you give the name of your group and where you are from. The ideas for the cards are limitless (you probably have someone in your youth group with a computer and printer who will do this).
Pre plan the people or homes you are going to and make sure that it is ok, and that you visit at a good time, early evening, late afternoon, whatever is appropriate. Maybe ask your church secretary for a list and her input.
Set up drivers (one adult with each group of youth) and have them deliver the cookies, cards and greetings from your youth group.
This is a great project and involves your youth, and seniors. Two different age groups that probably don’t spend a lot of time together, it helps bridge gaps, and teaches your youth they can serve God, by sharing his love to people who can not get out on a regular basis. After you’ve delivered your goodies, return to the church and let the young people talk about the different places they stopped, what happened, etc. It wouldn’t hurt to enjoy some of the goodies they made as well during your discussion time.

A simple idea, yet one which our group loves to do. Instead of doing the standard Christmas Caroling at a nursing home or hospital, we go out into our church’s neighborhood. We take along with us some church business cards that have a prayer on the back. We make sure to only knock on doors of people who have Christmas decorations up, and we designate one person to be the doorbell ringer. People LOVE to see youth at their doorstep doing something positive. After we’re done, we invite them to church and give them a card.