Leverage Special Holidays to Boost the Church

Some churches used Fathers’ Day to invite people to a special service. St Stephens Anglican Church on the Hibiscus Coast displayed a banner made by the children for the day. Fathers were asked for their views of the kids. Older fathers were asked to share advice for younger fathers. The most popular response was - to spend time with families. Local businesses had donated goods, which were distributed as Fathers’ Day prizes. Roy Smith reported that 20 men that are not regular church attendees came to the special service. He is planning next year to use the Sunday closest to Valentines’ Day for married couples to make a public recommitment to their spouses.

Brent Harris from Salvation Army, Belfast Christchurch reported that they did a ‘Tool Time’ where guys brought their favourite power tool. Throughout the service there were chats with Wilson over the fence about life and priorities.

Encounter Christian Centre in Auckland celebrated fathers – 5000 postcards were letterbox-dropped inviting people to the service. A video was shown made up of clips of the fathers in the church at previous events. The children did an item dressed in dad’s favourite shirt.

Blockhouse Bay Baptist Church has regularly held services where several men describe what they do at work and what their occupation involves. They dress in their work clothes and bring along the “tools of the trade”. These special services have been very popular and helped the congregation to get better insight and understanding of men’s lives.

Make the most of these occasions to reach out to the community. Use Christmas and Easter, but think beyond that as well.

Have you had a great service that was built around men as husbands, dads or workers? Let us know about it so we can encourage others to get creative also!