Make STRATEGIC use of Father’s Day to grow your church–by targeting YOUNGER Dads

Many churches today have an ideal church member they want to recruit—the younger male, the dad with a young family, and Father's Day is a great time to do a focused outreach to them.

I am going to put aside an extended ranting on the wisdom of that approach for the moment because I don't necessarily believe that targeting a certain demographic for your church is a biblical concept (kinda goes against the "whosoever will" teachings), but younger men need to know Jesus as much as any other group and with that in mind, here are some ideas that might help do this.

Make sure men are visible at your church

Men need to be greeters, the ones who do announcements, are in the children's ministry when kids are dropped off, and other visual actions at the church. This isn't being sexist--men need to see that men are doing things at the church.

Most likely they are involved in all these areas, but you need to make sure they are front and center on this day.

Invite men back for a service project

Many studies show that younger men are part of a generation that believes in volunteering, in giving back. Asking this group to be part of service projects is a great way to involve them with the men of the church. Here are some ideas:

• Habitat for Humanity builds are always good, but there are many other things to do and not everyone simply by virtue of being male likes to be involved in a construction project.
• Lots of men like to cook and cooking a special meal for seniors or the disadvantaged in your community or even a regular time when the church volunteers as a group many appeal to many.
• Tutoring or helping younger kids in sports activities.
• A service project unique to your community: perhaps a beach clean-up, or a blood drive, building a school playground, or planting a community garden.

Use communications that will help you connect

Connection cards, where men can share a prayer request or a request to find out about more of the service projects or other things in the church are important. If you don't use a connection card and are intentional about making sure people fill them out, you won't have any way to reach out to the men who attended on Father's Day.

CLICK HERE for an article that will help you create connection cards designed specifically for Father's Day.

For a number of other communications that will help you make the most of Father's Day, CLICK HERE.

About Single Dads: for Father's Day and always in your church

For many years my husband and I were in charge of a very large Single Adult program at our church and one group that had unique challenges most people were not aware of were the Single Fathers.

Here is just one of many—for the service projects or any Men's activity that you do, always offer free child care. Don't assume that every man has someone at home to take care of the kids. Many single Fathers aren't able to attend Men's or other church activities simply because they don't have child care and are often hesitant to ask about it.

If you are a church that notices, cares, and does something for Single Dads, you can be sure that group will become a loyal part of your church.