Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Why Your Church Needs to Host a 5K

Why Your Church Needs to Host a 5K

Good Thing Versus God Thing.

There is a segment of people who will engage with us on community events like this that won’t connect with us through our normal Sunday Services. In fact, we’ll have hundreds of first-time guests participate in these events in one way or another … way more than any really cool series.

It’s not lost on me that these large scale community service events seem to be amazing first exposure and front door experiences for new people to our church.

Fights Against Organizational Silos. 

As we grow as a church, I have an increasing concern about the silos that are naturally starting to build. Each of our various departments starts to gain its own culture and approach to leadership that is necessary to build momentum in any given area. Some of this siloing is inevitable with a growing organization. 

Mass outreaches force people from across the organization to work together on tangible outcomes and break down some of these silos.

Church is Fun. 

Each of these events seems to end up with us throwing a party for the city we’re hosting in. Although the 5k was the focus of this day, there was an after party with live music, tons of free food, face painting and fun for the kids, bounce house, and even a little dancing.

There is something right (and maybe even prophetic) about the church throwing a party for the community.

Cause Bigger Than Our Church. 

One in nine people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water. As a church, we are committed to working toward bringing water to some of the world’s poorest people.

We asked our people to get sponsors for them to run or walk in this event. In the end, our people raised $115,000 for the clean water cause! Amazing! Our finance team is still working on the numbers … but the vast majority (70-80 percent) of those donors are brand new to us … meaning we’re engaging new people in the mission. 

Rallying our people to engage in a cause larger than our local church reminds our people we’re a part of the broader body of Christ.