Other Ideas
This article from LifeWay has several good suggestions for different types of Christmas outreach, including visiting people in nursing homes. You could put on a Christmas service for the residents, but you don’t have to do something that elaborate. Your outreach could be as simple as having conversations with the people there. One of our writers here at ChurchLeaders used to teach at a Christian school that would take students to sing Christmas carols at local nursing homes. Maybe you could do something similar with your youth group!
Another idea from LifeWay is to adopt a college student. See if you can find out if there are students who will be in town without anyone to celebrate the holidays with and invite them to your home for Christmas.
Have you thought about collaborating with your small group on one of these Christmas outreach ideas? The article, “52 Fellowship Activities for Your Small Group,” has some suggestions for how you can serve people in need in your church and city. We recommend checking out numbers 4, 12, 13, 21, 35, and 52!
Christmas is only a couple of weeks away, so if you’re looking for ways to reach out to people last-minute, this article from Outreach Magazine has some helpful ideas from churches around the country. One church in Florida prints invitation cards and gives them to members to hand to people when inviting them to church. In fact, we know one woman whose family purchased a handful of gift cards to places like Starbucks and Chick-fil-A last Christmas. They then handed out the gift cards randomly to people as a way of blessing them. You could combine this idea with the invitation card suggestion and bless people while inviting them to church!
Really, we could go on and on about all the creative Christmas outreach ideas that churches have. If you’re still brainstorming, here are a few other articles to check out:
12 Ideas for a Life-Changing Small Group Christmas
Christmas Ideas That Will Grow Your Ministry
How to Make Christmas Your Best Outreach of the Year
We would love to hear what God is doing in your neighborhood! What are some of the ways your church is showing God’s love to people this holiday season?