Share the Vision with your Church. Form a small planning team. Communicate updates regularly.
Where is a good/busy place to meet?
Do you have Council and Police permission?
Do you have Public Liability Insurance?
Do you need electricity for a PA system, keyboard, projector?
Don’t forget the music stands!
Do a community invite - using the Shine Your Light postcard or invite card. Make sure to let the local newspaper and radio station know about your event. Make sure a week before the event, the invites go out.
Have an MC for the event to welcome and lead, make sure to invite people to church. Have members of your team mingle in the crowd and have conversations, perhaps give away food. Make sure you get pictures and videos of the event to post!
Make sure the audience know why you are there.
Make sure there is a clear message of Jesus at Christmas.
Consider ordering a give-away resource for the audience.
Tidy up the venue afterward. Do a community Thank You, to celebrate the event. Which includes an invite to Church. Do a follow up in Church to thank everyone who supported and helped put the event on. You can get resources from
Ask for a spot in the service when you can share a Shine Your Light video in your church, explaining what it is and why the church should be involved. Explain that this is a National agenda and is joining all churches together in unity and one accord sharing the love of God in the birth of His son to the local community. Don’t be put off at the first attempt keep persevering.
Difficult questions may include:
If your church already does Christmas events, these can be included and come under the umbrella of Shine Your Light. They can just be registered as Shine Your Light events. The purpose is to go out into the streets and tell all the people you meet of the love of Jesus, many of whom may never step into a church and may never hear the gospel.
Form a small planning team
Form a small planning team of people who may not have any experience but are enthusiastic. If you have a musical director or worship leader, it would be a great idea to get them interested and part of the team. Other people may include prayer warriors who will cover the events in prayer and those who will be willing to give a word even if it is just reading a few verses of scripture. Early planning is useful as this will give time for rehearsals and organisation of musical backing, decision of costumes/outfits and necessary ordering of any items in addition for the event. Encourage as many to get involved as possible. You may decide to join up with other local churches or organisations.
Agree how often and where you will meet and have someone who will communicate updates regularly, weekly should be the minimum. Consider using a whatsApp group as this is an easy method of communicating. As this is an evangelistic outreach, consider having contact and follow up cards for those requesting prayer or a decision for Christ.
Decide if you are going to share with the community, clothing, food, mince pies, chocolates, tracts, little electric candles, gifts etc. Consider how this will be provided, by whom, costing and organising. Plan this in alignment with the timing of the event too.
Consider where you will get the most impact in your area and where you will meet the most people. This may be the town centre, shopping centre or outside your church, car park, sports venue i.e. football ground, swimming pool, nursing home, overnight shelter for the homeless, local cinemas, prisons, down your own road etc. It can be a series of small events, or big events. This will depend on the amount of people in your church or local churches but also the environment and size of your community.
Consider inviting dignitaries including the mayor and council leaders to get more impact. Remember if you are inviting the mayor, he/she will get a full diary at Christmas so you will need to ask for this to be added to his/her diary early – up to 3 months or more ahead of your event.
Consider the type and needs of your community as this will affect the type of event that you may be able to or wish to organise. Remember this is about reaching out to your communities, to show the love of God in ways that many may never have seen or known before.
Public Liability – What’s this?
For large public events, the event organiser or landowner will need to obtain permission from the local authority
To hold an event in a public park, you will need to obtain permission from your local council by contacting their Events, Parks or Communities team, or completing an application form via the respective local council website.
Start the process early, as approval times vary from council to council. If unable to provide the required notice, your local council may still consider your application or propose an alternative venue. Generally 6 weeks before the event.
Once your local council has granted permission, you will receive a permit enabling you to proceed with the park event.
Incorporate a clean-up strategy into your planning process to avoid incurring fines from local authorities.
http://tinyurl.com/councildept
https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/
You may not need this if your church already has it as this should cover you – but check
Public liability insurance will cover you for:
Notify the local police of your event – they will tell you they need to know or not.
Do you need a PA system?
If you need electricity for your PA system then you may need to hire a generator. However, it is so much easier these days and portable rechargeable PA systems are now much more easily available. It is possible that this could also reduce the cost of having public liability insurance as there are no trailing wires and less likely to cause trips and falls. These can be obtained from as little as £60:00 in some cases.
Consider if you need music stands, keyboards, projectors, etc.
Don’t forget to get your stock of free programmes for your events from: https://www.shineyourlight.org.uk/resources
Shine Your Light Posters and flyers are available.
https://www.cpo.org.uk/shine-
Shine Your Light invitation cards to invite people to events
https://www.cpo.org.uk/shine-
Plan how you are going to invite people to the event – Consider using the Shine Your Light public flyers for events or invitation cards to hand out to people either immediately before the event – especially useful in town centres and village areas.
Ask your local council to advertise your event in the council newsletters that often go out weekly.
Visit homes with small individual gifts and invite them to come to the event either the same day or within the next few days – don’t leave the days too far apart or people will forget and plan other things.
Make sure your event timings fit in with school coming out times and work times where possible.
Make sure to let the local newspaper know, they do love to cover community events, especially Christmas ones, and share the festivities of Christmas with pictures, they may even send a reporter to cover the story – don’t be surprised! They may also add your event prior to the event to advertise upcoming events.
But remember, you can also be your own reporter, taking photographs of the events, sharing them on the Shine Your Light WhatsApp group or even sending your pictures to your local paper after the event.
Get the local radio station on board as they are likely to advertise the event for you. Do be prepared as they may want to know what Shine Your Light is about and ask you for an interview. If you need any media advice, please email press@shineyourlight.org.uk
– Go on! Spread the word.
Immediately prior to your event, have a short time of prayer together as a team at the event venue.
Have someone who will lead the event i.e. a master of ceremonies to welcome people as they arrive. As part of the event, if it is not at the church, make sure that you invite those in attendance to church. Consider having leaflets, tracts to hand out at your event, business cards are sometimes useful to hand out to advertise your place of worship.
Consider other options available to you to bless people attending or passing by. What you share may be dependent on your audience and the area that you are holding your event in.
Some items that teams like to share with the local people can range from the following:
Events in public places i.e. parks, shopping centres etc- Have members of your team mingle amongst the crowd where possible to have conversations and share the good news of Christmas. You could at this point give away and offer mince pies, chocolates etc. This is when you may have the opportunity to offer prayer and share the scriptures too. Actively be alert and look for these opportunities, always smiling and welcoming in your demeanour. This is a time of celebration of Jesus’ birth and Saviour of the world so do let people see the joy of Christmas and Jesus in you.
Make sure you complete contact forms with details where there are prayers for healing and/or commitment. Ask them if they are happy for you to take some contact details to follow up by your specialist follow up team. Follow up telephone calls should take place within 48 hours at the latest so remember to fill your contact forms correctly.
Make sure you take pictures and videos of the event for further publication by the communications team. These should be uploaded onto the WhatsApp group to share and encourage each other. Remember to document every testimony of healing and salvation .
Make sure the audience knows why you are there. This can be done by verbal communication or you may like to use a banner or other methods of written communication to announce who you are and which church you belong to.
Banners can be obtained directly from the Shine Your Light resources website below.
Shineyourlight Home Page – Shine Your Lightwww.shineyourlight.org.uk
Consider giving away leaflets with your church details added onto and information about your church services over the Christmas period to invite them to. Many people will come into churches during the Christmas period, even if they don’t normally attend. So take the opportunity to welcome them as part of your community, offering help and support as well as sharing the good news of Jesus.
Evangelists are available to attend your evangelistic outreach and these can be contacted by using our contact us form. It is important to send out a clear message of Jesus at Christmas.
Consider ordering and giving away small items that can be obtained from the Hope Together website i.e. https://www.hopetogather.org.uk
This year there are free children’s storybooks to be given to the children in the audience as well as other ideas for you to see.
Activating the clean up team at the end of the event is vital for your reputation and the reputation of all people involved. It can also help to prevent large fines that you could be asked to pay by the local council if litter and rubbish collects in the area of your event.
Leaving the area clean and tidy would also be an encouragement to ask you back again next year.
Do a community “Thank you” to celebrate the event that has taken place. This is where the local radio and newspaper could share your story too. Celebrate everyone that has also been a part of the event and for all the hard work that each individual has a part in. Remember to remind everyone to come to the church for more celebrations of Jesus’ birth and thank everyone for attending.
Do a follow up in the next church service to thank everyone for all their hard work and celebrate each individual’s part. Pray over every contact and for the Holy Spirit to water every seed sown and over every word spoken and every song sung. Continue to intercede as a church for every commitment made at the event and every one that stepped forward for prayer. Committing the event to the Lord and every one that they came into contact with.
Mobilise your contact follow up team to ensure that everyone that made a commitment or was prayed for is followed up by a member of the team. Document details of each person followed up and the person responsible. People that are not within your community area, attempt to put them in contact with their local church where possible to ensure discipleship of all new children of God. Follow up contacts should ideally, where possible, be followed up within 48 hours.
Celebrate all that the Lord has done and all that you have been able to achieve through the strength of the Lord and go forth in strength, courage and boldness for the next outreach event that you prepare for as God leads.
Well done! Vessel of the Lord!! Praise God for all He’s done!!