Ministry
Mission Ideas for Occasional Offices
For some people a wedding, baptism or funerals might be the only time they might step inside a church. Here are some tips to help you build lasting relationships with these visitors, and to give them a positive experience of God's church at work.
Weddings
The Church Support Hub has a great page on Weddings with tips for welcoming and involving families, useful downloads and ideas for building lasting relationships with those getting married in your church.
Why not offer a Marriage Preparation Course for those couples wanting to get married in your church? Nicky and Sila Lee have developed a 5 session course to help couples invest in their relationship. The course is based on Christian principles, but is designed for those with or without a church background.
Care for the Family also offers a Marriage by Design Course, either as a one day course or via a DVD pack.
Maybe you could run the Marriage Course regularly and invite couples who have got married in your church, as well as those already in the congregation. Again this 7 session course is appropriate for unchurched or churched couples, and is based on Christian principles.
Baptisms
Here's another amazing resource from the Church Support Hub, this time on Baptisms. These pages offer a plethora of ideas for before, during and after the event!
Parenting courses can be a really good follow-up for baptism families. Care for the Family offers a raft of parenting courses from Early Years to Teenage Years, as well as courses covering specific issues such as Special Needs Parenting, Handling Anger in the Family and Drug Proofing Your Children.
Funerals
The Church Support Hub offers excellent advice on Funerals. These pages have a host of ideas for bringing the resurrection hope of Jesus into the lives of grieving families.
You could also consider hosting a GraveTalk event - a cafe space organised by a local church to help people consider the big questions around death and dying.
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