Retreats, lock-ins, outreach nights, and parent events. We asked why ministries run them, where the ideas come from, and what makes them hard.
of ministries run three or more major events a year.
run five or more.
Events are a lot of work, so it's worth asking what they're for. The answer splits almost down the middle: fun and relationship building on one side, discipleship and teaching on the other. Outreach, parents, and volunteers trail behind.
of ministries
of ministries
Neither is the “right” answer. Relationships are where discipleship happens for a lot of kids and teenagers, and the fun night is often the one a friend gets invited to. What matters is knowing which one a given event is for.
Collaborating with a team is the most common source of event ideas. Only mostly repeat last year's calendar, and just start by asking kids or teenagers what they'd want.
The best focus group for a youth event is already in the youth room.
The most common struggle with events isn't budget or ideas. It's recruiting the volunteers to run them, named by .
One finding runs against intuition: leaders running five or more events a year report less exhaustion than those running two or fewer, even after accounting for church size. Read “More Events, Less Exhaustion” →
Based on responses. Event purpose, idea source, and biggest struggle are each single-choice questions.
Comparisons are simple cross-tabulations with no controls. Every figure is generated from the response data rather than typed by hand. Explore every events question →