Discovery Sunday Outline
Purpose
The purpose of Discovery Sunday is to bring new people to a local Orthodox Church and focus as much of the Liturgy as possible towards informing them of what is going on. This amounts to a 'newby Sunday' verses the potentially confusing situation many visitors experience when attending an Orthodox parish for the first time on regular Sundays of the year.
Preparation and Publicity
Six weeks or more should be allowed before the Sunday for publicity. First and foremost congregation members should be encouraged to invite at least one friend or family member to come to church with them. There is no substitute for one-on-one personal invitations.
Six Weeks Prior to Discovery Sunday
1. Posters/flyers/yard signs should be prepared and printed.
2. Paid ads should be designed and priced.
3. Target one media outlet (TV station, radio station) and ask them to do a feature about Discovery Sunday.**
4. If desired, invite an engaging guest speaker: an interesting deacon would be better than a boring bishop or vice versa.
Four Weeks Prior to Discovery Sunday
1. Have a workday to get the church looking good inside and out: remember the importance of a first impression.
2. Remind each congregation member to invite someone.
3. Contact all local media to advise them of the event so that they may include it in free community annnouncements.
4. Finalize the workers and task for the fellowship luncheon after Liturgy.
5. Plan a full luncheon with a variety of food (including some 'normal' American food for children and youth).
6. Base food quantity on the attendance estimate plus 20%.
7. All presentations should be fine tuned and readied (see below).
Two Weeks Prior to Discovery Sunday
1. Contact all families and ask how many guests they are bringing (reminder and food planning).
2. Have a refresher session with greeters and add a few more for this event (greeter guidelines).
3. Make final preparations for food (amount, who will do what).
4. If seating is limited bring in some chairs for the guests who are not used to standing.
5. Put out some kind of promotional banner at least a week before to alert drive-by traffic of the event (they already know where you are!).
6. Have parking attendants if the regular space is not adequate (plan where they will park).
Last Minute Details
1. Make sure you have arranged a place for an out of town speaker to stay!
2. Have a visitor packet (some possibilities are here) and consider giving a book, card, or a take-home bread of dessert.
3. To get the names and addresses of visitors, have a drawing for a nice (@ $25) prize of some kind.
4. The parish priest should introduce himself and welcome guests just before the Liturgy starts.
5. All of those who bring guests should make sure they introduce them to the priest.
Post-Sunday Tasks
1. Church leadership should meet and analyze how things went and make notes for next time.
2. All visitors should receive some kind of followup (see the list at the bottom of this page).
3. Cross-publicize the next Discovery Sunday with a food festival if you have one (leaflets, etc.) and vice versa.
Presentation Preparation
1. The homily should present a concise, varied non-technical overview of the Orthodox Church.
2. Homily length should be 15-20 minutes maximum.
3. After the felllowhsip meal, have a sanctuary tour and question/answer session (similar to the festival Church Tour) .
4. Consider having some organized activity for children and youth while the tour is going on.
** Notes on local media: do not contact all media to 'do a feature' for a single Discovery Sunday. Choose one area newspaper, one TV and one radio station for the first Discovery Sunday. Next year, choose others or take a 'break' if there is only one of a certain type of media in your community. When all media have been utilized over the course of time, start over. This maximizes publicity by spreading it out and reaching different audiences in different ways. If you have a guest speaker, see if a reporter would like to do an interview him (weekend news is slow and things like this are often welcome).
Purpose
The purpose of Discovery Sunday is to bring new people to a local Orthodox Church and focus as much of the Liturgy as possible towards informing them of what is going on. This amounts to a 'newby Sunday' verses the potentially confusing situation many visitors experience when attending an Orthodox parish for the first time on regular Sundays of the year.
Preparation and Publicity
Six weeks or more should be allowed before the Sunday for publicity. First and foremost congregation members should be encouraged to invite at least one friend or family member to come to church with them. There is no substitute for one-on-one personal invitations.
Six Weeks Prior to Discovery Sunday
1. Posters/flyers/yard signs should be prepared and printed.
2. Paid ads should be designed and priced.
3. Target one media outlet (TV station, radio station) and ask them to do a feature about Discovery Sunday.**
4. If desired, invite an engaging guest speaker: an interesting deacon would be better than a boring bishop or vice versa.
Four Weeks Prior to Discovery Sunday
1. Have a workday to get the church looking good inside and out: remember the importance of a first impression.
2. Remind each congregation member to invite someone.
3. Contact all local media to advise them of the event so that they may include it in free community annnouncements.
4. Finalize the workers and task for the fellowship luncheon after Liturgy.
5. Plan a full luncheon with a variety of food (including some 'normal' American food for children and youth).
6. Base food quantity on the attendance estimate plus 20%.
7. All presentations should be fine tuned and readied (see below).
Two Weeks Prior to Discovery Sunday
1. Contact all families and ask how many guests they are bringing (reminder and food planning).
2. Have a refresher session with greeters and add a few more for this event (greeter guidelines).
3. Make final preparations for food (amount, who will do what).
4. If seating is limited bring in some chairs for the guests who are not used to standing.
5. Put out some kind of promotional banner at least a week before to alert drive-by traffic of the event (they already know where you are!).
6. Have parking attendants if the regular space is not adequate (plan where they will park).
Last Minute Details
1. Make sure you have arranged a place for an out of town speaker to stay!
2. Have a visitor packet (some possibilities are here) and consider giving a book, card, or a take-home bread of dessert.
3. To get the names and addresses of visitors, have a drawing for a nice (@ $25) prize of some kind.
4. The parish priest should introduce himself and welcome guests just before the Liturgy starts.
5. All of those who bring guests should make sure they introduce them to the priest.
Post-Sunday Tasks
1. Church leadership should meet and analyze how things went and make notes for next time.
2. All visitors should receive some kind of followup (see the list at the bottom of this page).
3. Cross-publicize the next Discovery Sunday with a food festival if you have one (leaflets, etc.) and vice versa.
Presentation Preparation
1. The homily should present a concise, varied non-technical overview of the Orthodox Church.
2. Homily length should be 15-20 minutes maximum.
3. After the felllowhsip meal, have a sanctuary tour and question/answer session (similar to the festival Church Tour) .
4. Consider having some organized activity for children and youth while the tour is going on.
** Notes on local media: do not contact all media to 'do a feature' for a single Discovery Sunday. Choose one area newspaper, one TV and one radio station for the first Discovery Sunday. Next year, choose others or take a 'break' if there is only one of a certain type of media in your community. When all media have been utilized over the course of time, start over. This maximizes publicity by spreading it out and reaching different audiences in different ways. If you have a guest speaker, see if a reporter would like to do an interview him (weekend news is slow and things like this are often welcome).
