The Sad Truth About Church Events

“Every project wants to fall apart and every project wants to be bad. They have two instincts that you’re always fighting against. Make it better. Hold it together.”

When Nina Jacobson said this on the Without Fail podcast she was describing her job as a film producer but THIS IS UNIVERSAL.

Every church event WANTS to fall apart. I used to think all I had to do to make a successful outreach was to put it on the calendar and post about it on social media. That might not be the dumbest thought I ever had but it’s up there (when I was little I thought I could trick my friends into thinking I was the star of Home Alone).

Think about it like your big event is actively working against you. That'll keep you on your toes. You can’t afford to assume anything. Volunteers will drop out, people won’t pay attention to social media and completely miss the announcements, and it’s probably going to rain.

I’m really bad about assuming too much. I assume people know things without me ever communicating them. I assume things are possible without checking ahead of time. 

You have to make sure you have enough time to develop, plan, and prepare this event.

You need a team who can handle some of the responsibility because it’s easier for a big event monster to defeat you when you try to tackle it on your own. With a team you can attack from all sides.

If it’s the first year you’re doing this big outreach event, imagine it’s a baby. You wouldn’t throw some clothes into a baby's room and expect them to get dressed and ready on their own. You’ve got to be hands on. If you’ve been doing an event for 5 years, you can probably treat it like a 5 year old. They’re able to do a lot for themselves but they still need some supervision. If you’ve been doing the same event for 18 years, maybe it’s time to kick them out of the house and try something new.

Every event is trying to fall apart. If we go with the baby analogy, every event wants to poop its pants and throw up all over your nice clothes and ruin your plans.

If we believe in our event we’re willing to fight the good fight, get our hands dirty, and make sure it’s a success.

Want to make sure you believe in your event? Here are 3 questions to ask in the planning stage.

3 Questions About The Comedy Outreach Event

In a previous post I shared 3 questions to ask when planning your next church event. I thought I’d answer them about my 3 night comedy outreach event.

Why this?

It is a totally unique approach to outreach. We’ve never done anything like this before and it’s important to try new things.

We all know people who are closed off when you invite them to a church service but they might be more open to an invitation to a free comedy show.

It’s an event the whole church can get behind, bringing together youth and adults.

It’s be a great way to open conversations within the church about vulnerability and the importance of being open and honest about what’s going on in your life and it’ll train the congregation on how to be there for each other and bear each others burdens.

It’s an event that tackles heavy issues in a way that doesn’t feel scary or intimidating. The laughter makes it all more approachable.

Why here?

If we want to see growth, discipleship, and stronger community in our church we need to start with an emphasis on confession. Community is built when our walls come down and we let people in to our lives and see us for who we are, mess and all.

If we want people to know Jesus can pull them out of the darkness of their struggles, first they need to know it’s ok for them to admit they’re struggling in the first place.

Why now?

This one depends on when you want to schedule the event.

Maybe you’re wanting to relaunch small groups and this could be a great event to get people plugged in. Maybe it’s in the Spring and you want to have a big exciting event to announce to all the new people who show up on Easter Sunday.

You know what God is doing in your church this year. You know the best place for an event like this to fit in.

I really believe in this event. It’s the most effective way I partner with churches for comedy shows. I’d love to be a part of what you’re doing in your community.

To book an event, contact me.

Biggest Misconception About Christian Comedians

There are a lot of misconceptions about Christian comedy. “All Christians who are comedians suck” is the most obvious one. Usually I’ll hear about this from people who come up to me after a show to say “Man, I thought that was going to be terrible but I had so much fun!” Thank you?

But there’s one misconception I really want to help erase from pastors’ minds.

"My church isn’t big enough to host a comedy show."

I totally understand where this thought comes from. You don’t want to invest all this time, energy, and money into a big event and end up with a tiny audience. Laughter is contagious and you’ve got to have a crowd in order for a comedy show to be successful. If you don’t think you can pack out your auditorium and have as many people as you’ve seen in the crowd on Netflix comedy specials, why even bother?

But here is the truth: it is not the size of the crowd that matters. It is the size of room you put them in.

You can have an incredible show with a ton of energy and excitement with an audience of only 40 people. You just have to put them in the right room.

Put 40 people in a room that fits 500 and it’s going to be awkward. It’ll feel empty. Everyone feels disconnected from each other. The laughs won’t be as loud and the energy feels low.

But if you put those same 40 people in a room that BARELY fits 40 people and it’s a totally different show. Everyone is close together. You feel packed in. There’s excitement because the crowd looks big in that room. The laughs are louder because they’re contagious.

The size of the room is really important.

When I did my tour of house shows I’d perform for 30 people and it felt AMAZING because we were packed into a living room.

If you want to plan a comedy show at your church, figure out how many people you think you’ll have attend, and choose the room you’ll have the event in based on that.

If you only have access to the main sanctuary, use pipe and drape to curtain off back sections to make it feel like a smaller room.

I promise it’ll make a difference.

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Want to book a comedy show at your church? Contact Taylor Johnson, a very funny comedian and all around nice guy.

3 Questions When Planning Your Church Event

I’m reading Chris Gethard’s new book Lose Well. In one chapter he gives the three questions he asks himself whenever starting a new creative venture.

WHY THIS?

WHY HERE?

WHY NOW?

If he’s able to come up with clear and specific answers to all three, he trusts that it must be thought through enough to pursue.

If I can’t explain why a thing is necessary in this time and place as its creator, I assume anyone asked to consume it will be confused as well.

The same is true with church events. Do you want people to come on board as volunteers and help make it happen? Do you want people to attend the event and invite people to join them? You need to have strong answers to those 3 questions.

If you’re not there yet, that’s ok. It doesn’t mean you scrap the idea all together. Maybe you just need to flesh it out or move some elements around until it fully clicks for you.

You’re the first person you have to convince that the event is going to be worth it.

Some times I’m afraid we’re too easy on our ideas. It’s not enough to think to yourself “Yeah. Sure. I guess that could be good. We need something on the calendar and I can’t think of anything else. Let’s go with that.”

We need to answer those questions. And when things get hard and we reach those moments where we realize just how much work it’s going to take to pull it off, we can look back at our answers to motivate us to keep going. “This is worth it. This is worth it.”

I’ve also answered these questions about my 3 night comedy outreach event.