This past week, Oneighty, the youth group of Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK), had their annual youth ministry conference, Elevate. I had an opportunity to stop by and hear a session by Blaine Bartel on promoting big events. Blaine was the founding youth pastor of Oneighty and under his leadership the youth ministry reached about 3,000 students weekly.

In his session, he explained how big events were one Oneighty’s primary evangelism tools over the past ten years. While the promotional ideas he discussed were good, the highlight of his talk was two simple truths that he learned from creating big events for Oneighty.

1. Keep it good week to week.
   If you have a great place, people will keep coming back. If you do your ministry well week to week, you will maintain a higher average attendance after big events.
2. Know your seasons.
   Understand which seasons of the year are most effective for outreach (and big events). A seasonal slump for one church may be a season of thriving for another church. It depends on the culture of the region. Don’t be discouraged by seasonal slumps. Use slumps to focus on building your core students.

Big events are useless if you do not do church well week to week and you do not understand what seasons will generate the greatest response.

Blaine Bartel is currently the senior pastor of Northstar Church (Frisco, TX).