Affinity Evangelism

Location, Location, Location!

Where will you hold your events?  A small church attempting to be budget conscious might be tempted to hold all their events at the church because using the church space is free.  And in the back of our minds we think the goal is to get them into church and if they will just come to church for an affinity event they'll start coming to church every Sunday.

Please give serious consideration to holding your events off-site.  Certainly our ultimate goal is to make church going disciples.  But think of AE as a missionary effort to take the gospel to places where groups of people naturally meet instead of bringing people to church to hear gospel.  Many off-site places do not require money.

It's not that your events will go poorly if you hold them in your church building.  But you might maximize your effectiveness by holding them elsewhere.  There are people who might come to your events held at a restaurant or community center but not at the church.  Similarly, there are people that your church may interact with and influence positively for the gospel just because you hold your event in a non-church location.

I'm reminded of a church who holds a youth conference in their city every year -- a fairly large event.  The local mega-church has volunteer their facility but the city begs them to use their arena.  The city loves having the event and says that the church is their "very best customer" all year because they are so easy to work with, most organized and treat the facility well.  The church has a testimony in the public sector because they hold their event in the public and are Christ-like in their dealings with the city

Some events are just more naturally appropriate for a non-church setting.  Gardening events are best done in a garden or farm.  Sporting events might be best done on their appropriate field or arena.  Not everyone in your church is going to be happy with a poker event held in the church fellowship hall or multipurpose worship space.

I've heard of Affinity Events done in office building conference rooms, apartment complex party rooms, bars, community centers, homes, ball fields, flower gardens, museums, houses under construction, restaurants and a host of other places.  And Affinity Evangelism happens successfully in churches also, just look outside the church walls first.

Choose event locations that naturally go with the events you are doing -- places people naturally frequent.