We did a Rave

In years past, I have talked about ministries I have been involved with doing dance parties.  They have proven quiet successful the 2 times I have done them in the past.  Well, this year, we stepped up the dance party into a full-blown RAVE.  What!?!  A Rave?!?  Yes, a Rave!

Early in October, the Campus Pastor at New Life Chantilly Campus approached myself and Creative Arts Director about putting on a Rave at New Life to attract High School students.  Immediately we were sold and began to plot it out.

So, we grabbed a bunch of glow sticks, black lights, lasers and brought in a DJ that goes to New Life to break the music down.  Then we started promoting with postcards/fliers and social media.

So why did we do a Rave and how is this outreach?

• Inviting a student to “youth group” or a Corn Maze is quite different than inviting a student to a Rave.  It’s a different kind of event that will hopefully cause to students to ask the questions, “what is this place all about” and want to come.
• Our goal is to reach as many people as we can.  Some “rave” type students may not come to Church so this opportunity opens the door for us to reach a whole different kind of students.
• We promote New Life and the Student Ministry throughout the night.  We have 3 “announcement times” during the night.  They were short announcements but we talked about New Life, the Student Ministry and what we are offering.
• We had a ton of volunteers committed who wanted to support and love these students that walk through the door.  By their actions, these volunteers shared the love of Christ which will hopefully cause students to wonder, ‘what is this place all about” and hopefully come back.

So we did a Rave and the night went over great!  We had students show up and a fun safe place for them to come and hopefully discover who God is.  Did we get the amount of students we were hoping for?  No, but it was a start.   What I was particularly encouraged about was the amount of our “youth group” students who brought their friends to the Rave.  It was really cool.

We learned a lot of valuable lessons and as we prepare the debrief the night, I know we will make the right adjustments so that our next one in a few months will be even better!

So, what do you think?  Have you ever tried a dance party or RAVE to draw new students to your program?  Why or why not?