One of our desires as a BCNet Evangelism Committee is to provide collegiate directors with ideas for evangelism on their campus. We have provided ideas in four categories: First Contact, Conversational Outreach, Community Integration, and Gospel Proclamation. We hope that the following Conversation Outreach event will be useful to you and your students!
MATERIALS
To host a Cheesy Joke outreach on your own campus, you will need the following:
- Boxed Mac n’ Cheese
- Whiteboard/Letterboard
- A Google Form
- A gift card to raffle
- Flyers with your ministry’s social media information and upcoming events
- Tape
- Smartphone or Ipad to fill out Google form
- Access to Email/Wifi
- A canon of your own cheesiest jokes
PRIOR TO THE EVENT
Before the event, prepare the boxes of mac n’ cheese. Tape your flyer of upcoming events to the outside of the boxes, so that you can point your cheesy joke giver to information about how to connect with your ministry further. Next, create a sign, like “Got a cheesy joke?,” that alerts people that your agenda is pure and innocent. You also will need to prepare a Google form that will allow you to document the cheesy jokes and collect students’ contact information for your give card giveaway. This Google Form should, at minimum, include the following: First Name, Last Name, Preferred Pronouns, email address, Instagram handle, phone number, major, and their cheesiest joke. We also encourage you to include a question or two about their beliefs surrounding religion and spirituality. Two questions that we included on our form are: “1. If you could meet and talk with the God of the Bible, would you want to?” and “2. What would you most want to ask Him (the God of the Bible) about or discuss?” This information helps us to better prepare for our Gospel appointments when we follow up with the students we met while outreaching. Additionally, you’ll want to decide if you are going to raffle a gift card away to the cheesiest joke. If so, you’ll want to go ahead and decide where the gift card will be from so that you can advertise it to students during the outreach. Students in our context love supporting local business, so we generally choose a local pizza place to stay with the cheesy theme.
DURING THE EVENT
This outreach is best done in pairs. Both individuals can take turns initiating conversation with students, but one person will be specifically tasked with carrying the mac n’ cheese and inviting the student to the future events listed on the flyer and the other person should be holding the friendly sign and preparing the Google Form for the student to fill out.
A FEW MORE IDEAS
- If a student doesn’t know a cheesy joke when you approach them, you can offer them a cheesy joke out of your own personal canon, so that you still can have a meaningful connection with them. The student can then write down your cheesy joke to enter the raffle.
- Depending on the food rules while outreaching on your campus, you may be able to actually offer students cooked mac n’ cheese on the spot. This will likely draw a lot of engagement, especially during lunchtime! You might be able to set up the mac and cheese boxes that you simply add bowling water to. In this case you would additionally need an electric kettle and an outlet.
- Share the cheesiest jokes on Instagram with a specific hashtag related to your ministry!
- Connect with local business owners in your area and see if they are willing to donate a gift card for your outreach.
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