how to motivate kids to invite their friends title slide — Photo by Ashton Bingham on Unsplash

So many times, at Christmas and Easter, my church pushes for the congregation to invite their friends to church. Being in NextGen ministries, I wanted to participate and challenge my students to do the same. However, I knew that giving them a stack of invite cards is not going to be enough.

Yes, some kids will go out and naturally invite their friends, but many will let the cards line the bottom of their SUV. I knew I needed some kind of incentive to motivate them to invite their friends. I’ve already written about why I believe giving a smaller prize to everyone is better than the one big prize, so I wanted something that was cheap enough to give a bunch of kids and also have a WOW factor.

That’s when I discovered Mega Candy Tubes from Five Below. If you don’t have a Five Below around, you can also get them from Amazon. These foot and half tubes look huge and have significantly more candy than a normal bag. Even better, most of them are only $5.

image of mega candy tubes — Image from Sweet Pete’s Candy Shop

Using these tubes, I developed a strategy for incentivizing kids to bring their friends three times a year.

1. Pick strategic times to invite kids

There are certain times throughout the year when people are more open to attending church than others, two of which are Easter and Christmas. These are times when people are thinking about traditions, family, and even their beliefs and are much more likely to say yes when invited. I like to leverage these times as well as a month in the summer leading into VBS.

You can pick your own times that work well for your church and community, but I wouldn’t do it more than once a quarter or it’ll become white noise.

2. Promote for a month

Picking a strategic time is great, but Easter and Christmas are just one Sunday. Even if you do this for VBS, that’s still one week. You need to give more time to build excitement and interest. So, a month before the big event, start advertising and giving away tubes of candy. For Easter that may be the whole month of April, for Christmas, all of December.

By running the promotion the whole month, kids and students begin thinking about who they’re going to invite and see what they could win. Many times, a guest can’t come on the big day, but they can come the week before or after. I want to celebrate the fact that one of my kids invited a friend and they came regardless of what day it is.

3. Give to kids and their friends

This is my favorite way to give things away. Not just the guest, or the one they invited, but both. Yes, it costs twice as much, but I’m rewarding two different things, the invitation and the first-time guest.

Sometimes a guest will come, and the siblings will want to take advantage of the reward. This can get a little tricky, but a few questions can help me decide the best way forward.

Is the guest a friend of the kid who invited them or the whole family?
How many kids are in the family?
Are the parents ok with everyone getting a mega tube?

If the guest is just a friend of the inviter, then only the kid and the guest get the tube. If the guest is a family friend, then I need more information. If there are more than 2 kids in a family eligible for a mega tube for one guest, then I’m going to ask the parents discreetly what they would like to do. It’s a lot of candy and sometimes parents don’t want a literal pound of candy coming into the house.

The final consideration is how many I have in stock. If I’m running low, I may award one tube per family just to make sure that I have enough for other guests. If I’m afraid this might happen, I may not give away the tubes until the end of service, so I’ll know if I’m short or not.

However, many you give out, be as generous as possible. Everyone enjoys a cheerful giver.

4. Celebrate success

At whatever time you give away the tubes of candy, make sure you make a big deal about it. I’ll use the tubes as part of my décor so kids can see and be reminded of what they need to do to get one. Then I’ll take a part of the service and let the kids and their guests pick which one they want.

A lot of times, we don’t want to call out guests and make them feel singled out, but I can’t think of a time when a kid refused to get a giant tube of candy. You don’t have to do a full interview. Just thank them for coming and let them pick which one they want. Special note: stay away from Smarties and Double Bubble. In my experience, the kids don’t want these and pick everything else first. Anything sour will be a winner.

During the promotion, I also give out the mega tubes to regular guests. I may let them pick one out at the end of service or when everyone else does. What I don’t want is a guest to get upset because they didn’t get a tube just because they weren’t “invited.” In a perfect world, every week you’re giving away a few of these mega tubes. Kids see and want them and then go invite their friends.

When all is said and done, talk about how many guests came and how many were invited. If you have some brave kids or students, ask them to tell their story of how they invited their friends and how they felt when they came. Use those stories the next time you use the promotion.

Getting your kids and students to bring friends is more than growing your ministry. It’s growing the kingdom. They’re stepping out of their comfort zone and thinking about people around them who need Jesus. Then when guests come, they experience the love of Jesus in every aspect of your service as they hear the good news.

Jesus said we will receive power to be his witnesses in all of Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth. Getting kids to invite their friends is witnessing in their Judea. They’re practicing a major element of discipleship.

What have you done to motivate kids to invite their friends? What has worked for you? Let me know in the comments.