What is the beginning of your program year called? Rally Day, Celebration, or Gathering Sunday? Does it include all your target audience? How does it describe what is happening?

Celebrating the beginning of the program year can set the tone for the year to come. Here are some questions to help you think things through.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

• Do you have faith formation ideas and plans for all ages for the coming year?
• Do you center on children, youth, young adults, or adults?
• Do you have a theme for the fall or year?
• What is your goal of inviting your specific group? (To raise funds, promote faith learning, serving the community, involving youth, attracting new members, bringing back old members, fellowship, introducing teachers and assigned rooms, service projects (God’s love in action), beginning your classes, or fun?)

Rally Day can invite your specific audience to “kick off” the classes, events, service projects, and fellowship opportunities that are planned. Decide who your invitation is targeting and then the strategy, communication decisions, and title, will flow more easily.

What Can You Do on This Special Day?

Depending on who you are inviting, there are almost unlimited possibilities to offer.

Rally Day can include activities like:

• Parades, games, food, bouncy houses, special music, carnival, etc.
• Community appreciation for first responders.
• Community service event, or an opportunity to go out to meet with the community where they gather.
• Breakfast gathering for everyone or a potluck supper with outdoor movie.
• Snacks in the classrooms and a fun, interactive game for kids to play to get to know their teacher and the other students better.

These are great ways to set the tone for programming to come.

Design your ideas for decorations, food, service projects, music, and gifts for teachers this week around your theme.

What Do You Call This Celebration?

Once you have decided on your audience goal, the title of your event can reflect your specific invitation and tone for the year.

Rally Day is a traditional title that might resonate with your mature crowd, and they will recognize it is the beginning of the program year. Be aware that depending on people’s history with this term it could limit their understanding to mean it is only for children and youth.

There are other titles of this day that could be considered, such as: Celebration Sunday, Small Seeds Sunday, Meet the Teachers Sunday, The Gathering, Welcome Sunday, Homecoming Sunday, Kick-off Sunday, Dedication Sunday, Fall Reunion Sunday, Scavenger Hunt Day, Love in Action Sunday or Funday.

Each title gives a different invitation to varied age groups. When you decide your target audience, the title can reflect who is invited. If you have an educational theme planned, the title can announce that topic in your title.

Communicating Your Rally Day Invite

When you have decided who your target audience is, your title for the event, and what you will do on that day, you are ready to communicate the invitation.

Solidify the facts of when, where, what, and why to include in all invitations. The what and the why should appeal directly to your goal audience. Short, sweet, and to the point will often be read and remembered more easily than long narratives.

Think about announcements and invitations that you recall and why you remember them. Did you want to bring your family? Invite your neighbors? Try to capture that attraction.

People pay attention to different types of invitations so plan on sending varied types such as snail mail, emails, videos, announcements in worship, and hanging posters around your church and neighborhood gathering places.

Grace & Peace

Kirsten Patterson

About the Writer

Kirsten is an educational professional with 28 years of experience in communities of faith, skilled in motivating, teaching, and team building. She has demonstrated expertise in building an arc of faith formation and educational opportunities from age 2 through adult. This has included fellowship, outreach, and intergenerational and age-specific classes.

With Spirit & Truth Publishing, Kirsten is happily employed as a writer and collaborator.

This blog post is part of a monthly series of practical advice for faith formation leaders by faith formation and education professionals. Summaries of these posts are sent in a monthly email to email subscribers. Subscribe today!