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Jesus has welcomed us into his family, he’s accepted us. We want our CUs to be known as places where people are welcomed, loved and invited into conversation about things that really matter. One big way this happens is through excellent events.
Current restrictions stop us from doing things as they’ve always been done. This gives us an exciting opportunity to rethink how we reach our campuses, online and in small groups of people. Creating that warm, relaxing atmosphere online can be really hard. We’ve put together some things to think through as you plan online events for your campus.
Two things to consider:
For each event you will need to decide:
- How much gospel content to include – lots on Jesus or more a social vibe.
- How you’re going to host it – totally online or ‘phygital’ (part physically, part digitally)
Some questions to help decide
How many people can currently gather outside / inside? - this will always be changing so keep an eye on the news and talk to your Staff Worker about making wise plans ahead of time.
If you gather physically - what safety precautions would you need to take / promote? - you’ll need to think through hand washing facilities and social distancing measures.
What skills do you have amongst your CU membership to help you put on these different types of events? Do you currently have enough people to fill all of the technical roles? Who might you need to train up?
What kind of event are you running? What are you trying to achieve?
- Livestreaming a lunchbar (using Sli.do for questions) could be a great way of replicating invitations on social media that you’d normally make to those just passing by the event on campus.
- Hosting a games night on Zoom would allow the chat and relaxed atmosphere that you’d normally have amongst friends on an evening in.
- Livestreaming an Acoustic Night scattered with testimonies would be a great way to facilitate CU members hosting a night in for their flatmates, and would give them opportunities to start conversations about Jesus.
- Running a follow up evening on Zoom would give those asking questions a safe space to be honest and for good friendships and conversations to start.
So, which will it be?
Read on for more guidance on how to do each kind of event well…