How to bring friends to online events

One of the things that’s encouraged me over the past few months is how innovative CUs have been in sharing the gospel, even in a university setting that’s new to us all.

We’ve had to adapt some of our practices – including the way we invite friends to events. Given that handing out flyers and physically bumping into friends aren’t options, what are the best way to attractively get the word out?

Here are two ideas.

Make it personalised

We’re all used to scrolling through endless adverts and invites on social media. After a while, none of them stand out anymore.

It’s totally different when a friend invites us to something personally.

So instead of just posting an unspecific, round-robin message on social media, how about:

• Phoning a friend to personally invite them?
• Sending a more personal message, emphasising why you think the upcoming event would be helpful to them particularly – perhaps like this:

Hi mate, how have you been? I’ve been thinking about the conversation we had last term about how Christians can be optimistic for the future, even when the world faces so many challenges. The Christian Union have actually got an event coming up which touches on a lot of the issues we chatted about. It will also have a question time where you can ask things that I might not be able to answer so easily! I think you’d really enjoy it and we could talk afterwards about it if you wanted. What do you think? Pete

Make it personal

Most of our friends will appreciate hearing about how our own faith is something dynamic and special – let’s give them the opportunity to glimpse our unfolding story.

Instead of just posting a link to an event, could you:

• Write a sentence of two explaining why you’re personally excited for the event, and why you’d love friends to consider coming?
• Even better, could you record a 30-second video explaining how Jesus has made a difference in your personal story in the area of the event’s theme?
• Or if you’ve got your own questions in the area of the theme, explain some of your own hope for getting some answers?

For some of them, it might be the thing that prompts them to encounter Jesus for themselves.