Friends Contest

One of the best momentum builders I stumbled onto when I was in youth ministry was something we called "The Friends Contest".

The basic idea was that whoever brought the most friends to our mid-week gathering during the months of September and October would win a prize.

Here are the basics of how it worked:

• We started it at the beginning of Sept. (1st or 2nd week).
• We ended it on the last mid-week gathering in Oct.
• Anyone could win (including a guest who comes for the first time).
  
• We announced the winner gave out prizes at the mid-week gathering the week AFTER the end of the contest. (This encouraged guest to come back one more time
  

We gave out 3 levels of prizes:

• 1st place $45 gift certificate to Old Navy (or any clothing store they like)
• 2nd place $20 gift certificate to Local Mini-golf/arcade place (or other favorite place)
• 3rd place $10 gift certificate to McDonald's (or any fast food place they like)

(**I personally liked giving out certificates instead of money, so I could control what it was spent on.)

Each week we would say who was in the lead, mention the prizes, and remind people that anyone could win.

Most years the students would really get into it and bring a lot of friends (everyone once in awhile it wasn't as successful, but usually was). It would also cause people to keep inviting friends throughout the year.

During this contest, I planned special things for our gatherings that would appeal to visitors and be events that people would want to invite friends to.

This was a BIG key to making it work. If you don't have something worth inviting friends to, then you won't be able to pull this off.

**I'll post some ideas about the kind of special things we did for these gatherings tomorrow.

Check back tomorrow!

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