Mother's Day is May 14, 2023 - Begin planning your Mother's Day outreach opportunities now to minimize stress and to be effective in reaching your community this Mother's Day!

Here are five simple yet effective outreach ideas for Mother's Day!

You may have noticed a trend in the outreach ideas we share. We rarely, if ever, encourage you to put on a big show or invite people to a service. Our heart behind the outreach ideas that we share is that you'll use these to take the love and hope of the Gospel out into your community, meet people where they are, and serve them no strings attached.

Our recommendation - place one or two people in charge of coming up with and organizing these outreach ideas. Take the burden off of staff or key volunteers who are already stretched thin and empower other members of the church to be involved and step into small leadership roles. Give the individuals you delegate this to a concise budget and the freedom to form a team to help them carry out these opportunities - along with making sure the rest of the church is aware in case they'd like to be involved.

1. Roses or Flowers for Mothers or Women
   A day or two before Mother's Day, send a small group of friendly church members to an area with lots of pedestrians - a busy downtown core, outside a big mall, etc. Take flowers or roses and hand out flowers to mothers. Or, if you don't want to exclude anyone, hand them out to all women in honor of Mother's Day.
   
   You can include a small card saying something like "Just a free gift from ABC Church to remind you that God loves you!".
   
   Most likely, this will be a quick interaction, but it'll have a tremendous impact on many women who walk by. A few may even ask what you're doing or get into a conversation with you. A great opportunity to tell them how much God loves mothers.
   
   
2. Dinner or Lunch for Single Moms
   Truly be a blessing to the single moms in your community by holding a free luncheon or dinner for single moms. Make it a mother/daughter and mother/son event, or recruit some volunteers from your church to provide childcare on-site. You could also hold a luncheon during the week while kids are at school (though remember that most single moms are likely working).
   
   This type of outreach is easily scalable. Depending on the size of your church, you could have one large event, multiple smaller events, or empower your church members to do this in their own homes - each inviting one or two single moms (and their kids) that they know over for lunch or dinner on Mother's Day or a day or two before.
   
   
3. Mother's Day Picnics
   Similar to the idea above, but encourage a church family to invite a single mom and her kids for a picnic to honor her for Mother's Day. It's important for the church to empower its members to be intentional about building relationships and ministering to others through those relationships.
   
   
4. Senior Citizens
   As with most days of the year, our elderly who are living in assisted living residences or care homes are often forgotten and lonely. Consider buying real or artificial flowers (and vases), or boxes of chocolates to deliver to the senior women in a care home or elderly residence. They'll be grateful for the visit and will likely be willing to chat. Be sure to give them lots of your time and let them know they are loved.
   
   
5. Flower Pots or Small Plants for Neighbors
   Purchase small potted plants or flowers and empower your church families to personally deliver these gifts to their neighbors with a Mother's Day note attached.
   

Don't wait until it's too late! Recruit a point person to take ownership over a Mother's Day outreach and begin planning it today. This is a great opportunity to begin raising up additional leaders and key volunteers.