Before I begin, yes, this is very similar to the Blessing of the Animals. So, if you have done a BOTA you have a real head start.

If you have not been part of my classes, I encourage you to look at this video of the overall process: https://youtu.be/z1TB1VBhq28 .

It is 90 minutes so you might want to take it in segments. Ask me for the slidesromo if you prefer.

Focusing specifically on Blessing of the Gardens (BOTG):

Overall Goal: is always to help people grow closer to God. We may see more attendance as a result but that is the fringe benefit, not the goal. As part of that, increased knowledge about the church is an important step. So if they see things about the BOTG but do not attend it, that is still a positive step.

Goals for BOTG:

1. Have them attend.

2. Have they glad they came and glad they learned about the church.

3. Have them leave contact information so we can communicate with them and influence their decision about whether to return.

Have Them Attend

This breaks into three large categories: involve other organizations, on-line promoting, direct invitations and other methods.

Other organizations: Like the BOTA we think about and invite any organization linked to gardens but expand it to those linked to environmentalism.(Environmentalism is one of the top three concerns for young adults.)

Examples: (contact early as possible – they are busy)

 Garden clubs

 Nurseries (Don’t forget small ones who might show in a farmers market situation.)

 Solar power

 Local high school biology classes

 2 year & 4 year colleges

 County and/or state EPA

 Country and/or farm bureau

 Master gardeners

 Extension agents

Basic Principles

• Grab their attention.

• Every person is bombarded with thousands of messages every day.

• Our brain makes priority decisions all the time about which message we will pay attention to.

• Church is not high on most people’s priority list!! Actually, it is not a priority at all.

• We need to find a word, phrase, graphic that grabs a person’s attention, and then a message which keeps their attention.

• 0.5 seconds (half a second or less) to grab their attention.

• 3-5 seconds to keep their attention.

• Graphics work best with only a very few words.

• Questions work better than statements.

• Blessing of Gardens == mildly interesting

• Blessing YOUR Garden == bit more interesting

• Would you like your garden blessed? == will grab more attention

• KEEP their attention

• Your building’s address is of NO importance until they decide they are interested.

• This very much applies to general church announcements. Many churches waste extremely valuable space on Facebook, Google maps, etc. by focusing on their physical address and service times.

• The headline and opening sentence will determine if you meet any of your

• We can’t promise a bumper crop – but you never know! Churches have long focused on caring for the environment, especially of farms and gardens. The blessing of soils is an ancient Christian tradition.

• How do/can you impact the environment? We will host an environmental festival,which will include displays by many environmentally concerned organizations and a chance to have your garden soil blessed!

• Notice I got to the word ‘environment’ in under 3 seconds! If I grabbed their attention at first, then it is likely they heard that the church is concerned about the environment whether they attend the day or not.

• MAINTAIN their attention.

• You grabbed their attention and kept it for 5 seconds. Now the challenge is to maintain their attention for 10-30 seconds to get them interested in the event, whether they ultimately attend or not. Remember, the primary goal is creating a good impression of your church. Attendance is well down the priority list.

• Your address, times, dates, etc. are still not essential. They come last.

• What would interest “them”? Imagine “them” as a person who does not know your church and has a somewhat negative impression of churches in general.

• ‘festival’ is always an intriguing word: A festival focused on environmental concerns, including a blessing of your garden soil. Then after the headline:

• “Displays and fun for adults and children.”

• “If you want, we will bless a container of soil for you to bring home.

Afterwards you can wander around learning about solar power for homes, garden tips from an extension agent, what our high school & college students have studied, and so much more! A food truck will be present.”

• “See our website and/or Facebook page for more details about attendees.”

• NOW provide the details.

• Don’t forget to provide your church name, physical address, event date, times, and

any other relevant details.

• Include a web address to a page specifically about this! = landing page (ask for examples) They won’t be happy having to search your entire website. QR code show jump them to that specific page.

• Build a Facebook ‘event’ which can be shared and has all the information. This can be updated as new commitments are made. (ask for video tutorial)

• Depending on the platform used, a QR code can work great, i.e. on a poster.

• INVITES

• We’ve all heard that personal invitations are most effective. Most churches find

members are more willing to invite friends to something like this than to a Sunday

morning.

• Provide them with something informative to hand out. A 3” x 5” card can

be printed in the office on heavy paper, 40# or heavier (so it is not as easily

lost). That should allow enough room to include interesting information.

(Staples ‘you print it yourself’ is a good deal)

• Remind them that all they need to say is “I think you might like this!”

• Create multiple graphics to use as posts.

• Post every couple days starting two weeks before in as many social

media locations as possible.

• Ask/beg/cajole people to share your posts.

• Also share them using the “@” sign. “@JamesBrown” will go to

James Brown’s notification, telling him it was sent from a friend. You

can use multiple “@” signs on one post.

• Check for both general FB groups “what’s happening in YourTown” for

example and special focus groups “ flowers in YourTown, County” Take a

few minutes and search under ‘groups’ for as many locations and words as

you can think of.

• Don’t forget to invite groups that meet at your church, including 12 steps

and day care. Give them handouts to give to friends.

• Remember – you must grab their attention in 0.5 seconds from 6’ away.

• Think about where people interested in your topic might gather – garden

clubs, nurseries, home stores and post posters.

• General gathering places are less effective, but worthwhile if you have time.

• Create a QR code to your Facebook event or landing page and include that on the poster.

• Apartments and condos frequently have bulletin boards next to their mailboxes. Post the Monday before.

• Strongly encourage all organizations that attend to share on their communication platforms. Example, the garden club has an email list and maybe a website or Facebook page. They can reach many more people than you can.

 You too can be in the newspaper or on TV!

 This is an unusual event so may get coverage. It is very visual, so TV is possible.

 If you don’t have the ‘principles for press releases’ paper, please ask.

 Can you think of a reason for a TV or radio ‘personality’ to be present. With a decent reason they will send their weather people to lots or events. If so they will talk about it before and after.

 ‘principles’ paper talks about how weeklies can be your best bet, but don’t ignore the dailies.

 Good to give the smaller outlets lots of lead time.

 People love free things! Ask the nurseries, etc. for a few plants and then raffle them off.

Use the contact card as the raffle entry so you get their information.

 Typically, the extension agents, etc. have lots of handout materials. Mention the most interesting ones in your promotions.

 An extension agent or master gardener might be willing to make a short presentation. The ag agent would be free. The master gardener might do it to build a reputation. If so, announce this. The presentation could be a separate post(s) linking back to the main event.

There are two goals:

o Get the church better known in a positive way.

o Collect contact information from new people and stay in touch.