PRAISE REPORT: Over 250 teens attended. Over 60 brand new visitors. And at least 7 teens SAVED that night!

If you’re researching how to do a great Back to School Bash, I’d love to give you our 2 cents on how God blessed us with a powerful one! We first tried doing Back to School Bash’s on Saturdays. We tried inflatables, we tried worship services, we tried no worship services, we tried a huge private pool, we tried to keep middle and high school together, and we tried separating them. But this year, everything just seemed to come together so well.

We planned our Back 2 School Bash on the 3rd Wednesday that the teens had been back in school. That allowed the word to get out and anticipation to build. We decided to try it on a Wednesday this year because we are a “Simple Church and Student Ministry” so we want all of our events to surround the most important thing we do…weekly worship services. We also did it on a Wednesday because we wanted to show all of our guests and visitors EXACTLY what we do every Wednesday in our worship service. We didn’t bring in a guest band. We didn’t bring in a guest speaker. We didn’t do anything different. We wanted to show them EXACTLY who we are, what we do, why we do it, and what they can expect every Wednesday.

We had the students come in at 4pm, and they could start hanging out, eating, playing on the inflatables, etc. We got the coolest inflatables we could find (about 6 of them) for the most affordable price. We also got the cotton candy, pop corn, and snow cone machines under a huge 20×40 tent. We didn’t do any water games since we’d have a worship service that night. I know…we’re lame like that ;). We served a free all-you-can-eat hotdog supper at 5pm, and just let the teens romp around until 6ish. Then around 6:10pm, we gathered them up in front of our student building, gave a few instruction, let them come in, all while our awesome band just jammed some crazy stuff. At 6:25pm the countdown started, and at 6:30pm the crunk worship service began. We kicked it off with a hilarious video, then a crazy game, and the rest of the service was an hour and fifteen minutes of intense WORSHIP and the WORD. We found the students weren’t just looking for fun, games, food, etc. Rather, they were looking for a real experience and encounter with the living King and Lord, Jesus Christ. We preached the gospel HARD that night to both unbelievers (for salvation) and believers (for sanctification). At the end of the 45 minute challenge (which you can listen to a couple posts down from this one: “Is Moti IMPORTANT to God?”), we gave them the opportunity to step out the back, and talk to an adult about salvation. Here is our B2SB PRAISE REPORT: Over 250 teens came out, over 60 brand new visitors, Over 275 people total in our building, and at least 7 teenagers gave their lives to Jesus Christ through His gospel of repentance of sin and faith in His death and resurrection.

At the end of the service, we did do a PRIZE drawing of around 5 gift cards for $20 each to various places around, and one gift card for $250 to Target (good to both girls and guys). I don’t think the prize drawing was even necessary. We could have done without it. But it was a fun ending to an EPIC NIGHT. And I hope this helps you organize your own B2SB that brings glory to Jesus as well!