It’s Trunk or Treat weekend!  If your church is hosting a Trunk or Treat, you are probably finalizing your checklist this afternoon. Below are 10 things that need to be on your checklist if they aren’t already…

1. Recruit a few more volunteers ahead of time for your registration team.

Even if you have a pre-registration process, by the nature of the event you will have walk ups.  Make sure to capture complete contact information by having your registration team fill out cards FOR your guests.  By enlisting a few extra hands, you can eliminate a bottleneck at the registration table. Your registration team will be able to get complete and clearly written contact info to follow up on your guests.  Parents with their hands full will appreciate not having to fill out a card while keeping an eye on their littles.

2. Offer bottled water and/or snacks to your volunteers

Taking care of your volunteers is so important.  Showing them how much you appreciate them makes a difference now and in the long run.

3. Provide bags for kids who may have forgotten to bring one.

There is always one.  Be prepared and save the day for the kiddo who is brokenhearted that he won’t be able to load up on candy.

4. Enlist designated candy runners.

If you provide candy to your cars, recruit volunteers ahead of time to be candy runners.   This will keep your cars always manned and alleviate stress on your part. Also have someone ready to run to the store in case you need more candy.

5. Sneak in a few more ways to share the Gospel

It takes an abundance of creativity to present the Gospel at a Trunk or Treat.  The distractions are endless, and since you are likely not the only stop of the day, they don’t want to stay long. In addition to a traditional Gospel presentation consider adding the following…

  • Strategically place a variety of tracts and church invites at cars throughout the trunk or treat
  • Enlist volunteers or staff whose job is to walk around and engage guests in spiritual conversations. (We’ve had great success with this!)
  • Give out church info cards with a QR code to a Gospel presentation video.

6. Open your buildings for bathroom access

This is just another opportunity to meet basic needs. A visiting family will take into account how accommodating your church was at the event and equate it to any potential experience on a Sunday.

7. Have a hot cocoa station for guests if it’s cold outside.

This is a nice gesture to keep people warm and set you apart from other Trunk or Treat events.  This is also a great place for your volunteers to intentionally have follow up conversations. (How did you hear about our Trunk or Treat?  Where do you attend church?  We’d love for you to be our guest on a Sunday!)

8. Have trashcans set all throughout the event.

Parents, volunteers, and your grounds crew will thank you for this.

9. Have music playing.

If you can have an outdoor sound system, play uplifting, Christian music.  By doing so, you create a positive and upbeat environment.

10. Fine tune your follow up plan

Fine tune your follow up plan before the event even happens. This typically changes the way you interact with guests at an event. Enlisting people ahead of time to engage with guests and establish relationships will help make follow up seamless.  This can be through your Gospel conversations team, your hot cocoa table team, your line greeting team, your registration team, etc.

Are there any other things you would add? Let us know in the comments below.  Also let us know if you are hosting a Trunk or Treat event this weekend and we will pray for your event!