8 Ways to Run a Successful Midweek Church Event

Midweek church events are a great opportunity for your community to come together, learn, worship, pray, and fellowship outside of Sunday morning. 

They can also be a lot of fun–and provide a much-needed pause from the busyness of the week to focus on God and seek rest in His presence. 

For church staff, however, midweek events can represent an administrative burden. Events outside of Sunday morning require additional communication and logistical and operational planning. 

To host a successful midweek church event, you’ll want to be strategic, thoughtful, and detail-oriented. Here are 8 things to keep in mind. 

1. Give vision. 

You probably have a core group of committed church members who attend just about every event, including early morning prayer meetings, small groups, weekend services, and of course, midweek services. 

But there’s also a portion of your church who don’t come to every event. For these members and visitors, you’ll need to help them understand why they should take time out of their busy weeks to show up at church. 

“I personally would want to go to a midweek church event, but not everyone’s on that page,” says Dana Whitney, church member in San Diego, CA. “People have to say ‘no’ to something else to say ‘yes’ to a midweek event.”

Giving vision for your midweek event can help people understand why they should show up at church on a Wednesday night. Get people excited, tell them what they can expect, and encourage them to seek God and connect with community all week long–not just on Sunday morning. 

2. Make it special. 

Hosting a midweek event is your opportunity to do something different than you would during your regular Sunday morning service. Remember that you don’t have to follow a specific structure or guideline for a midweek service, as attendees may have different expectations on a Wednesday or Thursday evening. 

“During a midweek service, you can have a different emphasis, or offer or provide something that you can’t get on a Sunday morning,” says Audrey Kelley, head administrator at All People’s Church in San Diego. “As a church staff member, one thing I love about midweek services is that if someone comes even once and has a positive experience, that’s a win.”

Take the midweek opportunity to dive a little deeper into prayer, spend more time in worship, or cover a specific topic that you might not talk about at length on Sunday morning, such as:

• Marriage/singleness
• Missions
• Parenting
• Finances
• Kingdom-minded business 
• And more...
  

You can also mix it up by asking church members to join a panel, feature a special speaker, or even facilitate small discussion groups around a specific topic. Be creative! There are no hard rules for a midweek service. 

You may also want to take advantage of the opportunity to encourage attendees to meet new people at the event. Those of us who aren’t morning people might feel a bit more social and relaxed in the evenings–and might be more willing to pray in groups, meet new people, or even participate in sermon demonstrations. 

Finally, midweek events can be a wonderful opportunity to reach out to friends, neighbors, and coworkers. It can feel intimidating for a non churchgoer to attend a Sunday morning serve, but a casual Wednesday night meeting might provide a more seeker-friendly environment.

3. Create a brand around your event. 

Branding simply refers to the tone of the messaging and graphics surrounding your event. 

Is your midweek event meant to be a fun, refreshing time to fellowship? Then you might want to choose a light color palette, fun graphics, and playful messaging. 

Or is your event a deeper dive into prayer and intercession? You may want to choose darker, bolder colors and a more serious font to communicate the gravity of your event.

In any case, your branding needs to be consistent across all communication assets–whether that’s a social media graphic, email campaign, flyer, or graphic for your website and app. That helps to create effective touchpoints and reminders for church members to learn about your event.

Ultimately, event branding gives people a reason to get excited about showing up to church on a weeknight. It also reinforces the branding you’ve already created for your church (If you’re interested in learning more about creating a brand for your church, read our article on “Why Church Branding Matters.”)

4. Get the word out. 

Once you’ve created branding around your midweek event, you’re ready to get the word out. 

Marketing your midweek event will involve several channels:

• Digital. Digital marketing is not only effective; it’s expected. If your church members hear about an event, they also expect to see it marketed online.
  

That being said, you’ll want to market your event across all digital channels, including social media accounts, email marketing, your website, your app, and anything else that might apply. 

• Word of mouth. Word of mouth marketing is still super effective. To encourage your church members to tell others about the event, talk about it at small groups, leaders meetings, Sunday morning services, and more. 
  

• Flyers & postcards. Good old fashioned paper marketing still works. Create flyers and postcards that you can distribute on Sunday morning and hang up around town. Just make sure they’re consistent with your digital marketing assets.

Whether you’re marketing your event online or talking about it on a Sunday morning, make sure to include all necessary (and accurate) details regarding time, location, registration, and cost (if applicable). 

Finally, think through timing. If your midweek event doesn’t happen for another month or two, you may want to wait before releasing information about it. But don’t wait too long either–you’ll want to give potential attendees enough time to plan for it and put it in their calendars. ‍

5. Organize & delegate. ‍

To successfully run your midweek event, you’ll need to carefully organize what’s happening, when it’s happening, and where it’s happening ahead of time. The last thing you want is to feel like there’s chaos or confusion because of lack of planning. 

Successful organization relies in part on delegation. Delegate leaders for every part of the event, including registration, parking, greeting, seating, worship, and set up/tear down. Then, give these leaders a vision and a plan for how you’ll execute–including practical tools for communicating during the event.

Next, you’ll want to consider how you plan on using volunteers for your event. If you’re using volunteers for parking, greeting, or registration, then make sure to recruit a team well ahead of time. Equip these teams with walkie talkies, badges, registration lists, and anything else they may need. 

You’ll also want to think through factors that may not typically apply on a Sunday morning. If you’re not providing childcare, for example, then give parents a plan (or a heads up) for managing their kids. Or, if your event is in a different location, then consider how new traffic patterns, parking, or even security concerns might affect your event. 

Finally, make sure that at least one staff member or leader knows the “bigger picture” for the event. This person can be the touchpoint for issues regarding logistics, flow, scheduling, and more. 

A church management tool like Tithe.ly’s ChMS can create a foundation for successful organization and delegation, by:

• Providing a platform to manage and communicate with church members…
• Creating easy and efficient workflows for planning and administration…
• Making it simple for volunteers to check in….
• And more. 
  

Ultimately, starting with a digital platform like Tithe.ly can keep everyone on the same page for your midweek event and make it simple and stress-free to plan, delegate, and follow up. 

6. Rehearse. 

Rehearsing can always help set you up for success–especially if you’re running an event that’s a little out of the ordinary. You don’t have to run through the message entirely, but it can make sense to rehearse worship and run through the components of the evening.

To plan for a successful rehearsal, make sure to communicate time and expectations for rehearsal to staff members and volunteers, if applicable. Again, Tithe.ly’s ChMS can help facilitate rehearsal by creating easy and efficient workflows and communication. 

7. Give people a chance to give. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to give vision for giving at your midweek event. 

One of the most powerful aspects of giving is that people get to give; they don’t have to give. In other words, giving shouldn’t feel like drudgery or obligation. It should feel like a privilege and a gift. 

A midweek service can be a great time to address this, as it’s also outside of the “obligatory” feeling of Sunday morning service. You may find that church members are a little more relaxed and open-minded at a midweek event, and even more receptive.

Use this opportunity to talk about giving to a special project, missions, or the local community–and then make it easy for attendees to respond. Tithe.ly can make it convenient and efficient to give a gift, through offering users….

• Six different options for giving
• The ability to give via text message (great for events!)
• A “Quick Give” option for making it super speedy to make a donation
• And more…
  

Make sure to give vision for giving before you ask people to give. Scripture, testimonies, and even financial updates are all powerful ways to undergird the purpose of giving. 

8. Follow up. 

Midweek events are not an afterthought or an extracurricular activity. They’re a powerful opportunity to encounter God and to grow together!

That being said, follow-up to a midweek event is critical. 

Follow-up ensures that members or even visitors don’t just show up and forget about what they’ve learned or experienced. Follow-up helps attendees respond. Follow-up can even help your church grow and thrive. 

Here’s how you can execute follow-up at your midweek event:

• Ask people to download your app. If your church has an app, a midweek event is a good time to tell people about it...and to give easy, clear steps for downloading. 
  

A church app can also give existing members and new visitors a way to receive updates, give, listen to teaching, and more. 

• Talk about Sunday morning and small groups. You may have visitors at your midweek event who don’t regularly attend Sunday morning service or small groups. Make sure to communicate details about time and location for other events–and help people get excited about getting more plugged into your church!
  

• Create relational touchpoints. What are many people looking for when they show up at church? They want to learn about God and experience Him...and they also want to connect with others. 
  

Create touchpoints for people to connect with others during midweek events. And that can be more than just the “greeting time” at the beginning of a service (although that’s a great idea!). You can also assign leaders to greet people as they walk in, to seek out visitors who may not know anybody, and to pray for others as the service ends. 

In any case, give people a way to respond to what they’ve learned and experienced at your service, and help them to keep feeling connected after the event ends. 

Running a Mid-Week Church Event with Tithe.ly

Tithe.ly can provide you all the tools you need to run a successful mid-week church service, with:

• Church management software (ChMS) to help you manage members, workflows, volunteer check-in, and more to help you prepare for your midweek service. 
• A custom app to make it easy for your members to get updates on services, listen to sermons they might have missed, and connect with other members after the service. 
• A giving platform to make it simple and efficient for members to give during your midweek service. 
• A church website to give important information on your midweek service, and provide a touchpoint for people after the service. 
• And more…
  

Tithe.ly will save you time, money, and an administrative headache. But more than that, it will help you put on a more successful service–and leave more room for what’s really important: connecting with God and with the Body of Christ.