"Epicenter? When's that, again?"

The next Epicenter is this Friday, October 19th, 9:30 PM-ish.

Unfortunately, a whole lot of people don't know that.

I'm afraid, over the couple of months since the Epicenter reboot, we've gotten a little lax about actually spreading the word and keeping people informed. We're working on turning that around at this very moment, and I just wanted to challenge everyone else who's involved with Epicenter to take part in our renewed effort to get the word out. Keep in mind that I'm not talking about generating hype to draw a crowd, I'm talking about seeing that this ministry isn't obstructed by our own laziness.

So, once again, Epicenter is this Friday. What can we do to see that people know about it? Well, I've got a few ideas:

KEEP TALKING IT UP. No duh, right? But seriously, I think we tripped up by making a big commotion about Epicenter at the start of this semester and then shutting up. It's not enough to simply let people know that Epicenter exists, especially since we're not meeting on a regular "church day" or on a weekly basis. We need them to REMEMBER that Epicenter is THIS Friday.

HAND OUTS. I know, Epicenter's done cards and sheets before, but we've got a better reason to do it this time. We're making up some new Epicenter business cards to use as hand outs that will have spaces for you to write the EXACT DATE of the next Epicenter. No longer will people have to figure out when "the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month" is on their own. These are... not done yet, but please use them when they are!

SOUTHEASTERN CAMPUS BLITZ. We all know that Southeastern is pretty much the single largest concentration of college students near Faith. Let's really hit 'em over the head with invites this week! ESPECIALLY Thursday and Friday. The brain of the young college student needs help remembering things, so let's keep reminding them.

START VISITING OTHER COLLEGE MINISTRIES/BIBLE STUDIES/WHATEVER. This is something I've been feeling especially guilty of lately. Epicenter isn't the only thing going on in our area. Several other churches have started up their own college ministries lately, and there's just not a lot of students out here to go around. One of the big things about Epicenter has always been that, while it is a ministry of Faith Baptist Church, it's totally cool for you to come if you're already a member somewhere else. Well, if we're going to keep telling others to come here, then we should be a little more willing to go elsewhere ourselves. Besides, we just might learn something from the other guys!

So, those are just some thoughts to chew on in the weeks to come. Any other thoughts , suggestions, or brutal criticisms are more than welcome, of course. Again, I want to stress that the goal here isn't simply to stir up hype so that we can draw as big a crowd as possible. We want to make sure that those people God has appointed us to minister to aren't denied anything simply because they honestly didn't remember which Friday Epicenter was happening.

~Simon