PITTSBURGH (BRN) – As a new church that desires to engage the campuses in our city and start a new campus ministry, the week before and the week of the first week of classes are incredibly strategic and important.

In August of 2023, Steel City Church in Pittsburgh set a plan to promote three specific events in the beginning of the week: a free lunch meet/greet, a kickball game and a cookout.

The cookout was intended to be a relational-building event that was an easy invite to anyone we met during the week. We tabled multiple days with free coffee and bagels, we gave out free food, we put up flyers with our information and we blasted these events on social media.

The cookout itself was our most successful event of the week.

We reserved a parking lot across the street from the main freshmen dorms. We served grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, drinks and popsicles. We saw people whom we had met throughout the week stop by, and we also met many other new students who were walking by.

Some took the food and left, while others stayed around and played one of our many games we set up: cornhole, Giant Jenga, tossing a football, mini-pickleball, etc. Overall, we estimate that we saw about 65 students at the cookout.

One of these students who ate and stuck around is from China. He went to a private high school near Philadelphia and is a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh.

When asked about his relationship with God, he confessed that sometimes he believes in God, and sometimes he doesn’t. I got to share the gospel with this student, wrapped in my testimony of thinking God wanted my good works and then realizing the freeing beauty of grace. This student and I exchanged numbers, and he has expressed interest in coming to church this upcoming Sunday! I got a few other people’s contact information, but this student was by far the most exciting.

This event was also a cool opportunity for some of our connected students to invite their friends. I got to see the value of students inviting other students instead of just me inviting everyone.

Also, this event provided a cool opportunity of discipleship for many young-adult members of our church. We have all been trained on sharing the gospel, specifically through our discipleship groups, but I think this was a new experience of strategic evangelistic engagement for many people.

Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!