How can I use The Father’s Love Letter?

• Talked about in services and handed out for people to share personally to friends and neighbours.
• Posted out to people in a village/town/city.
• Delivered to people street by street whilst praying for the street.
• Given away as part of a local churches together initiative e.g. outreach event.

Top tips

When and where?

• Decide where you are going to deliver The Fathers Love Letter
• Think about when/how you will deliver them. 
• Think about who will deliver them

Volunteers

• What volunteers do you have? 
• When are they available? Some people can manage to deliver to 100 homes in an hour, but if your homes are spread out, you have lots of flats or your volunteers are older, this number might be lower.
• When are you distributing them? If you are distributing at night, it’s important that people do not go out on their own. Different people will be available during the week compared to the weekend.
• Are you trying to distribute them over a period of time e.g. a week/month?
• Will people be able to distribute some each day/week or only once in your time period?
• What sort of building are you delivering them to? If there are flats do your volunteers know how to access them?
• Are you delivering to a small community or a bigger town/city? In a small community, word gets round as people talk to each other!

What format will your Fathers Love Letter take?

• People like to know who has sent out The Fathers Love Letter. So, whether this is an individual church or a group of churches, try to make this clear and consider including a website so that people can find out more.
• Our advice is to keep this as simple as possible and contain everything in The Fathers Love Letter itself. Some churches have delivered The Fathers Love Letter in an envelope with other information/invitations. Be aware that putting things in envelopes takes up A LOT of extra time. 

The delivery

• We encourage you to deliver The Fathers Love Letter by hand accompanied with prayer for the streets and homes as people walk along. Experience tells us that this leads to lots of positive conversations with people. Be prepared to answer questions and share your own story!
•  If you can, try to arrange for a team to be praying for you as you distribute The Fathers Love Letter. This can be a great way for people to get involved and feel part of the team who might not be able to walk the streets.
• If you do pray as you walk the streets distributing  The Fathers Love Letter, consider pinning your prayers on the OIKOS Prayer App Hope for Every Home : The Prayer App

The invitation/follow up

• If you are using The Fathers Love Letter to invite people to something, think carefully about what this is. We have learned that it helps to invite people to something specific and easy to join in with e.g. a coffee morning, a conversation or someone sharing their story. It also helps if the venue is somewhere very well-known and accessible.
• If you are using The Fathers Love Letter as an invitation to an event, think carefully about the format of the event and who it is for. What Christians think will work and would enjoy isn’t always what non-Christians would find helpful and accessible. Make sure you deliver what you say you will, and that people know what to expect. Generally, short, simple with refreshments and a local host is helpful. 
• If a group of churches are working together on the distribution and follow up event, try to avoid each partner explaining who they are! Together is better for everyone! Sometimes the temptation is to honour everyone by giving them equal airtime. Non-Christians won’t appreciate this. Keep it simple, short and accessible. 
• If you have a local evangelist, perhaps someone well-known and trusted in the community, consider asking them to host your event.
• Have people on the door. It sounds obvious, but if people see someone welcoming on the door it encourages them to come in. They know they’ve found the right place!
• Try to use a venue that is used regularly, so that if people can’t make the event but want to follow up the invitation, they will find someone who knows about The Fathers Love Letter to talk to.