Contents
Getting started
Before you start planning an event in earnest, there are some important things to consider:
- Initial discernment – We hope this will be a viable, exciting, Spirit-filled event for lots of churches across Britain and Ireland, but it won’t be possible or appropriate in every context. Do some initial thinking and praying around the suitability for your setting. If you sense it’s a good opportunity, start bringing others into the conversation.
- Understanding the process – How would a decision about an outreach event be made in your context? Is there an existing evangelism/outreach committee or task group to approach? Try and identify which meetings and people will be key to making something happen. If you are a lay person, be sure to consult the relevant minister at the earliest opportunity.
- Looping in the right people – Are there any scientists or amateur astronomers in your congregation who could offer an interesting perspective? Who are the great logistical minds? Who are the brilliant conversationalists who would make great hosts?
- Considering collaboration – While individual local churches can hold viewing events, the Day of Outreach will be a perfect opportunity for collaboration across a circuit or even a district in some places. If you have strong ecumenical partners, this might even be an opportunity to do something with them.
We’ve decided to host an event, what now?
One of the first things you can do is let us know! Fill in the form on the Methodist Day of Outreach webpage – this will allow us to point people who come across wider advertising to your event and allow us to get in touch for good news stories and feedback around the Day of Outreach.
Once the church/circuit has agreed to an event, put together a planning team specifically for the Day of Outreach, unless you already have a group that can shift its focus towards it.
Try and make sure your planning team includes people with different perspectives and skills. If you are establishing a group just for the Day of Outreach, it might be a good opportunity to include people who don’t have capacity to serve in roles all year round but might for the time-limited nature of this group.
For an event like this, try to define roles for different people such as a project manager, comms/advertising coordinator, activity coordinator, safeguarding lead, follow-up lead, and logistics coordinator. Clarity over roles – particularly who has ultimate responsibility – can be very helpful in event planning.
Share Jesus International produce an excellent booklet ‘Making Your Church Event a Success’ which may be useful to you for planning this and future outreach events.
Plan all project meeting dates (potentially even identifying the purpose of each of those meetings) and identify other key dates and deadlines you need to keep in mind from the start.
Initial listening and discerning – what is yours to do?
Know your ‘why’
In your first meeting as a planning group, it is crucial to clarify exactly why you are holding your event. Without a clear purpose, outreach events often fail to connect to the wider mission of the church, lack coherency, and are very hard to evaluate and reflect on afterwards.
The Methodist Church in Britain and the Methodist Church in Ireland are piloting a Day of Outreach for several reasons. Ideally your event will align with these purposes, but it might be that your outreach has additional or more specific goals, or places more emphasis on one of these than the others:
- To increase faith-sharing confidence among Methodists by facilitating a valuable ‘gateway experience’ of evangelistic outreach (ie it’s good practice and a learning opportunity, independently of immediate outcomes).
- To warmly share something of the good news with people outside of church and offer them avenues to explore faith and Christian community.
- To meet and build relationships with new people in communities.
- To feel connected as a broad Methodist community by joining in with something together.
Make sure to have a conversation at the start of your planning about the primary reason you are holding your event – everything else should flow from that. Check back in on this at later meetings to ensure you aren’t drifting from what you set out to do. Have primary goals and secondary goals but make sure you know which is which.
Target audience
As well as clarifying your ‘why’, identify early on who your event is primarily for, as this will have implications for your advertising and potentially the content of your event.
One benefit of basing an outreach event around the eclipse is that it will have interest and appeal across generations, geographies and cultures, and we would certainly encourage intergenerational events where they are possible.
Think about the people and groups outside of church you already have relationships or contact with that you could invite directly. This could be building users, local community groups, people who come to your warm spaces or food pantries.
You may want to advertise more widely and have a broad audience, but gear your event towards people you know you can invite personally.
Thinking about your intended audience might affect your event in different ways – for example, if you have connections with families with younger children, you might want to give your event a party vibe with lots of activities and noise without much talking from the front. Alternatively, it might be that the people you have connections with would value a more quiet, reflective space with lots of room for silent contemplation of the eclipse and gentle conversations.
Why not consult or even co-create the event with people in your networks, building users or parents of youth groups as you plan your event?
Praying for your event
An undercurrent of prayer throughout your planning and delivery is essential, but particularly in your early planning stages to leave space to listen and discern any promptings of the Spirit. God is already at work in your deliberations, creative thinking and logistical ponderings, but prayer helps keep us aligned with the reason for our planning, and makes room for feelings, images and nudges that we may not otherwise open ourselves up to.
In addition to praying at the start and end of your meetings, think about other ways you can cover your event in prayer – perhaps in worship and small groups as well as your planning group. Creative prayer ideas can be found here.
Naming your event
You may want to simply call your event ‘Solar Eclipse Viewing Party’, ‘Eclipse Experience’ or something similarly descriptive. Or you might want to give a more creative, abstract name that links with your vision for your event, such as:
- Lift Your Eyes
- Gather in Wonder
- Consider the Heavens
Identifying a location for your event
Where to hold your event will be a key decision in your planning, and it is a decision that should be made with your ‘why’ and intended audience in mind.
Here are some questions to consider:
- Where will you definitely be able to see the eclipse? The sun will be fairly low in the sky at the point of maximum totality (between 10–14 degrees from the horizon) so you’ll want to choose a venue where the sun will still be visible in the west at this point of the evening. There are helpful websites that give more detail about the eclipse in precise locations.
- Is your church building/grounds appropriate? If you are well-located in your community and have a good-sized garden, it might be that your church is a good location, not least because of the indoor weather contingency option this would give you. However, think about the trade-off involved here – people may feel less comfortable coming to an event in a church compared to a public space.
- Are there any ideal public spaces locally where might people already be gathering? Think about your local area and which places are accessible by plenty of people, have good lines of sight, and are known in the community. It may be that the most interesting viewing spot in a local area would be the same for multiple churches, so make sure to coordinate locally if this is the case.
- Do you need to obtain any permissions? Be sure to obtain the relevant permissions if you are holding your event outside of your church grounds. Even if you want to hold the event in a public space such as a park, it is still worth contacting your local council for permission – this should not be an onerous process but may require giving plenty of notice.
Making your event safe, accessible and inclusive
Viewing the eclipse safely
You MUST NOT look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse, without proper eye protection. Make this clear to people attending your event, even though they are ultimately responsible for their own and their dependents’ safety.
The best way to view the eclipse safely is by using eclipse glasses made precisely for this purpose, and we recommend purchasing enough to hand out to people at your event. It is important that eclipse glasses meet the recommended ISO 12312-2 standard, so make sure to check before you order.
You can find and order certified glasses on amazon.co.uk and edmundoptics.co.uk.
While eclipse glasses give you the best view of the sun, there are other creative ways of observing the eclipse that you can turn into a fun activity before or during your event, such as using a colander or a pinhole projector. Some good ideas are available on the Space Centre website.
Complying with standards and regulations
Eclipse-viewing events shouldn’t require huge amounts of form filling or coordination with public bodies, but it is worth checking the guides below once you have an idea of what you want to do at your event to check if there is anything you need to bear in mind.
You should also check whether your church’s insurance would cover the kind of event you are planning. In most cases churches will be covered but, if not, it may be appropriate to take out a one-off public liability insurance policy for the event.
Organising a voluntary event: a 'can do' guide - GOV.UK
Top tips for holding a public event in your community | Local Government Association
Providing food at community and charity events | Food Standards Agency
Safeguarding
Here is a ‘Model Activity Risk Assessment Template’. A risk assessment should be completed ahead of your event to help you think through how you might prepare or respond to certain occurrences at your event
It is also important to have a designated safeguarding lead for your event. This could be the minister, church safeguarding officer, or someone else with advanced safeguarding training. Their responsibilities should include:
- ensuring they are familiar with the Methodist Church's safeguarding policies and procedures
- having safeguarding oversight, before, during and after the event
- reviewing the activity risk assessment so they are aware of any potential areas of risk, safeguarding or otherwise
- being on site during the event – all volunteers should know the name of the safeguarding lead and be able to contact them
- being proactive and monitoring the event – moving around the location so they can spot any potential safeguarding issues
- ensuring they gently challenge any behaviour or actions they see that may be safeguarding related
- dealing with any safeguarding incidents and giving advice when appropriate
- recording any incidents and liaising with statutory services in an emergency and/or high-risk situation
- linking with/consulting with the ROS and/or giving feedback
- reviewing any incidents after the event to inform future events and learning.
Ensure your event is in line with your church’s safeguarding policy, and that everyone attending is informed at the start what they should do should a safeguarding issue arise.
Contact your Regional Officer for Safeguarding if you have any specific concerns or questions regarding your event.
Making your event intergenerational
Further resources for intergenerational engagement will be available on the Methodist Day of Outreach webpage in the run up to the event, but here are some things to consider:
- Since this falls in the school holidays for most, how might you link your viewing event with any other events (eg holiday clubs) that are already happening? If you are not holding your own, how might you advertise to families locally?
- Could you use youth group/Sunday school/junior church sessions before the eclipse as a chance to start exploring some of the themes with young people, or to make pinhole cameras to use at the event?
- Make clear in your advertising/at your event that adults are responsible for their young people at all times – this will help make clear the event is for all the family as well as saving you from the additional responsibilities that arise from unaccompanied children.
- Think about follow-up with children, youth and families – could you have a science/faith-focussed series aimed at children or youth groups after the event? Helpful resources are available from Messy Church and God and the Big Bang.
Planning follow-up
While outreach events have value beyond what they might lead to, and God may use our events in unexpected and beautiful ways, give your event a stronger chance of becoming steps on a discipleship journey by plotting out some accessible pathways for people we encounter. This should not be an afterthought but a crucial part of your planning.
To do this successfully, ensure you have something else to invite people to soon after the eclipse. Particularly if you are meeting some people for the first time, signposting them to something else might be your only chance of staying in contact.
It may be that you already have regular activities in your church life that it would makes sense to invite people to, and you may have done some work on discipleship pathways already – you will know best what makes sense in your context.
These are some possible options you may want to make use of:
On The Way
On The Way is a new short course, available from June 2026, designed for people who want to explore Christian faith in an open and accessible way. On The Way is rooted in A Methodist Way of Life, offering space for honest conversation, reflection and growth.
If you’ve ever considered running a course for enquirers (such as Alpha or Christianity Explored), then be sure to check out On The Way as a refreshing, innovative option.
Sunday Service 16 August
If you are confident that your weekly worship is a space in which newcomers are welcomed and faith can be explored or rediscovered, then you might want to make the most of the Sunday(s) immediately following the eclipse as something to invite people to.
Suggestions for making each element of a service intentionally newcomer friendly, as well as ideas for worship on 16 August, will be available in June on the Resource Hub. This will be signposted to from the Methodist Day of Outreach webpage when it becomes available.
If you choose to invite people to your Sunday services, think about any small changes you might be able to implement to make sure your church is welcoming and accessible for newcomers.
Other considerations
Give people more general ways to stay in touch and aware of what the church is doing, such as through an email newsletter or by following you on social media. You can order ready-made welcome cards from Methodist Publishing for your event to help you stay in touch with people, or you can adapt some digital templates that will be available on the Day of Outreach webpage by the end of May. These templates will help you both advertise another event in your church calendar and gather contact details.
It is also worth considering that children, youth and family follow-up will look different – see the Intergenerational section for ideas of events you could invite these groups to.
Advertising your event
Think about how you might promote your event early in the planning process.
The following are some routes of advertising you might want to consider:
- Direct invites – These are almost always the most effective. Really encourage your congregations to invite friends and family, highlighting that this is a lower-barrier-to-entry event to invite people to compared to Sunday services. Think about who else you can reach out to directly such as user groups of your building and other community groups.
- Posters – You will be able to adapt and print a template from the Day of Outreach webpage in the lead up to the event, or you could create your own. Think about where you could place these beyond just your own church buildings.
- Social media – Editable social media templates will be available to download from the Day of Outreach webpage. Explore posting in relevant community groups across different platforms as well as on your own social media accounts.
- Traditional media – Considering reaching out to local radio or papers who might run an item and give your event more exposure.
- Third-party advertising – Think about who else might promote your event through their own channels, such as astronomy groups or community forums.
In all your advertising, make sure you include:
- date
- time
- exact location
- the fact it is a free event
- how to make contact
- how to book (if relevant).