Table Of Contents

Paper Plate Outreach Concept (It is good to use heavy duty paper plates.)

History of the Paper Plate Outreach (Do I need to know what happened years ago?)

Planning the PPO Before Inviting the Guests (Planning cuts down on my creativity and flexibility.)

Selecting Guests to Invite (Will the dinner guest be fun?)

Inviting People to the PPO (Setting up a dinner date.)

Prepare a Schedule of Things to do for Planning and Conducting the PPO (Planning, Planning, Planning.)

As People Arrive (Acting like you have things under control.)

Menu - Let Guest Customize What They Eat (Let the taste buds rule.)

Serving Only Dessert at the PPO (The taste of sweets and sweets.)

Menu Concerns for Guests That Are Diabetic, Vegetarians, Dieting, etc. (Let the guest rule the menu.)

Keep Children Occupied (The sweet victory of keeping kids out of trouble.)

Questions for Ice Breaker and Discussion Starters (Being nosey with dignity.)

PPO Miscellaneous Tips (A little advice gained the hard way.)

Sunday School Class Fellowship Ministry (Why isn’t the fellowship efforts of the Sunday Schools acknowledged as being worthy of a church leadership position?)

The PPO is an Extension of the Sunday School Class (Behave in a manner that will honor God.)

Perform an Evaluation of the PPO in Order to Better Plan the next PPO (Plan for the future by evaluating today.)

Designing Your PPO to Reflect Your Personality (Do it your way. That is what the song says.)

Go To Sunday School and Visitors Page

Paper Plate Outreach (PPO) concept was developed and used by us. The idea of serving a meal on paper plates was selected so the focus would be on relaxing fellowship and not on the china, glassware, silverware, table decorations, etc. The PPO is simple and effective. We were not sure how our guests would respond to us serving a meal on paper plates. We were very pleased at the positive manner our guests responded to our simple approach to sharing a fellowship meal.

Serving people on paper plates did limit what we served. We could not serve hot food and any food that required a sharp knife to cut such as a steak.

Dale served as Director of the Adult I Sunday School Department. We had not been at the church very long and were still learning people’s names. After thinking about how we could get to know people and especially the visitors, we decided to invite people over to our house for a meal.

We thought about inviting a visitor’s family and a department member. Our dining table seated six people which meant that we could only invite the adults and no children. We did not want a visitor to have the expense of a babysitter. We decided that we would take one of two approaches when we invited people to eat with us. If the visitor had children, we would only invite the visitor’s family to our house. If the visitor did not have children, we would invite them and a couple from the department. If we were eating outside, the number of people attending was not a concern. You can always ask the visitors to bring a couple of folding chairs.

We decided to put a time limit on the visit. The time limit would enable the guest to plan on when they would get home for the children’s bed time. When setting the time, we had to consider that some people do not pay much attention to when they arrive for a meeting. We would ask them to arrive at an unusual time such as 6:25 p.m. Asking people to arrive at an unusual time seemed to help focus people on the time. A fact of life is some people are seldom on time.

The total time for the PPO was set for two to two and one-half hours. For our planning, we planned to start eating about 30 minutes after the guests were to have arrived, allowed an hour for the meal and dessert, and used 30 to 60 minutes after the meal time for fellowship.

We decided to host a PPO once a month on a Friday or Saturday night. At times our schedules were busy, and finding a weekend for a PPO was a challenge. We would look at our calendars and select several days in the future for hosting a PPO. These days were blocked off so nothing else would be planned on these days.

We realized that we did not have “kid stuff” to keep children occupied. We started looking at what would we need to get so we could accommodate children. We purchased a high chair, a booster seat, place mats for children, toys, books, etc. Thrift stores were good places to shop.

Since most people like to drink coffee or hot tea, we purchased a coffee pot. We could make hot water and let the guest use instant coffee or tea bags. We were not into putting too much into serving coffee since we do not drink coffee.

Planning will become easy after you have planned and conducted a couple of PPOs.

Things to consider are:

●          Determine the results you want to achieve through the PPO.

●          Decide if you are inviting people to visit you to eat a meal and dessert or just eat dessert.

●          Decide how much time you want to have the people spend with you.

●          Determine if you will have the PPO on a weekday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon or night, or Sunday.

●          Identify the PPO’s possible start and end times.

●          Determine the potential dates and times for the PPO. Having a variety of dates and/or times will enable you to expand the options so you can fit into other peoples’ schedules. If possible, select potential future dates for a PPO.

●          Select the potential guests.

●          Determine the potential menu. With an established menu, you will be able to ask questions to determine if there are any conflicts with diet concerns or dislikes of food by members of the invited family.

Select potential guests for the PPO and place a priority on which is to be asked first, second, etc. The potential guests can be visitors or members. Sometimes you may not have a visitor to ask so invite a member.

You are looking for a match of guests to the potential dates and times. If the first selected guest is not available, you proceed to the next guest on the list. Tell the guest that can’t attend the PPO that you will contact them the next time you set up a PPO. Even though they can’t visit you, you will make a positive impression on them. If you have thought ahead, you can set up a time for them to visit you at a later date. Remember you are trying to fit the visit into the guest’s schedule.

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Before calling a guest to invite them to attend a PPO, make a list of the menu, dates, times, questions you may need to ask. Tell the guest you are inviting people to visit you so you can get to know them. Tell them if you are inviting the complete family or just the adults.

Share with guests the possible dates and times along with the potential menu. If an acceptable date and time are selected, ask if there are any conflicts with the menu and the taste buds of any of the family members and adjust the menu accordingly.

If possible, follow-up the phone call with a letter or e-mail expressing regret that they cannot visit you or confirm the date, time, the menu, directions, street address, telephone number. About three days before the PPO date, contact the guests with a phone call or e-mail to restate the facts about the PPO and tell them you are looking forward to their visit. If needed share special instructions about which house door to enter, parking, etc. Ask if the guest any questions.

It is possible that the invited guest will not be able to give you an answer when you contact him. Give them a couple of days to get back to you with an answer. If they cannot attend, you will need time to contact other guests.

It is a good idea to prepare a schedule to help you plan what you need to do to get ready for the PPO. Separate the schedule into what is to be done before the day of the PPO and what has to be done the day of the PPO. Making a detailed schedule will help reduce what you forget.

●          Introduce guests to each other and your family members. Be sure to include the children in the introductions.

●          Point out where the bathroom is located.

●          Share data that will help the guests understand what will be happening and when.

Select appropriate age oriented drinking glasses, plates, and forks and spoons for the children.

Plastic flatware is a good match to paper plates. Clean up is easy by using paper plates and plastic flatware. The plastic flatware can be thrown away or washed and recycled.

The basic meal consisted of a sandwich, baked beans, chips, condiments, dessert, drink.

Originally, we had two sandwich menus.

            1. Hamburger and hot dog.

            2. Make your own cold cut sandwich - ham, bologna, salami, etc. If the children did

                        not like the sandwich meat, we fixed a hot dog for them.

We used a six-inch sub sandwich roll for the cold cut sandwich. We found that normally, the women and children would eat one sandwich and the men would eat two sandwiches. Teenage boys would go for two sandwiches. We made sure we had fresh bread for the sandwiches.

We did not serve anything that we did not like to eat so it would be easy for us to use the leftover food during next few days.

We would plan to have more meat than would be needed so a guest could make a sandwich with just one type of meat or a slice of each type of meat. He could make the sandwich any way he wanted.

The normal condiments were lettuce, tomato, pickle, cheese slices, tomato ketchup, mustard, and sliced onions. Sometimes we would vary the condiments or flavors such as types of mustard, cheese, etc. Red sliced onion is prettier than white onion.

There are so many chips to pick from, but we normally chose plan potato chips, barbeque chips, and corn chips. The main idea is to give the people a choice of chips.

Sometimes children are into their own world about what they will and will not eat. Macaroni and cheese is an option to the menu if you are faced with a child that is picky in what he will eat.

The PPO used the fact that people like the idea of being able to customized things to their particular taste. “Make your own” concept is good to use in when planning the food for a PPO. This gives the guests the ability to make the food fit their taste buds.

Potential PPO “make your own” meals are:

            Cold cut meat sandwich.

            Hamburger.

            Salad.

            Taco salad.

            Ice cream sundae or banana split.

We would serve several drinks from which people could select such as a cola, a fruit flavored drink, diet drink, tea, etc. Sometimes we would use canned drinks and other times we would use bottled drinks.

Before eating the dessert, we would let people know that we had instant coffee and tea if they wanted it. For some people, instant coffee is not acceptable.

The dessert served with the meal should be easy to serve. Ice cream with cookies or brownies is a good and simple dessert. Remember that the guests after eating the main meal may not be able to eat very much dessert.

If small children will attend the PPO, plan for spills and dropped food. Do not serve anything can cause a stain or is hard to clean up.

If you decide to eat outside, have plans to help control the flies around the food.

Pray before the meal. Ask one or several of the kids to lead in a prayer.

An easy dessert is make your own sundaes or banana splits. The variety of the toppings you serve will make it fun for the guests to decide what to put on the ice cream. With the ice cream, you can serve cookies or brownies. You can serve ice cream with cakes and pies.

It can be fun to creatively plan a dessert PPO menu. There are many dessert salads that can be served. Serve what you like to fix and eat.

The best thing to do is to share the menu with the guest and ask them to tell you what they can, cannot, and will not eat. Some guests are very strict in sticking to what they will eat while other guests are not as strict.

A bored child can get himself into trouble. Prepare potential plans you can use to give a child something to do when you detect he is starting to be bored. A well-behaved child when bored can get into trouble. Children like to help so put them to work.

Children will finish eating before the adults so have a planned activity for the children when they finish. Be sure to keep the children in view of the adults.

Having several planned activities for the children, is a way to help control the children of parents that do not keep a close watchful eye on what their children are doing. Sooner or later you will have to deal with this type of parent. Planning ahead is the easiest way to help you control the children without having to confront the parents.

VCR and DVD players can be excellent devices for controlling the attention of children.

Your home will be new to the children and the “new” things will cause the children to want to touch and look at things they do not see at their home. Be alert to the things that are located in reach of little fingers.

Children like to run, jump, climb, explore new places, etc. It will be good to have a first aid kit in easy reach if they fall and scrape a knee, an elbow, etc.

If you have children, they can be valuable tools to help control the guest’s kids.

If you are eating outside, do not allow the guests’ children to spend time in the house alone.

Before eating, have each person at the table answer three questions. The answers can be used as discussion starters. Getting people to talk about themselves is a very good way to make them feel important and get them to have a good time. Ask about their interests, hobbies, work, school, where have they lived, sports, favorite TV programs, places to go, where their parents live, favorite store, color, music, where were you born, what states have you lived in, what states have you visited, what is your least favorite household chore, what kind of work do you do away from the house, schools attended, favorite subjects (kids like to talk about school-good and bad), etc.

A good question format is to ask a question with a blank that the guest has to fill in and end the question with a “Why.” The questions will generate data about the person and additional topics for conversation. Keep the questions light and objective. Stay away from politics and emotion-based subjects. Be sure to involve the kids, because it will make them feel important if they get to express their ideas, likes, and dislikes.

To keep the conversation moving when needed, it is a good idea to plan, before the PPO starts, ten questions you can use to jump start the conversation. At the PPO, it will be all right to ask a visitor to the SS class about why are they visiting the church/Sunday School, why are they looking for a new church home, what they are looking for in a new church, how they have been active in churches in the past, etc.

Before starting the meal, let the guests know what will be served as dessert so they will not eat so much that they will be too full to eat dessert.

Having established an ending time for the visit, gives you the opportunity to have a reason to close the visit if it is not going good. If the visit is going good and the guests seem to not be wanting to leave, you can always invite them to stay little longer.

Strangers visiting your home.

         Close the doors to rooms you do not want people to visit.

         Some people are very nosey so do not be surprised if someone starts looking

                       throughout the house.

         If there are any guidelines you want to have for the children and guest, feel free to

                        share them.

Do not turn on the TV while the people are there unless it is used to keep the children occupied.

Background music is optional. Do not use background music if you have to spend time keeping the music going. If you are eating outside, do not use music because it may invade the neighbors’ yards and houses.

It is all right to involve adults and kids in setting the table.

Tell the guests that all they are to bring to the PPO are themselves. If you invite them for a second visit, you can invite them to bring something to eat.

Invite the guests to help clean up the table after meal and after dessert.

Create an atmosphere that is informal. To help establish an informal atmosphere, have something sitting/laying around that you have to pick up or move after the guests arrive. They will understand not having time to get things “perfect” for visitors and they will feel relaxed.

If the guest decides to invite you to his home, the informal atmosphere of the PPO will enable him to feel like he does not have to have an elaborate meal. It is their choice if they decide to use an elaborate table setting and menu. If they suggest that you eat a meal with them, say “That will be nice, tell us when.” The informal atmosphere will generally encourage an invite for you to visit them.

It is acceptable to talk with the guests about joining the Sunday School class and church.

PPO and its fellowship ministry are an extension of the ministry of the church even though the fellowship ministry of a Sunday School class receives little emphasis. The fellowship ministry has the potential of being one of the most powerful outreach ministries of the church.

The Rick Warren books, “Purpose Driven Church,” and “Purpose Driven Life” places importance on the fellowship of the believers. A strong Sunday School membership fellowship helps develop the fellowship foundation of the church. A strong fellowship is key to the effectiveness of the church’s individual ministries. The cohesiveness of the church members does not come from the Sunday morning worship service, but it comes from the friendships and fellowship generated through the small groups that operate under the Sunday School umbrella.

The PPO is an extension of the Sunday School class reaching out to guests and members. The planning of the PPO including the conversations’ topics is to reflect that the PPO is associated with the Sunday School class and church.

Alcoholic drinks should not be served at the PPO. If you drink alcoholic drinks in your normal social life, remember that the PPO is more than a reflection of your social life.

After the guests have left the PPO or no later than the next day, review what happen during the PPO. Did the PPO achieve the desired goals/objectives? What do you think could have been done in a different manner so the PPO would have been more effective? What will you do differently when you plan your next PPO? Record your evaluations and decisions so you do not have to trust your memory.

Now is the time for you to invite people from the Sunday School class to your home, it is time for you to establish yourself as a “know it all“ for how you will develop your own PPO. You can change the name of the concept to define your approach.

Take the idea that you are going to get to know visitors to the Sunday School class and learn more about the Sunday School class members by having them visit your home for a meal. You may have resources and facilities that will enable you to do things in different ways. This is great. You may be able to have three or four families attend your PPO which will speed up the learning curve.

You can view the PPO concept as a church ministry. After you have gotten to know the people that attend your Sunday School class, turn your attention to learning more about other church members and the church leadership.

A direction that we did not pursue is to invite, to the PPO, friends and neighbors that do not attend a church and invite members from the Sunday School class. This will enable your non church going friends and neighbors the opportunity to meet the Sunday School class’ members. This might encourage the non churched friends to visit the Sunday School class.

12-29-2004