Rob Biagi Fall Kick Off

This past weekend at First Pres we had our "Fall Kick Off"  .... which consisted of a Tri Tip BBQ Battle, a Pie Bake Off, our Coffee Bar being open, Ministry tables throughout the campus for people to talk to ministry leaders, Dennis Agajanian doing his thing in an outdoor concert set up, and then the big event...  Rob Biagi concert in our Activity Center for Kids and Families.  If you aren't familiar with Rob and his music, I encourage you to check out his website and take a listen!  www.thatrobguy.com  Rob and I have known each other for about 10 years.  We had a mutual friend who introduced us when he used to lead Children's worship at Mariner's Church in Orange County.  Since that time, he has done family concert events for me about 4 times. He is able to come  with a full band or just his tracks and background singers/ dancers.  This time he brought his wife Kathleen, and 2 daughters, Julie and Natalie.

Electronic Sign in front of our church

Normally for our Fall Kick Off we usually do a "fair" type of atmosphere on a Sunday afternoon with a BBQ and bounce houses/ water slides etc so parents can see our fall schedule, sign their children up for Awana or Choir, or Upward Basketball, or whatever else we're doing.  This year we decided to do our Kick Off on Saturday evening, to invite the community, have GREAT FOOD, and GREAT MUSIC, and lots of fun, and then invite  people to come back on Sunday morning to see us in our "regular clothes" and experience what First Pres is like on a normal, fun, Christ filled Sunday.  I invited Rob Biagi to come and be our guest and do a kids/ family concert.  He had never been to First Pres before and had only been to Bakersfield one other time about 6 years ago, so our people had not heard of him.

Since I have learned that First Pres does not take to brand new ideas quickly (they are not what you would call "early adapters") I knew I had to do an A+ job in the area of promotion and publicity. Here are some of the things we did throughout the summer to build up enthusiasm so kids and families would get excited about Rob coming:

1. We bought a dozen of Rob's CD's to give away as prizes throughout the summer and gave these away at several of our summer events.
2. We used Rob's songs, motions, and DVD clips in Sunday School during the summer to teach the kids his songs so that when he came this past week his music would already be familiar to them.
3.  We had Rob record a YouTube message just for our church to play in a morning service so they could see him/ hear him/ get a 1 minute taste of what a Rob Biagi concert would be like.Rob's YouTube message for First Pres Bakersfield
4.  We gave free tickets to 15 other churches in Bakersfield (to their children's pastors) so they could pump it up at their churches and bring kids to the concert if they wanted to.
5. We gave free tickets to our local Christian radio station so they could give away tickets on the air.  Obviously when they were giving away the tickets, other people would hear about the concert too and want to come!
6.  We made a Facebook Event so our people could invite their friends and help spread the word.
7. We posted in our local newspaper, radio stations, and those free "parenting" magazines in their calendar sections.
8.  We sold tickets at a super low price IN ADVANCE ($10.00 for a FOUR PACK) to encourage people to buy enough to give away to neighbors and friends.

Rob and his family rockin out at First Pres!

 We had a great turn out, especially considering most of the people in our church had never heard of this amazing, energetic, gifted Kids artist!  Now that they've seen him live, and experienced one of his concerts, I KNOW that next time we have him come we will have double the number of people we had this time!  Thanks again Rob!  You Rock!  "On We Go!"