AARP provides “Driving Safety Courses” and may be interested in hosting the event at your church facility. Call your local AARP office and find out if they need another location to host the event. Your local group could serve as hosts and hostesses and help people to get into the building, find parking, and provide some great refreshments. Great way to meet new people in the community. AARP would provide all the advertising for the event.
Host an Arthritis Workshop
The National Arthritis Foundation conducts workshops on joint care and other related topics. Contact the Foundation and offer to host an event in your church for the community to attend. Your church can provide the necessary set up for the training event, and provide some refreshments. Great way to meet new people from the community. NAA would provide the necessary publicity for the workshop.
Host a Christmas Concert
If your local church choir is providing a Christmas musical, plan to present it on a Saturday afternoon and send out special invitations to all the local retirement centers and independent living facilities. Many times they are looking for this type of activity for their residents to attend. Host the Concert on a Saturday afternoon and provide light refreshments. Make sure the choir takes the time to mingle with those in attendance. The local church retirement age group can serve as hosts and hostesses for this very special event.
Chili Christmas
Every year we do a living nativity program to bring the community to our church, but this year we are doing construction and won’t have the space. We wanted to somehow go into the community with Christmas and still have it be a fellowship component for our church.
This year our church is trying something that doesn’t seem like it’s done very often anymore. The church is sponsoring a chili festival that will be open to anyone from the community – in a downtown location other than our church where we can meet, greet and eat lots of chili. Groups of people will be invited to go around town to Christmas carol in the nearby neighborhoods, nursing homes, and downtown shops. The evening will end with everyone joining back up for some dessert and hot chocolate. The caroling groups will be handing out tracts and invitations to our Christmas celebrations at the church. Our southern California location provides excellent weather for this type of event.
There are many specialty homes within the Lancaster County, PA area for aging and disabled adults. For the last three years, a small-group from the Lancaster Alliance Church has adopted a smaller facility for the holidays. Small-group coordinator Dot Milliken contacts the facility and gets a list of the current residents and their ages. Small-group members purchase and wrap gifts for each resident. On the second Friday night of December the group goes out to dinner together and then to the home to sing Christmas carols, read the Christmas Story, share cookies and punch and distribute the gifts. The residents have really enjoyed this special blessing of ministry. Several of the residents have attended the church as a result. In talking with the residents, several thanked the small-group for “showing them God.” This small-group ministry was the only group who came to celebrate Christ’s birth with the residents.
Desert Christmas Concerts
In an effort to use our Christmas musicals as a connecting point with the community, our church chose to host a dessert event prior to the musical. Individuals in the church were recruited to host a table, decorate it, as well as do the set up of plates, cups, and silverware for the dessert. Some chose to bring in their fine china while others chose nice paper products. The host would prepare a dessert to serve at least eight individuals and be encouraged to fill the seats at their table with unchurched community people.
As people entered the room, they would be greeted by a hospitality team and directed to their host’s table where they would enjoy dessert. The teens dressed up in server outfits (white shirts and black slacks) and brought pitchers of hot beverages to each table. Pitchers of ice water were also on the table. After the dessert time, the church musical was presented. Due to the size of our church and the number of people who wanted to be a part of this event, this event would be held on several nights with the musical presented each time and the pastor sharing in a closing Christmas greeting.
Hosting the table provides a better way to connect with unchurched community people.
Enjoying a good dessert together opened many doors of conversation.
Our church has a Family Advent event each year at the beginning of December. For $10 per family we provide a large single-top pizza and bottles of water. Volunteers bring in trays of cookies for the event that starts at 5:30. After eating their family meal, they have the opportunity to make a simple Christmas craft together. One of the favorites was making 3 chrismons. The family kept one, hung one on a tree in the narthex and put one in a gift bag with shredded paper for a friend. The invitation to the church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service was included. Following the craft time, we offered a musical that the childrens’ choir presents. This is a fantastic evening. Families come and even invite and register their neighbors. It is a great introduction to the church as well as a time to begin the Advent celebration.
