Hello everyone! Here is what I would like you to blog about this week...
What are events that you have been involved in at churches that were great Church and Family Recreation events that you have been a part of? You can list both age specific and intergenerational events. Share the best (this is an idea sharing time, so you might even want to take notes).
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I know Ryan hasn't posted yet, but it's just sharing. One of my favorite intergenerational events I was apart of was when the women of the church got together and made quilts for a nursing home. There were women from the age of 10-60 making quilts together. It was fun hearing their stories and just making quilts together.
ReplyDeleteI also LOVED Church clean up day. Ages from 5 year olds to senior citizens of the church came to help clean up the church for a day. We picked weeds, mowed, painted, cleaned, planted flowers, etc. Afterwards we just relaxed together and ate. I remember going every year and truely enjoying myself. I feel that during these moments I learned how to respect and treat those older than me. It was soo cool being able to serve with adults who have seen much more than me.
I have mentioned this in class, but I loved potlucks. Eating together is just such a natural way to form a community.
ReplyDeleteMost of the relationships I formed with people older than myself in my church come from sitting around a dinner table and just having a conversation.
I think it is important to have these types of events everyone once in a while where we have no stated purpose and people can just be themselves. As much as I like small groups and guided discussion, when you tell people to have a conversation, the resulting conversation is anything but natural.
I loved VBS as a kid - I know that's not strictly play, but I developed relationships with the adult leaders during that week.
ReplyDeleteI'll also definitely agree with Aidan (I think it's Aidan haha) about potlucks. There's something special about sitting down around a table with food on it that brings people together.
I'll say that during my growing up there weren't a lot of intergenerational events. After a particularly "youth-groupy" mission trip (with lots of fun and not much work) I decided to begin participating in the "adult" work and witness trips. It was incredible to spend a week with adults in my church getting to know them in an intense way. Even though I haven't been able to participate the last few years, those trips that I went on really shaped the way I interact with those adults. I think it also really gave me my passion for intergenerational mission trips - why should those trips have been considered "adult" trips? Why couldn't other kids and teens be able to experience relationships with the adults in the church like that?
UMMMM...OOPPSSS.
ReplyDeleteI thought i was blogging next week so i never checked this. Sorry for the miss-communication and for being late on my post Jeremy.
Anyways! I will share some of the events at my church/churches that i have been involved in. One of my favorites was this past summer. We had a groundbreaking for our new building. We took this huge anchor type thing and dragged it across the land that we were going to build on. We also had a cookout, message, and worship. It was a fun time to fellowship, and celebrate this awesome time in our church. the next thing event that we still do from time to time is not something that is necessarily a church function but something that is done with people who go to my church. A bunch of teens, young adults, and older adults, will get together from time to time and go out to Quaker Steak and Lube all you can eat wings night. This is a time where we can all get together, all ages, and just have a really fun time and devour some wings. We also had a day that we would meet up at the church and anyone who wanted would help decorate the church for Christmas time.
I would say that my favorite times all had something to do with food. There is something about food and community. haha. We have had carnivals, potlucks, concerts, etc. All of these came with food. these are times and event we all remember and can share.
We can use these events in our ministries. they are all effective and great ways to build community within a church.
There are so many church activities that i have been a part of in my life that it would probably be impossible to remember all of them. but here are some of my favorites:
ReplyDeleteFor intergenerational i always loved mother-daughter banquets. they are always a fun time and you gotta love the silly themes.
another intergenerational activity that i loved was family camp. when i was younger my whole church would go to this campground and just hang out for a weekend. it was more like a retreat but it was just so much fun and a good time of fellowship.
lock-ins were always a favorite of mine because honestly what teenager doesn't love to stay up all night. granted i did always pass out at some point during the night but lock-ins, if they are well planned, are always a lot of fun.
i know it may sound ridiculous, but spring cleaning day at the church was always a fun time. it was just cool to see everyone in the church helping out to help "beautify" the place.
so there are some activities. i could list more but that would take forever.
In the church I grew up in, they were CRAZY about camps. It was a big church, so they had a killer budget, but they would do all sorts of really neat things during the summer.
ReplyDeleteFor two months, they would have a different camp every week. The camps would go from 8 to 4 every day, which was great in helping parents that worked, and also for the kids. The camps were greatly varied by type - computer, sport, drama, outdoors, multimedia, etc - but anyone at all could come. They had things to do for people that were experienced, and also for people that had no idea what was going on. They were also really good about involving people of all different ages. The older kids were put into more "leadership" roles, and could even be counselors as early as 7th grade. They didn't have any real responsibilities, but they were there to "supervise" and help out when they were needed. Every camp had some sort of "show" to finish the week out where parents could come in and see what they had learned/made/etc.
Then, as a sort of climax to the summer camps, there was an overnight camp that ran a week at the end of them all. That one was always the BEST, especially going back and helping as a counselor. Everyone had gotten to know each other (for the most part) at the camps during the summer, so it was really cool to spend time like that with them out in cabins in the middle of nowhere.
I did that every summer for YEARS, and lots of other kids did too. It's probably the best church recreational activity I had growing up.
As the youth leader, I had more fun doing the events then when I was a teen. I am not sure why that works out, probably because I felt appreciated for helping out with these events. I have no real best activity, I just enjoyed being a part of peoples lives who I could still relate with. Ones that I could see my own struggles with faith and trust in and watch to see how the dealt with it. I love youth convention and I love open gyms. those events were always a blast for me. I have no real justification for why they were better than any other event, I just enjoyed my time there.
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