At Westminster Presbyterian Church, Survivor- and Hunger Games-themed competitions have proved surprisingly successful in inspiring congregants to get involved in outreach efforts, including collecting food donations for the community.
Each summer since 2009, Pastor Karen Dumey has divided the 65-member congregation in Cape Girardeau, Mo., up into two teams.
The first year, the competition theme was based off of Survivor, the popular television reality game show in which contestants isolated in the wilderness compete for cash and other prizes. Last summer, the competition was based off The Hunger Games–a blockbuster film about a televised fight to the death in a dystopian future.
In this church contest, team members earn points by bringing food and medical items to donate to the local food pantry, inviting a guest to church, volunteering at the church or community organizations and even attending church on Sunday mornings.
“Every year we’ve had an increasing amount of food donated to the food pantry,” says Jeanie Dale, a 42-year-old child therapist and church member. “So it’s really neat to see and it’s really inspiring.”
For such a small church, Dumey says she was impressed that members donated more than 1,100 cans of food and other items last summer.
“The congregation just loves competing against each other,” Dumey says. “The payoff is at the end of the summer the losing team has to provide lunch to the winning team.”
During the slow summer months when many members go on vacation, Dumey says the competition helps keep attendance up too.
“A good, friendly competition can bring out some really good things in folks,” Sale says. “It’s good-spirited, it’s good fun and when it gets down to the wire each week and they announce the scores, you can see people bringing in two or three crates of canned goods they bought at a local store–just trying to put their team over the top.”
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Today I read an article from Outreach Magazine of a few churches who were struggling and have turned things around.
Well, I don’t belong to a traditional church structure/format anymore as I’ve moved into the house/home church format, but I can tell you what works for many is not focusing on getting people into a church building but being the church by reaching/serving people where they are (which I hope is an answer to your question regarding outreach), so here’s some ideas:1. 5-10 people volunteer bi-monthly at the emergency/food shelter, bringing food (homemade & canned), serving the people in need, listening to them, praying w/ them, simply caring about them…2. A handful of musicians (or your worship team) grabbing their acoustic guitars & bi-monthly visiting the children’s ward at the hospital, putting on a mini-concert & giving mini-lessons to the kids, perhaps videotaping the visits & when the kids are released give them a copy of the videos, then follow up w/ calls & cards to see how they’re doing…3. Learn some old songs (& a hymn or two) from the 1930′s-60′s & visit the retirement homes once a month, putting on a dance or just sit around listening to a CD of those classic songs & get to know the people, then share w/ them Jesus, pray w/ them, etc…4. Form a team of people who look out for the elderly & the widows, not only for the ones in their church body, but in their own neighborhood: help them move, help them w/ home or car maintenance, do yard work for them, make sure their heat or AC works, make sure their sidewalks are shoveled for the home care workers to walk safely to their doors…People are drawn to other people.groups who truly care about everyone from the kids to elderly, there’s a sense of security there & that works.5. If you have tech savvy people in your church, you could advertise in the newspaper & offer a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) weekend: a free computer course/class twice a month on how to create a spreadsheet or power point presentation… offer to take a look at any computer brought in, whether it’s scanning for viruses, degragging their hard drive for them or installing Skype for someone on their laptop & walking them through how to use it, helping them download free software… showing someone how to install an app like how to read a QR code w/ their device, showing them how to use their webcam to make a video, etc…
