Some churches may opt to take that kind of approach, but somehow that doesn’t resonate within my comfort area. Don’t mistaken what I’m saying. I’m not suggesting that I’m an expert. God knows that I am at the end of the line when it comes to guys with answers. Obviously, the folks who created, “The Price Is Right” knew the appeal a winning cash and prizes. After all, that game show has been around since 1956. Obviously, the game prize approach resonates with many.
Some of you are thinking Baptists are too frugal to sweeten the pot with prizes and cash. Memory is a wonderful gift. I wish mine were better. I think the year was 2007. The Southern Baptist Convention met in San Antonio, TX. At some point, an article in the press described the gathering this way: “Baptist came to town with $10 and the Ten Commandments along with an intent to break neither.”
Our church is one of the foundation blocks in the Henly community. Consequently, we think it important to periodically host an event and invite the larger neighborhood. Take for example, our community Thanksgiving celebration. Truth be told, it follows the morning church service the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
We purposefully invite the entire community to participate. You don’t have to come for church as a prerequisite to share the Thanksgiving meal. Folks are welcome to both. You don’t get a more hospitable welcome if you come for church than if you didn’t.
In October, our church will host the National Night Out. Last year, we pulled out all the stops to make law enforcement, ambulance crews, and fire department officials along with everyone else in the community feel welcomed and appreciated. Our only resolve was to be a welcoming neighbor and provide people an opportunity to meet other neighbors. It was a fun time.
The complimentary hamburgers and hotdogs were also well received along with special activities for children. Throw in the band of musicians who provided music for the evening and it was an event well worth attending. By the way, the musicians were a well-known music group popular in the Dripping Springs area and beyond.
Call in an act of goodwill, but about every three months our church host something special and invites the broader community to participate. We figure being good neighbors and loving on people has value. If nothing else, it makes us feel good. In addition, it highlights the fact that the welcome mat is always out.
The church has an outreach committee that plans for and schedules these special events. In addition, every fourth Sunday our church has a potluck lunch immediately after the service. We figure the investment offers opportunities to share time and get to know folks better. At the end of the day, it is all about relationships. People need people.
My daughter is on the outreach committee at church and she thoughtfully suggested we host an ice cream extravaganza of sorts and invite the community. The suggestion came from the memory bank of her childhood memories from the years spent in Henly. Periodically, the church and/or volunteer fire department would host that kind of event.
Seriously, there is nothing like the taste of homemade ice cream. My daughter is kind of a food snob. The fact that she even suggested ice cream caught me by surprise. The catalyst for the suggestion had more to do with people memories than the taste of ice cream.
The challenge was finding a place on the church calendar to tack it on. Someone had the clever idea to add it to one of the fourth Sundays when we already had lunch planned.
I really do try to adhere to the concept of “if you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all”. I anticipated an ice cream social to fall flat. Seriously, as good as it is, from my perception Blue Bell ice cream pales in comparison to a homemade concoction. Isn’t homemade ice cream one of those things associated to long ago? No one makes homemade ice cream any more. “Go with the flow” seemed to be my modus operandi. What do I know?
The one thing I do know is that a carton or two of ice cream from H.E.B. wasn’t going to work for me. The General and I could do better than that! Thankfully Amazon Prime came through in the nick of time. There is something about next day delivery that is hard to beat. We now have an ice cream freezer.
What I rediscovered in the process is that an ice cream social isn’t about the ice cream; it is about the experience. Baskin Robbins may boast of having 31 flavors, but we had at least five flavors and everyone brought home made ice cream for this event. There were probably least ten freezers of homemade ice cream. I was shocked! It was a flash back to years gone by. Even the adults were saying: “We’ve got to do this again.”
The icing on the cake was the number of new people who came early for church. Hopefully, they found that as enjoyable as the ice cream. Some came only for lunch and ice cream. They were equally welcomed. It was a great time. Lest I forget, the homemade deserts to accompany the ice cream were plentiful and equally delicious.
I’m certain that the ice cream social will make it into the church newsletter expected for distribution early in September. My son-in-law playfully came up with this suggested text:“Lo, on 25 August in the year of our Lord 2019, 76 souls congregated for worship services followed by Sunday Supper and ice cream sundaes like manna from heaven. In attendance were Pastor Don, son of Wayne from the house of Forrester; Cal, son of Jack from the house of Cobb…”
All My Best!
Don