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Add a twist to your events to keep the excitement! Read on to discover how to bring ordinary women’s ministry events up to a new level.
Add these to your event calendar!
- Shopping, Selfies, & Scavenger Hunting, Oh, My!
- Mixed-Up Dinner Mayhem
- Women’s Ministry Toy Drive With A Twist
1. Shopping, Selfies, & Scavenger Hunting, Oh, My!
Ministry Event Overview:
Go to a large chain store, a mall, or a shopping center. Each team is given a list of clues that leads them to certain items to purchase and bring back to the meeting zone. Other clues lead to selfie shots within the store. Each team is given an envelope of $4.00 in dimes to purchase their items. Yes, I said dimes. Why, you ask? I say, why not? It’s fun, it’s quirky, and it’s memorable!
The first team to finish the challenge wins. Have a time limit to meet back at a certain time. If no one finishes the list, the winning team is the team who completed the most tasks. Other awards are given out for the best picture, funniest picture, most unique item purchased, etc. Let’s face it. Everyone wins while they are participating in this crazy challenge as they are laughing and making memories together.
Set-Up:
- Make your list of clues and items to find. Do some scouting to see what items are available at your location. Get your lists printed up, and ready to go for each team.
- Create a list of selfie pictures. Have it printed and ready to hand out.
- Prepare ahead of time, a ‘bank’ of dimes in an envelope for each team to purchase items with. These dimes are the only money they may use for the scavenger hunt.
- At the starting time, give your teams their lists and bank of dimes. Give the instructions, time limits, and rules, and send them off.
Program:
After everyone returns, have a time of refreshments and fellowship.
This is a great time for everyone to share their selfies and have a ‘show & tell’ of the items they purchased with their dimes!!
Announce the winning team.
Devotion: Proverbs 17:22a
“A cheerful heart is good medicine … “
Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble and that every day we are faced with spiritual battles and hard things, but He also knew that fellowship with other believers is a wonderful thing and even ‘good medicine’ for our soul!
Laughter and joyful times spent with friends are a treasure and a gift. It’s important for our emotional well-being. We each have responsibilities and jobs we must do, and places we serve, and sometimes we can get so busy ‘doing’ that we forget about ‘being’. The Lord has blessed us with each other, to share this journey, and part of that journey is to share our joy, our laughter, and our fellowship.
Scavenger Hunt Purchase Examples:
- Buy a child’s toy that can be used outside.
- Purchase an item that could make you ‘feel better.’
- Find a sweet-sweet treat that uses the 14th letter of the alphabet for its name.
- Share it with your team! *Selfie shot to prove it*
- Find something to buy that can make life cleaner.
- Purchase something you could wear in your hair.
Selfie Shot Examples:
- Your team reading a book or magazine
- Someone on your team modeling a hat
- A team member with a baby
- One person balancing 6 items on their arm
- The entire team posing with a shopping cart
Have fun with your lists –– be creative!
2. Mixed-Up Dinner Mayhem
Ministry Event Overview:
A time of fellowship and fun around the dinner table with a fun twist of adding unusual containers and utensils to eat with. You can have a potluck-style dinner (everyone brings a dish to share) or you can serve a prepared meal. (Spaghetti is always fun!)
Set-Up:
Set up tables and chairs for a banquet gathering. Make sure to use disposable table coverings for easy clean-up. Put numbers at each seat. (Of course, don’t put them in order. This is ‘mayhem’ night, so you want the numbers all random!)
Tip: Purchase disposable bibs and place a bib on each chair. Everyone will appreciate this.
Place Settings:
Try to put unique place settings in each space. Feel free to duplicate some if you need to. Just get your brain to think of unusual containers to use as plates and unusual items to use as utensils, and then get your tables set. Don’t forget extra piles of napkins in the middle of each table!!
Suggestions:
- Lg. salad bowl w/ a meat fork as a utensil
- Pot lid w/ a wooden spatula
- A tall glass vase with a soup ladle
- A children’s play fry pan with a pie server
- A wire basket (lined with foil to avoid spills) with 2 knives
- A stemmed glass with chopsticks
- A vegetable tray with a spatula
- A teacup with a pair of tongs
You get the idea –– search those cupboards and have fun with it!
Party Time:
Place a game sheet at each place setting so those who arrive a bit earlier have something to do and give some conversation around the table. Try “Name That Cake,” trivia questions, or word games.
When the guests arrive, each draws a number from a bag and hunts for their seat. This also gets your guests to mix with people they may not otherwise sit with … win-win!
After everyone is seated, put on the bibs, give instructions for the food, and say the blessing. Make sure everyone knows where the basket of ‘mercy’ silverware is located in case they just can’t manage to eat with what they have. The idea of this night is fun, so you don’t want anyone to be frustrated! Enjoy the meal together.
Post-Dinner Program:
- Give the answers to the game sheets (no prizes, just applause).
- Do a devotion based on Isaiah 26:3-4 about how even in the midst of the ‘mayhem’ of life, chaos, struggles, and trials, we can have peace –– God’s peace –– if our mind is fixed on Him and we trust His hand in all things!
- Have time after dinner to play a mixed-up game of Pictionary & charades. (Each challenge is a two-word answer. Someone on the team gets up and draws one word and then acts out the other word. If their team guesses the answer, they get a point.)
That concludes the evening.
Mixed-Up Menu Option
The Mixed-Up Menu option takes this event to a whole new level! Not only do guests have zany and mixed-up tableware and utensils, they now eat their 4-course meal in a mixed-up order from others at their table!
Number the tables of your food items (1 – salad, 2 – main dish, 3 – side dish, 4 – dessert), and then as your guests arrive, have them choose a number for where they are sitting, but then draw a card with the order of what they will eat.
For the first ‘round’ of dinner, everyone goes up to get food from the numbered table on their card. If a card reads … 3-1-4-2, that person eats from the side dish table first, then the main dish table, followed by the dessert table, and finally finishes with the salad table.
(Just an added layer of mayhem for your night!!)
3. Women’s Ministry Toy Drive With A Twist
Ministry Event Overview:
This is an event with a dual purpose. One is to collect toys to donate. The other is to get to know each other by sharing a memory and about your life. Guests will be asked to bring a teddy bear that will be placed on the tables as a centerpiece, but then donated to a local charity of your group’s choice (e.g., a program for foster children, single mothers program, grieving children’s program, children’s hospital).
Guests are asked to bring an item or picture of an item that reminds them of a toy that they played with or a game they had when they were younger. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. Some ladies may have an item that they saved over the years, while others can bring a downloaded picture or photograph. (At one event, a woman brought a stick because she played outside and used her imagination all the time!)
Decor:
Tap into your ‘inner’ child and have fun. Use lots of primary colors in your table coverings and partyware. Use toys to decorate the room and kites hanging from the ceiling. Make a large hopscotch board on a tablecloth and use carpet tape to keep it from sliding on the floor. Hula hoops and jump ropes make it fun and playful!
Food:
Again be playful. Refreshments could include PB & J triangles, chocolate milk jugs with straws or kool-aid punch, cookies and milk, or fruit slices.
For something different, try a “make your own sundae bar” with all the toppings! This is always a fun treat. Don’t forget the sprinkles!
Photo Corner:
Set up a backdrop for people to do some fun selfies. Make some huge blocks from cardboard boxes, borrow a giant teddy bear, make some large lollipops from cardboard cake rounds and pool noodles, and make it colorful!
Program:
Play some old-fashioned games to start:
- Musical Chairs
- Rock Paper Scissors Round Robin Challenge: Start with one person who goes from table to table challenging someone to a ‘dual’. The winner moves on and continues, and the loser sits at the table.
- You can really get the room going if you do a round of the Hokey Pokey!!
Sharing Time:
Give everyone a chance to ‘briefly’ share about the toy or picture they brought, share their memories, where they’re from, etc. Write out some cue questions on a poster to encourage those who don’t know what to say. This is a wonderful way to get insight into people in your group that you don’t normally get to see.
Devotion: Joshua 4:1-8
The story of the Israelites crossing the Jordan and God stopping the water as the Ark of the Covenant crossed through. God instructed Joshua to tell each tribe to get a stone to make a reminder of what happened that day, so they could share with each generation how God had miraculously provided for them.
Memories and reflecting on the past is a great way to honor God and share what He has done for us with others, especially those in the next generation.
Use Your Memories To:
- Remember God’s goodness and provision
- Relish and thank Him for His love
- Reflect His light to others as we retell the story of His goodness
Laughter is a wonderful gift from God. Proverbs 17:22a tells us:
“A cheerful heart is good medicine …”
Women’s ministry events that focus on fellowship and fun are a wonderful connecting point for the people in your ministry. It gives space to get to know each other on a more personal level and to have time to make connections in a relaxed atmosphere. They also provide us with great opportunities to invite new friends to experience a low-key, introductory event at your small church.
Think about the levels of the Ministry Funnel and how they work together –– you can read about it all right here: The Ministry Funnel Plan
Step out and plan your next fun event, create some memories together, and, most of all, build those relationships! And one more tip: Don’t forget to bring a camera. That way, you can laugh again when you share memories of your event!
Looking for a step-by-step guide to starting or restarting your women’s ministry?
Check out the Women’s Ministry Bundle For Small Churches!
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