Church events are more than just regularly scheduled services; they are gatherings that promote unity, foster relationships, and strengthen the community bond. Church events are for all age groups! Your church community gets to know each other through these events, building trust and solidifying fellowship. There are plenty of super fun church event ideas to get your creative juices going!
This sense of community can significantly contribute to an individual’s fulfillment and satisfaction in their church experience. It’s rewarding to put together creative church event ideas that foster community engagement! Successful church events influence attendance, community engagement, and church growth. A well-organized, well-planned, and fun event will help you:
- Market the church: Get more people to know about you.
- Improve attendance: Give church members something exciting to look forward to.
- Improve involvement: Encourages church members to participate in church activities
- Bring people closer to faith: Allows spending more time with the church.
- Raise funds: Encourage participation through giving.
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Table of contents
- Indoor Church Event Ideas
- Seasonal Church Event Ideas
- 11. Plan a Christmas Seasonal MarketÂ
- 12. Host an “Adopt a Family” Gift Collection DriveÂ
- 13. Organize a Christmas ConcertÂ
- 14. Play Out the Christmas Story in a Live Nativity Play
- 15. Easter Egg HuntÂ
- 16. Host an Easter Farmers’ MarketÂ
- 17. Easter Brunch Event
- 18. Car-to-Car Trick-or-Treating (AKA: Trunk-or-Treat)
- 19. Organize a “Collect Home Essentials” Drive
- Back to School Church Event Ideas
- Outdoor Church Event Ideas
Indoor Church Event Ideas
1. Marital success workshops
Why should couples get help only when things go wrong? The Bible has infinite knowledge about making a successful Christian marriage work. You could conduct marital success workshops and help couples work towards maintaining their holy union.
2. Visits to care homes
You can organize a day-long visit and volunteering trip to a care home – whether for children, senior citizens, ailing patients, or a hospice. It encourages feelings of service, compassion, and empathy.
3. Talent competitions
A day where kids get together to showcase their talents— America’s Got Talent but your local church edition! Talent competitions are such engaging events for the whole family! This is a great church event idea to get parents and children involved. Of course, grandma and grandpa would also be there to cheer on their precious little ones!
4. Bible reading club
A great post-school initiative for kids. Parents can be encouraged to send their kids to bible reading classes free of charge and get two precious hours of alone time in return—an excellent way to spread the word of the Lord and gain brownie points from parents. You could also host a bible reading day once a year on a theme that benefits the community.
5. Dinner party for volunteers
Church volunteers working through the year, spending their time improving the church, need a day of appreciation too! Host a fancy dinner for your team of volunteers to appreciate them for their continued support.
6. A local awards night
We all love the appeal of a good awards show. Why not appreciate local heroes like firefighters, healthcare workers, or the police by recognizing all their good for the community? You could also acknowledge good samaritans. Host an awards night, encourage the community to dress up in their best to celebrate people who make their lives better!
7. A free medical camp
Reach out to local doctors to see who is willing to volunteer their time and expertise for the local community. You could set up a free dental, eye check-up camp, or a blood donation drive.
8. Zoom courses
Set up zoom courses on various topics relevant to the church such as catholicism, how to build a home altar, reading the bible, good practices for Christian living – the ideas are endless. It is also a good practice in geographical pockets still practicing social distancing.
9. A guest lecture
Invite a respected figure to talk Christian values to the community. Open the stage for asking tough questions about the faith and staying true to the path the Lord has set before us.
10. Craft workshop
From rosary making to decorating a family cross, you can conduct so many craft workshops while still staying relevant to the church.
Seasonal Church Event Ideas
11. Plan a Christmas Seasonal Market
With the help of a Christmas market, take full advantage of the holiday spirit of giving to bring new people into your church’s fellowship.
People in your church can give gently used items that are still in good shape, which you can then sell and give new life to with someone who can put them to good use. A Christmas market always attracts many people because after all, who doesn’t like a bargain?
Meals and baked items are always in demand and can be sold as part of the market. This event is an excellent way for your church to raise money and simultaneously reach out to the community.
12. Host an “Adopt a Family” Gift Collection Drive
During the holidays, many households face difficulties. Christmas gives more financial stress to families due to the pressure of buying presents and preparing food for loved ones.
Having a gift collection drive at your church may be a great way to help families in need. Have the congregation to “adopt” a family and provide them with:
- Staple food items
- Christmas gifts
- Store gift cards
While helping those in need should be the primary goal of this event, promoting your church as a source of comfort and support is another positive aspect. A good idea is to include a church business card or some other branded material with the presents. The point isn’t to flaunt your charity, but rather to let people know that your church cares about them spiritually as much as materially.
13. Organize a Christmas Concert
Most people love Christmas carols. Even the most religious Christmas carols have broad appeal – there’s just something comforting about these old tunes that resonates with people.
Have your worship band involved in planning a Christmas concert for the neighborhood. People from all across the neighborhood will flock to your church for this. Try to keep admission free and ask for donations as a way to raise support.
14. Play Out the Christmas Story in a Live Nativity Play
A meaningful and heartfelt way to mark Christmas is with nativity scenes or a play. You can do this event inside your church, but if you truly want to reach people, go outside! People of all ages, but particularly children, love to take part in this activity.
Think of the important players:
- Mary
- Baby Jesus
- Joseph
- The angel
- The shepherds
- The three wise men
- An innkeeper
Live animals such as donkeys, sheep and even cows provide amazing realism and enjoyment to the entire experience, especially for young people. For this, it is best to bring in an animal handler. It’s worth the extra labor.
Even though the characters and story should be true to the Bible, you can give it a new feel and excitement to both the people taking part and the people watching! An example is to think of ways you can show your guests what life was like in Rome when Jesus was born.
15. Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Egg hunts are a time-honored tradition for celebrating Easter. Add some flair to your egg hunt by providing participants with:
- Baskets to carry their loot
- A designated location for children under the age of five where eggs will be more visible
- A photo booth to capture the joy on everyone’s faces
Searching and finding eggs can be an exhausting job! Why not have an area dedicated to food and drink, not just for the participating children, but also for the adults?
16. Host an Easter Farmers’ Market
Organizing a farmers’ market can help bring people together while supporting local businesses and crafters. This can be similar to the Christmas farmers’ market. Offer Easter-themed treats and goods such as:
- Chocolate eggs
- Bunny cakes and muffins
- Traditional Easter goodies to be sold at the stalls
Instead of money as an entrance fee, you could ask for an Easter egg donation! The easter eggs collected in place of a fee could be distributed among the needy families in your community or to an orphanage.
17. Easter Brunch Event
Easter brunch is a great way to involve your community members! Not everyone has plans for after Sunday service. This may be easier to accomplish with a smaller church. Host an Easter brunch, with delicious food, and Easter activities such as egg hunting and basket decorating for the kids.
18. Car-to-Car Trick-or-Treating (AKA: Trunk-or-Treat)
Car-to-car trick-or-treating is a whole lot of fun and a safer alternative to typical trick-or-treating. Instead of walking from home to home, children go from car to car in a church’s parking lot. Make sure everyone can find something they like. The kids will love getting dressed up and getting their favorite candy. For the adults and teens, you could serve hot cider and make a fire pit with beach chairs around a portable fire.
19. Organize a “Collect Home Essentials” Drive
It’s not always about the candy at Halloween; plenty of people could use your help with toiletries and personal care items. Hold a drive to collect home essential donations for the homeless in conjunction with a nearby shelter. Together, your congregation’s efforts to aid the homeless can have a big impact. Collect items such as:
- Dry food
- Toiletries
- Personal care items
- Canned food
- Gift cards
- Household cleaning goods
Back to School Church Event Ideas
20. Host a Back-to-School Blessing for All
Gather the school children together and give them a blessing. Also, give some time to show your teachers how much you appreciate them. It’s a wonderful idea to get to know the people who spend five days a week with your children.
In addition to teachers, why not invite bus drivers, principals and people who work in the cafeteria? Even if only a few people come, it will be an event to remember! It’s important to bless the next season they’re going into.
21. Give Out Back to School Supply Goodie Bags
Many families are feeling the financial pinch, especially those who have more than one child. It would be great to hand out goodie bags filled with school supplies at your back-to-school blessing event. Even small boxes of pens and pencils, erasers and paper that don’t cost much would be helpful.
22. Hold a Prayer Breakfast For Back-to-School
Host a back-to-school breakfast event for your children’s congregation to give them hope for the new school year. A back-to-school breakfast feast for kids and parents is the perfect time for a pancake breakfast. Ask a special guest to give the children words of encouragement for the coming school year during breakfast!
Outdoor Church Event Ideas
23. Organize an Outdoor Movie Evening
Church movie nights or youth group movie nights can be a way for your church to reach out to the community. It doesn’t matter whether show an animated movie for kids or a movie with a religious theme.
A church movie night helps bring the community together and can help people learn about the church and the support that your church offers. It also allows current members to get to know each other and enjoy a great night under the stars. There are a lot of movies with strong moral messages and wonderful stories, which can be a sermon in their own way. Your church’s parking lot or lawn are great places to hold an outdoor movie night. This is one of my favorite church event ideas out there!
24. Local Public Parks Clean-Ups
Local parks need some care and attention every now and then. If you notice that there’s a lot of trash in your neighborhood, you can organize a cleanup project. Cleanups of parks that are organized and run by the community are a great way to get rid of trash and connect.
25. Car Wash Fundraiser for Youth
You just need your church members, a large enough space, signs and cleaning supplies. Car washes are a great way for everyone to get to know each other better. Team building helps people in the congregation stay motivated. Once your event takes place, follow up with a thank you for attending message so participants feel welcome and want to participate in future events.
26. Church picnic
An all church picnic is a perfect way to go out with church members, enjoy the sun, good food, and conversation. Young families can find this as an ideal platform to meet other young families, and their kids get to interact with each other.
27. Fundraising walk-a-thon
Is there a church member who might need help with funds? Are you trying to raise awareness for a church initiative? A walk-a-thon could be a great idea to involve members and raise funds from the community. You could organize a walk through the neighborhood, going door-to-door asking for donations.
28. Church carnival
Ask members to put up stalls, sell food, products from their small businesses, and bring their family out for a day of fun and games. A carnival is a great way to break free from routine, support local businesses and use church premises for an event.
29. Sports day
A good game of tennis, basketball, or soccer gets your whole community excited? You can host a church sports day. Add in a few medals or trophies for winners to take back. This church event idea can increase the bond between members and encourage them to visit church more often to meet their teammates-turned-friends.
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