Family Experience

Last Friday night we tried a new event here at Bethel especially for families. The feedback has been fantastic, and seems like everyone had a great time! Our first Family Experience was basically a night for families to connect with each other, and with other families in our church. We did this through putting lots of fun stuff on the tables (Mad Gab cards, paper and crayons, mini connect four & tic tac toe games, popcorn, pretzels, glow sticks), had ice cream sundaes, played some Minute to Win It games, watched a couple of skits, watched a fun short video, and I took a few moments to explain to our parents that our church is committed to partnering with them as they raise their kids.

It was loads of fun fun, but like any first time event, we had some bumps in the road. We didn't plan for enough people, so we had to set out tables and chairs for an additional 40 people. I forgot to put out the whip cream for the ice cream sundaes. I didn't realize this until I laid down for bed that night! We had some difficulty with a video I wanted to show and had to cut it last minute. All of these things were temporary setbacks that we solved, and still had a great time.

Many of you asked if we would do this monthly, or even quarterly, and right now I'm looking at next year and putting a few on the calendar. Our team learned some things about what works and what doesn't...(the popcorn wasn't the best idea...most of it ended up on the floor!) We'll work through those bugs and try to make our next Family Experience truly an experience to remember for every family.