July 2008
Church Spotlight
Real Life Ministries - Post Falls, ID
Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, ID has around 10,000 atendees, and to create a deeper sense of community, they organize their home groups in to smaller geographically-based "communities". So how do they engage their men who are in over 600 home groups across the county? They challenge them to a Battle. And they encourage them to bring friends and family to join in the challenge.
Last summer the Real Life men put on a "Battle on the Bluff", a variation of the "Decathalon" we wrote about last month. This battle took place between the various communities, and activities ranged from golf chip shots to horseshoes to cards, with seven events in all. Points were tallied throughout the day. The competition culminated with a tug-of-war between the top two communities.
The all-day event kicked off with a brief message, followed by an opportunity to gather the communities for vision-casting from the pastors overseeing each of them. Then events were explained and started. The guys broke for lunch, included some fun dunking of the pastors, gathered again as communities, continued the competitions and then wrapped up with the tug-of-war championship and awards.
What Real Life has done well is evaluate what worked last year and make adjustments and improvements for this year's event scheduled for later this month. They identified the following improvements:
- Give more direction and time to the community connection opportunities
- Structure the individual events tournament-style
- Add team competitions after lunch to keep the overall battle more competitive until the end
- Provide better clarity in volunteer tasking
- Start communication about the event earlier and give opportunity to pre-register online at a discount
Whenever you execute an event, be sure to gather your team together for a post-event evaluation, and be sure to document your suggestions for the next time!
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