5 Ways to Deepen Community Through Special Events
5 Ways to Deepen Community Through Special Events
Settling into your weekly rhythms as a community feels great, but over time, something will start to feel stale and too familiar about these rhythms.
The best way to combat this is to spice things up with special events throughout the year.
Daily vs. Weekly vs. Annual Rhythms
- Daily rhythms are like breathing-- they keep you alive but they're not really exciting.
- Weekly rhythms are like special meals-- they are fun and we look forward to them-- but the REAL moments that we'll likely remember for decades are... ANNUAL rhythms!
- Annual Rhythms are the big, celebratory moments. Each of these events act like nutrients that a community needs periodically.
So here are our top five ideas for annual events to consider implementing in order to deepen the connection within your community.
- Relaxing Retreat
- Celebrate Sukkot Together
- Testimony Weekend
- Annual Summit
- Spiritual Pilgrimage
Let's go a bit deeper and explain each one and how it can spark life in your community.
The Relaxing Retreat
This is an especially helpful option if there is a spirit of busyness in your community and you need to relax.
Simply reserve an Airbnb, find someone with a conducive property, or get a few camping sites and invite the community to just chill together for a weekend.
This really begins to help the community feel more like family.
Celebrate Sukkot Together
This Fall Biblical Festival is a great time to deepen community life.
Over time, work your way up to hosting for a week and encourage your community to join you for as many nights of Sukkot as possible.
This festival lasts 7 days, so after you’ve seen each other four or five times that week, you'll have had a very relationally deepening experience.
Testimony Weekend
This is great if you have newer folks in the community who don’t know each other because you can often get 6 months of relational development completed in one weekend on one of these trips.
You simply plan 4 or 5 meetings over a weekend and ask each person to share the top 3 milestones in their life. Have 2-3 people/couples share per meeting.
This is a lot of listening so make it as comfortable as possible. Keep the snacks and drinks flowing and try to do the meetings in different spots.
After you get back you’ll likely feel multiple times more connected to one another.
Annual Summit
You can leave on a Thursday after work, get to a hotel or Air Bnb and host a series of meetings where you discuss where the community has been and where it’s going.
Sample Summit Agenda:
On Thursday, everyone journals for 45 minutes about the past year. What has blessed your family the most? List wins and key moments. Have a celebration dinner Thursday night and go around and share.
Set aside Friday for planning:
- Morning: Journal goals and discuss.
- Late morning: Journal on rhythm updates to match the goals and discuss.
- Early afternoon: Discuss any action plans.
- Head back late afternoon to be home by Friday evening.
Spiritual Pilgrimage
Sometimes a community experiences a sense of spiritual "dryness".
If you find yourself in one of these seasons, consider organizing a community "pilgrimage" to a place in your city or country where the Holy Spirit is moving, healing, speaking.
If you know of a place like this, consider doing this kind of trip to give your community a Holy Spirit immersion experience.
What does YOUR Community Need?
If you’ve never done one of these types of events, don’t get overwhelmed by trying to do all five.
Try one or two per year and make sure that it feels sustainable.
Expect these events to drastically change the tone of your community into feeling much more holistic and connected in a short amount of time!
Need coaching on your community-building journey?
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Check out our coaching intensive, A House for Community for more information and to apply!