Summer Opportunities for Community Groups
While there is no requirement to do so, many of our community groups take a break from weekly meetings during the summer or, roughly, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We think that shifting the focus from a weekly study to other gatherings creates some great opportunities to increase a group’s effectiveness. Your group may want to consider some of these ideas.
Fellowship. Most groups have a targeted meeting time of an hour and a half. After allowing time for a study, prayer, and catching up on recent events, time for really getting to know each other can feel pretty limited. Summer days present an opportunity for a more extended gathering such as:
Picnic, potluck or backyard barbecue
Walking, hiking or biking together
Attending a sporting event
A day on the water
Camping, perhaps at the church campout in Trout Lake
A trip into Portland to enjoy one of its attractions
These activities might allow you to invite a person or couple that isn’t yet involved in a group or to engage in an activity with another community group. One of the building blocks of close relationships is shared experiences, so think about creating some.
This does not have to be limited to summer. Some of our groups meet regularly for meals to allow for greater connection. Also, smaller groups might want to meet to allow for greater sharing. For example four to six of your members might share a meal. The men or women might gather separately for a Saturday breakfast. However, summer seems to facilitate these kinds of gatherings.
Service. While people are enjoying vacations, there are some increased needs inside and outside of our fellowship. Your group might:
Talk to Kim Spotts about helping out at the Fish Food Bank
Ask Eric Bokovoy about projects to keep our church campus up
Consider helping people within your group or their neighbors who are struggling to keep their house and grounds up or are tackling a major project
Contact Laura about serving as greeters, people at the connect desk, or folks willing to come a little early and get the coffee started at the church
Offer to pass the offering baskets during the Sunday service
Talk to the Strands about ways to serve our houseless population in Hood River
Study. For some who might like to continue with a more structured study, you might meet less frequently to discuss something like:
A book
An article, editorial or essay
A podcast
A passage from a book
An episode from the Netflix series, The Chosen
Expand your Circle of Friends. The larger church community offers opportunities to do this. For example:
Join the church campout in Trout Lake
Attend a hike with the women’s ministry
Help launch the men’s ministry at HRAC
Clearly this is not an exhaustive list of all the options and we would love to hear others that your group might come up with. The important thing is to be intentional and make a plan. The summer passes quickly. Organizing any of these gatherings should be shared by the group members and not fall on the community group leader alone.