Off-site Church Fellowship Events

You may think - how many things could you possibly do outside of church together?  There can't be that many ideas out there!  Well, I threw the question out there to my fellow educators and there are a LOT!  Hopefully there is at least ONE thing on this list you hadn't thought of and you'd like to try :)  It's always great to get together as a church or small group outside the actual church building.  It's a great time to invite unchurched friends because it's a less "threatening" environment and the community sees you outside of your four walls!  Win-win!  

Here are some wonderful ideas of things you can do as a church, youth group, small group, kids' group, etc OUTSIDE the church!

excited about our very own theater! :) 

1.  Rent out a movie theater.  This was awesome.  Our local theater allows groups to rent out an entire theater for 4 hours for around $500.  That may seem like a lot, but if you charged $6 or so and sold all the tickets, you broke even.  some groups charged $7-8 to make a profit.  We charged $5 and lost a little - but we didn't do it as a fundraiser.  Two wonderful advantages to doing this - one, the theater allowed us to set up tables outside the theater where we handed out swag and sold snacks (yes, the theater said this was ok!); and two, the theater gave us a mic and allowed us to introduce the movie.  So, we were also able to say who we were, invite people to church and to upcoming events.  Wonderful outreach.  We had about half of the people from our church and the other half were invited guests!

One of our families getting ready to bowl!

2.  Bowling alley - Now, in my last church we were really lucky as the owner of a bowling alley went to our church and they only charged us half price for a private room!  But, if you can afford this - it's tons of fun.  In a private room, we had pizza and snacks served to us, free reign over 5 lanes, and we got to choose the music :)  We asked people for $5 donations to help cover the cost.  Again, this can be for all ages, and it's a great time to invite unchurched friends.  

3.  Skating Rink (ice or roller) - I personally haven't done this with a church group, but I have with school groups.  Obviously this is a better activity for elementary/youth age kids, but parents do enjoy sitting around and chatting while their kids are occupied and having fun.  Many rinks have private rooms that you could also rent out to eat together before or after.

The park where we went had a sand volleyball court,
baseball field, and open space to play lawn games :) 

4.  Renting a shelter at a park - We used to do this at my last church the last weekend before school let out.  It was an "end of the year" party.  We had a local park that had shelters where you could eat (picnic tables), and they had a baseball field, playground, and a grassy place where you could play lawn games.  We'd pack up all our frisbees (some parks have frisbee golf courses!), balls, huge connect 4, cornhole, etc and spend the afternoon there.  Families of all ages were invited and they could come and go as they wanted.  I believe our park charged $50 or so for 4 hours.  Lots of fun!  But there are so many VARIATIONS to this that other churches suggested!  For example, in the summer - meet and have ice cream in the park.  One church met in the park and made Valentine's to hand out (guess you'd need to be in a tropical climate or in the southern hemisphere to pull this off :) .  This made me think of another idea - to meet in the park, clean it up, and do some RAKs! (random acts of kindness).  There are a LOT you could do around a park.  You could also meet at a park, have a picnic, and take a hike!

5.  Arcade/Laser Tag (Lock in) - This idea came from another educator and sounds incredible! "A former church I served rented out a laser tag/arcade for an overnight lock-in. It wasn’t as expensive as you might think but was great. Kids paid for their own tokens for the arcade games and could play laser tag all night. We had a room with snacks and a room with a movie on and a room that was quiet for kids or adults that wanted to sleep. Best lockin we did while I was there. This place had several rooms that could be reserved for birthday parties but since we were there after hours they weren’t being used. So we designated the rooms for the different things. Our adult chaperones slept in shifts so none of us had to stay up all night.  We had to pay two of the laser tag staff for the evening, but it was still worth it to us. They locked us in so none of the youth could sneak out. They had a blast." 

6.  Go camping! - I'd forgotten about this, but we did this as a church a few times.  It was a lot of fun!  Bonfires, cooking over the fire, singing, games...great bonding time!

7. Spend a day at the beach - This would be a LOT of fun.  If you don't live near a beach, you can always find a lake beach that is nearby!  We had one near us in PA and that would've been an awesome place to gather as a church.  Fishing, swimming, cook out...

8. Day at a camp with activities - zipline, ropes course, rock wall, etc.  Most of us probably have some type of "day camp" nearby where you can rent the space and do some fun activities.  they probably also have great meeting rooms where those that don't want to do strenuous activities could do games and crafts.

9.  Zoo - I don't care what age you are, zoos are fun!  Petting zoos, big zoos, little zoos...doesn't matter!  At one of my churches, we were close to an alpaca farm and that's where we had our closing kid min activity for the year!  

10. Pumpkin patch/corn maze - I didn't see these as much when I lived in Fl and NC (somewhat in NC), but they are very prevalent up north!  I would imagine out west as well.  Getting together and going to a pumpkin patch, playing games, eating and then splitting up into small groups to go through a corn maze is a great way to spend some time together as a church.  Another great intergenerational activity as well.

11.  Water park - I believe you could rent it out or just go as a group.  Depends on how big the park is and how big your group is. 

12.  Local gymnastics place/Trampoline park/rock climbing/Etc - for your more active groups, going to one of these places is perfect.  If you can rent out the whole place just for your group - even better!

13.  Splash pad/community pool/private pool - Along the same lines as a water park, but in a community pool you could gather more and play more as a group.  

14. Visit a farm - Depending on where you live this could be an awesome "whole church" activity.  Every age loves being on a farm!  I've lived in 3 different states and in NC and PA this would have been a very easy thing to plan.  In fact, I did take a group to a local farm (owned by a church member) during our "On the Farm" VBS - and the kids AND parents loved it!  They got to pet the animals, plant seeds, and this particular farm also had a blacksmith and everyone got to watch how they made horseshoes!

15. Mystery overnight trip - this is a fun idea suggested by a Christian Educator.  It can be a twist you could add to any of the other activities, or you can pick a place that's an hour or two away and have a surprise trip!  Tell them what to pack and be ready for...and then just go!

16. Snow skiing or water skiing (whichever is easiest/closest to your location) - I've done both of these with just the youth group...but there's no reason this couldn't be a whole church activity!

17.  Progressive dinner - Great activity for a smaller congregation.  If you don't know what a progressive dinner is, it's when you go to one place for appetizers, another for the main dish, and then a 3rd place for dessert/coffee.  I've seen it done at members' houses (which is a lot of fun), but you could also rent out rooms at different restaurants.

"Take a picture in front of the Henderson Auditorium sign" :) 

18.  Scavenger hunt around town - I participated in one of these at Montreat :)  You could do this as families, small groups, or just random groups.  You give a list of things the groups have to "do" at certain locations in the city.  They have to take a picture of their group at that specific location doing whatever it is you want them to do and then they send the pic in to the leader.  For example, at Montreat, they have an iconic ice cream place.  One item we had to do was go to the ice cream place and take a picture rocking in their chairs on the porch (and of course we got ice cream ;)

19. Renting out the Y - This is a great idea I had never thought of and it came from another Christian Educator : "We rent out our YMCA in the winter for a two hour family event where we have open gyms, some organized activities like volleyball or Gaga ball pit, swimming pool, pizza, snacks and this time we had a glow dance in the small gym for the little kids. It’s open to all ages and the community.  And we had a cute family popcorn machine give away when they came in the door."  I love it!!

20.  "The Church has left the Building" - (click title to see a blogpost I wrote about this experience).  We started this program right before Covid at my last church and were able to do it 2-3 times before we took a break.  We invited anyone in the church who would like to help take the church beyond the walls, to join us. It was on a Sunday morning during church.  We would meet and be prayed over, then head out into the community.  Once we cleaned a park, another time we cleaned up around some local elementary schools.  We took pics while we were doing it and sent them back to the church so those worshiping in the sanctuary could see what we were doing!  We had one member who even donated tshirts for us to wear while we did it that had our church name and our slogan "Gone Servin'" on it!

Well, there are 20 ideas for you and your church.  Hopefully one will spark an idea or inspiration for you and your group!  Good luck and God bless!  If you have had a successful off-site church wide outing and it's not listed above, please comment below and share your story!  Thanks!