Do you remember a time when all we had to celebrate in November was Thanksgiving? That wasn’t nearly enough fun and feasting, so now we have Friendsgiving too! If you haven’t heard, Friendsgiving refers to a large meal eaten with friends, usually before Thanksgiving Day. It appeared on the scene in 2007 and has grown in popularity ever since. Sometimes people plan it to follow a certain theme like desserts, salty food, all things pumpkin spice, or random favorite foods.
So, it’s a current trend that involves food, friends, fun, and possibly a theme—sounds to me like a great idea for a youth fall outreach event! When I did this event with my students in the past, they absolutely loved it. It was simple to pull together, intuitive for volunteers to understand, and easy for students to invite friends. Here’s how to really make it shine:
1. Promote your event well.
Don’t underestimate the importance of this step. Communicate in multiple ways (email, text, social media, verbally) and with great clarity and enthusiasm. Make sure your students know this is a great opportunity to bring their friends (the word friend is even in the title) and that they can expect there to be fun, food, testimonies, and a clear Gospel message.
Create an easy-to-share invitation (digital or physical) with the details for the night (don’t forget the address and time) for your students to give out to their friends. You can make the event a potluck and include information on the invite about what food you want the participants to bring.
2. Pray for the night.
In addition to praying for this event yourself, enlist volunteers and students to pray, and suggest that they set an alarm as a reminder. Ask them to pray for the details to come together, for the students who will be giving testimonies, and for friends who don’t have a relationship with Jesus to come to the event and be open to the Gospel. Spend time in prayer for salvations and for the students to be clear and brave in their invitations.
3. Prepare a few students to deliver their testimonies.
Prayerfully pick a few students whom you think could confidently deliver their testimony at the event and invite them to do so. If they need help outlining their story, encourage them to use the Before—Then—After resource and help them walk through the steps of writing out their testimony. Listen to them deliver it to see if there’s an opportunity to bring in the idea of gratitude, specifically gratitude for Jesus’s sacrifice.
4. Plan the details of your night.
- Make a plan for how you want to greet new attendees and capture their contact information.
- Create the schedule for the event, and be sure to give enough time for the testimonies, a Gospel message, and prayer.
- Write a very brief devotional that focuses on the power of gratitude, the Gospel, how all good things come from God, and this verse:
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 107:1
- Ask a student with a strong faith if they could pray for the meal.
- Plan a fun game or ask a volunteer to do so. Here are a few great ones we recommend. Several of these games could be easily modified to fit a Friendsgiving theme. For example, Charades Replay could have categories related to fall and Thanksgiving.
5. Pull off a great event and follow up.
Execute the night in a fun and casual atmosphere but with great intention. Help your students relax and enjoy the feast that each of them has contributed to. Of course, you’re likely to get a lot of bags of chips, but you may be surprised at the effort some students put in to what they bring. I was amazed that several of my students prepared something special from their family’s favorite foods and at the pride it gave them to contribute to the celebration. Enjoy learning more about your students’ families and interests as they share these food items with your group.
Don’t forget to end the night with an invitation to join you for your next gathering, and definitely don’t forget to follow up after the event. This could mean you personally contact the guests or ask the students who brought their friends to have a follow-up conversation that involves talking about the Gospel.
All throughout the Bible, we see examples of God working in powerful ways through feasts and celebrations. Let’s copy that and see how God reaches students this fall.
