Looking for ideas for a fall women's ministry event

[Claudia1]

(Please, I don't want this to turn into a religious argument. If you disagree with my beliefs, I respect your right to refrain from negative comments. I don't expect everyone to agree with me.)

Every quarter, our church women's group plans a get-together. Sometimes it is a movie, a retreat, a cooking class, etc.... Last fall we did a "Keeping Christ in Christmas" workshop that was well received and have also done an apple-themed retreat. This spring, we had a "Daughter of the King" banquet and we have a "Cookies and Canvas" event planned for the summer. We have many small groups, Bible studies, and and specific ministries and these events are meant to give us all a time to interact across all generations. Usually we have 30-50 women from mid-20 to 80 yr olds.

Does anybody have good ideas for the Fall? We are looking at late September/early October dates. Are craft fairs popular in your area? Are there any popular crafts that we could learn to make for Christmas? Any ideas for a 2 hour women's event?

Thanks!

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Hi Claudia I LOVE that your church's women's groups has members from 20's to 80's, what a Blessing! My own church does, too. Does your church do anything for Trunk or Treat? I am not a fan at all of traditional Halloween. Many Christ-centered things that can be done for Trunk or Treat or Autumn in general. Might be fun for one of your women's groups to sponsor such an event

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

Make wreaths!

 

[tcufrog]

Since thanksgiving will be coming up maybe something related to giving thanks such as a craft that can be used for families to write down and collect what they're thankful for. There are tons of ideas along those lines on Pinterest.

 

[Mizzoufan]

I like the wreath idea.

Here a few idea's our woman group has done
Scrapbooking party
HAve a game night/bunko
Christmas shop early

 

[Praise2Him]

Last fall our women's ministry had an Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party. It was lots of fun.

 

[Hisgirl]

Does you city have a homeless population? Yall could go to the dollar store and gather items for a nice bag to hand out to the homeless. Comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, pen, paper, deodorant, SOCKS, water, cheese crackers, beef stick, peanuts, etc. Yall could put some bags together then all go out for a dinner.

Do you live near any mountains? You could go apple picking too!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Does you city have a homeless population? Yall could go to the dollar store and gather items for a nice bag to hand out to the homeless. Comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, pen, paper, deodorant, SOCKS, water, cheese crackers, beef stick, peanuts, etc. Yall could put some bags together then all go out for a dinner.

Do you live near any mountains? You could go apple picking too!

I love the homeless idea.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

What wonderful ideas! My own church has our kids pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child. What an awesome idea to make for a multi age event. Same with tolieltry kits for people in need. I'd love to make a wreath! You could also have a Christmas card making afternoon. Go Caroling in December. Love the thankful idea. Perhaps if close knot, where everyone knows everyone even somewhat, each person could draw a name and write a note saying something nice to the person they drew or make them a card.

 

[Gigi@Disney]

There's some really cute craft ideas that would work for most ages and a couple of




these ideas would be nice for the holidays:

 

[Aimeedyan]

It may not work for your group, but we played laser tag as a women's group - we rented it for 2 games so we were the only ones in there. Even our senior adult ladies loved it! An escape room has also been a bit hit (and it's less physical activity).

What about a cooking class? Either someplace like Sur la Table or bring in someone.

Our church provides a full meal once a week to a Ronald McDonald type facility nearby (families live there while their loved one is in the hospital). Your group could cook the meal together (either at your church or at the facility) and deliver it.

I've done the homeless kits above - you can donate a bunch + each take some for their car to hand out. Definitely include socks!

 

[Claudia1]

LOVE all of your ideas! To answer a few, our Children's Ministry does the trunk or treat and the Women's Ministry serves hot dogs, popcorn, and drinks. Even tho we are not a Salvation Army church, our local Salvation Army is a life-line for most of the needy and underserved in our community, so we help supply their food bank, cook meals there, and donate 1,000's of items each year. (Personally, I love that my church family reaches out to other churches to help!). Operation Christmas Child is also a big thing here. We also collect socks, gloves, and hats for our elementary schools. We are the largest church in our area but we live in a very depressed, needy, rural community with 70% of the students are on free or reduced lunches (which means they live near or below the poverty level). Our church body is really big into service outside of our church walls and we would love to find an old food truck that we can refurbish to take hot meals to those who can't drive to the Salvation Army. We also did a card making night with a "Women of Titus" theme....... the older women teaching the younger girls how to make them and we provided talking points for the cards so that the "older women could teach the young". We are planning a gluten-free cooking class sometime in the next year.

I've shared all of your wonderful ideas and we are leaning toward the mason jar crafts, wreaths, and scrapbooking. One suggestion was a variation on the wreath theme..... holiday centerpieces. The suggestion is to have a crafty lady demonstrate easy and/or cheap centerpieces for fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas then add a mini-devotional for each holiday on how to keep Christ at the center of your holiday. We could also bring in the blessing cards into the Thanksgiving theme. We are also looking into doing something with mason jars or scrapbooking to give to a local nursing home but we don't have a solid lead on that yet.

Cost is a concern. Even tho we have a good budget, all of us on the steering committee are not comfortable using a lot on programs for fun. We want to use the money in service. Of course, we do spend money on our events but we do it responsibly. Just because we have the money, that doesn't mean we should blow it on something that does not serve the Kingdom. These quarterly Women's meetings usually don't cost much (food and items are usually donated) but the conversations and interactions are priceless!

I will pass on the laser tag idea to one of the younger groups. Great idea!

 

[Kellykins1218]

Wreaths & scarecrows are fun to make

 

[mummabear]

An amazing race has always been a hit with any group I have done it with, I have used it on work retreats and with our girl guides.

 

[javeyloveschelsi]

A painting night is always fun where you get someone to come in and you all learn how to paint a picture on a large canvas. You all paint the same picture but everyone's is just a little different. The ladies around here LOVE doing that and our local MOPS group just did it with more of an Easter theme (cross and sunset) so I'm sure someone could come up with a great picture.