With the dawn of the school year upon us, this may be a great time to start thinking about a larger, more elaborate gathering, allowing the group time to mix and mingle and get used to the “new group”. Try this idea.
Type/Purpose: Event/Activity, Food/Messy, Mixer, Off-Site
Use this activity both as a way to draw excitement from the Olympics, and also as a tool to introduce your group to other members from the church community.
Materials: A variety of food
Ideas for Implementation:
- Identify different members in your congregation who come from different Ethnic/Cultural backgrounds, and ask them to prepare a dish from their home country/region, etc.
- When meeting together, ask the preparers to describe a bit about what they made, and give some background to it.
- Ask members from different Ethnic/Cultural backgrounds to come up with ideas for simple snacks/meal ideas from their region.
- When the group meets, have different workstations for the participants to learn how to prepare different foods.
- Ask different members to “Host” various small groups, and have an “Ethnic” progressive dinner.
- Include an appetizer, two small courses, and dessert.
- In all scenarios, make sure to have time for discussion at the end, when the large group meets together.
Teachable Moments:
- Describe what it was like to sample the different foods.
- Describe what it was like to hear some of the stories from different members.
- Why or why not might it be important to “branch out” and try different things?
- How might this apply as we think about this upcoming school year?
First published on the youthESource on August 27, 2012.
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