Idea of the Month — November 2007
Abigail Hughes, State Girls Clubs Coordinator, Missouri

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year because it is the perfect opportunity, especially in the local church, to get involved in my favorite types of ministry, evangelism and benevolence!  Thoughts about giving skyrocket during this time even in people who are not usually drawn to this type of ministry.  The holiday of Thanksgiving provides the perfect backdrop to either step up your evangelism and benevolence ministry in your church or even to start a new ministry in your local congregation.  In my experience, people will get involved with simple servanthood evangelism steps during this holiday season and this will prepare them to do more ministry in the Christmas season to come!

My ideas for Thanksgiving are nothing new or really even creative, but I do believe if done with a humble heart, these practical tips could revolutionize your church!

These two ideas sort of went together at our church, when we pastored, but they could be done independently of each other.  You have to figure out what will work for your congregation. 

The first idea is to have a Thanksgiving dinner at your church, not necessarily on Thanksgiving, but pick a time during the season.  We did ours on the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving.  We put out flyers and went door-to-door for weeks beforehand to make sure that anyone who was hungry or lonely knew they were invited and welcome.  It eventually became our Sunday morning service.  We would have a few a cappella songs and my husband, the pastor, would explain why we were doing the dinner (Luke 4:18).  But basically it was a meal for everyone, members and visitors.  This is a lot of work, but you will be surprised who will want to help.  Let businesses know what you are doing because donations always help!  You could serve any kind of food, but what worked best for us was just the traditional Thanksgiving feast.  I was blessed because I had a mother and sister who always took care of the turkeys for me, and then I just rounded up all the sides and desserts!  God always blessed our meal.  The first year at Mt. Olive East (Cleveland, TN), we served around 90 people and in 2006, just 7 years later, they served over 1,000 people Thanksgiving dinner!  Praise the Lord!!!

Another idea is to make Thanksgiving baskets.  Before our Sunday dinner, I got the ladies together in the church and we put together Thanksgiving baskets.  Some years we had turkeys donated and sometimes we didn’t.  It’s an added bonus, but don’t get discouraged by what you don’t have, just move forward with what you do have!  I always had someone put together a menu and we signed up for different items.  This was one of the easiest jobs to get volunteers for when I was a pastor’s wife, because a lot of the items are not very expensive, such as a can of chicken broth or pie filling.  So everyone was able to get involved!  Sometimes we had baskets that the women would donate and then some years we just had to use boxes.  But you can be as elaborate on this as you want.  You could have your Girls Clubs decorate your boxes or make cards to put in them.  When we first started, we delivered the boxes, but eventually, we gave the boxes out after the Thanksgiving dinner.

It doesn’t matter where your church is located.  I have come to believe that there are hungry people everywhere!  Our first church was located in the projects and it was no surprise that we confronted physical hunger all the time.  But at our last church, we were located in a very affluent area and when the time came to do Thanksgiving ministry, there were questions about if it was even needed.  But come to find out, not only were there hungry in our community, but we had families in our own congregation that no one would have believed did not have the money for Thanksgiving dinner!  So I feel like if you do the ministry that God has commanded us to do, which is feed His sheep, don’t worry because God will send His sheep to you.

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