7 Inspiring Church Thanksgiving Service Ideas

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Thanksgiving is a time where everybody starts to think about ways that they can serve other people in their lives. And it is a great opportunity for churches to get involved in services in their community. In this conversation, we talk through seven service ideas that your church can use to be a blessing to your community. We hope this conversation helps you reach more people and grow. You're listening to The Reach Right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way. Hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me as always as my co-host, Ian Hyatt. We're here to help your church see more visitors and grow Speaker 2 00:00:50 To get ready to get. Speaker 0 00:00:57 Hey guys, welcome to the Retried podcast, uh, Thomas Costello. I'm your host and with me as always as my cohost Speaker 3 00:01:03 Ian Hyatt. Hey, Thomas. Speaker 0 00:01:05 Hey, man. Excited to talk. Today we're gonna be talking about, uh, Thanksgiving related stuff. It's Thanksgiving season here. Assuming you're watching or listening to this before Thanksgiving. It is, uh, November of 2022. Today we're talking about seven inspiring church Thanksgiving service ideas that you guys can implement in your churches here. So I think a lot of churches, when Thanksgiving roll around, we wanna find ways to make it impact in our community. We realize that there are a lot of those out there that are less fortunate that maybe some of the people within our church. And so it becomes a natural response. We wanna find things that we can do to just be a blessing to people in our community. So in this episode, in this conversation today, we have seven different ideas that the team here at Reach Wite that we came up with, uh, that we think we've seen churches do. We've seen them have great success with them. We think it'd be a good, uh, good conversation to have here today. Speaker 3 00:01:58 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and who doesn't want more? Maybe your church has been doing, you know, the same thing every Thanksgiving season, so maybe we'll give you a fresh idea and something that's a better fit moving forward. Hopefully. Speaker 0 00:02:09 Yeah, we, we wrestled with this, uh, cuz you know, we, this episode isn't gonna be about necessarily Thanksgiving service ideas for, than in your service, Right, Right. You have a few ideas that are kind of tied into that, but this is more about ways that you can make an impact in people outside of your church and some people inside your church, but just kind of to be, to be able to serve them. That's what this is all about here today. So I think it's gonna be helpful. Speaker 3 00:02:32 Good point. Yeah. Well, let's kick it off. First one here is maybe your church should do a Thanksgiving service project. Speaker 0 00:02:39 Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great idea. Just, uh, finding this is a time or a reason to get out into your community and do something that actually can make an impact for people. I think this is something that is on the top of people's minds within your church. I think if there's one time a year, uh, it's probably Thanksgiving, maybe into Christmas a little bit, but Thanksgiving is that one time where people, we kind of have these memories from childhood in a lot of cases where yeah, we would bring people into our homes that would come over for Thanksgiving and God willing, you're still doing these kinds of things. But I think yeah, <laugh>, it can be a bigger opportunity, uh, and a church can really capitalize that in this season here because yeah, it's just a great chance for you to, uh, to encourage your people. They're probably gonna be more receptive, this idea of getting involved in service, whether it be, uh, some kind of a, uh, helping with the homeless population in your community there, or, uh, helping with, uh, kids that don't have the kind of means that maybe people within your church have doing some of those kinds of things. People are gonna be more receptive to doing that in this season than any other time. Speaker 3 00:03:42 Yeah, Yeah. Maybe it's cleaning up a local park or helping people, uh, with yard stuff or home, uh, home improvement stuff, just cuz you know, a lot of people wanna have a nice home and things cleaned up for the holidays. And my church has been doing what I've loved for years than my family's taken part of. We do, um, you know, bags of celebration, basically our church's name is celebration, so that's why we call it that. But, um, we give people the, um, opportunity to sponsor a family and purchase their whole Thanksgiving meal. Wow. So you can do that as a way to give, but here's what you can also do. You can not only sponsor and pay for it, you can actually take it to their address personally and, uh, give them their whole Thanksgiving meal. I, I will tell you that I took my whole family and kids to do this and boy did it not only touch my heart, but it touched my kids' hearts and meant so much. Made them so thankful, made them get outside of themselves to be able to go and, and just see someone's face light up, who gets a Thanksgiving meal provided for 'em in a tough time in their life. So, really good stuff. So. Speaker 0 00:04:47 Awesome. Yeah, it's good stuff man. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:04:49 Good. Next one is, uh, donation drive or a charity. Fun fundraiser. I guess I kind of hit on that a little bit with what I just said, but there's other things too. Speaker 0 00:05:00 Yeah. So I, I, I love this idea and I think this is something that's a no brainer is that we've all seen these before, can good drive some of these kinds of things where you collect canned goods and everybody turns over their peas and that kind of stuff. All the, all the junk canned goods that they have in their pantry that they can't really bring themselves to eat. No, I can't. But, um, I think that this is a, a really good opportunity to do something like that. We would do this every year at the church. I was pastoring most recently. We had an enormous, uh, canned good and not just canned good. We raised all kinds, like people would bring fresh vegetables and, uh, stovetop stuffing and other stuffing type things. All kinds of Thanksgiving stuff. And we actually partnered with a local community center in our community there and it was an enormous Thanksgiving food grocery basket and it was incredible. Speaker 0 00:05:47 The stuff like I I I, you know, it's a good food drive when you're passing it out and you look at it and you say, Well I wish I could take one of these home for me. Like, I hope that maybe they'll have some extra and maybe I can take it home because we gave away really good stuff at this. Yeah. But it was incredible. I mean, this food drive that we would take part of is we would literally over two days there would be thousands of families that would come and get like two big brown paper bags full of, had a Turkey and had stuffing and had mashed potato stuff and had everything you needed for a full Thanksgiving kind of a dinner. And it was just a big blessing to our community and what our church did. And I, I actually recommend this, is that I think it's not a great idea to do it just as your own church. Speaker 0 00:06:31 Especially if you're a smaller church. I think it's best to partner with someone else that's doing this. Yeah, yeah. But then be involved with the actual event itself where you give this stuff away. Because I actually, as the pastor of our church at this community center, I got to be the guy that greeted all the cars that pulled in there and got to connect with all kinds of people, help them. Uh, I was the first impression they all had at the community center. So yeah, huge opportunity I think. So anything you can do to partner with local community centers on this, I think it goes a long way. Speaker 3 00:07:04 That's, that's really cool. Yeah, That's good stuff. Next one, Thanksgiving feast for, uh, the homeless or a nursing home. So putting on a Thanksgiving feast. I liked that idea when I saw it. Speaker 0 00:07:14 Yeah, I think so too. Um, I've been a part of this at churches too, where the local homeless mission, they would put on a Thanksgiving big event and there would be literally, again, thousands of people that would come. We'd have to do it, I remember in like waves cuz we didn't have the seating area to be able to serve this many people, but it was the day before Thanksgiving typically, and we could see maybe 150 people. And so we wound up having like 14 different seatings where people would come in, uh, they would, uh, eat their meal, we'd get to share a little bit of a gospel presentation with them and have some of those kinds of things and, uh, encourage them to stick around and bless, bless them. And do I, and they were good meals too. I remember, this is stuff that I absolutely would eat, but I remember doing this had a really big impact on, uh, the people that were there serving as well as the community that was being blessed by this whole thing. So yeah, huge opportunity. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the nurse nursing home, how you might see something like that working. Speaker 3 00:08:12 Yeah, I mean I think those are people forgotten often. I mean, I think we, we definitely wanna focus on the homeless, but we forget about the, the elderly that are just sitting there and, and maybe you can go in and provide a better meal and just, and just socialize with them. Of course, share the, the love of the Lord with them there and uh, and, and be able to connect with them. But yeah, maybe it's going into a nursing home and and providing that kind of a meal. Most nursing home ha they have room for this, uh, and I'm sure they're open to it and yeah, take some of the workload off probably some of the staff there too. And, um, and so yeah, I've never personally done that. We've definitely done, uh, outreach stuff in nursing homes, but I like this one, one because I mean, I think that that would mean a lot for those folks that could be very lonely, uh, during the holidays. Speaker 0 00:09:00 So, yeah. Yeah. Good Speaker 3 00:09:02 Stuff. That's good. Next one was interesting to me. A gratitude board. Um, yeah, so, but <laugh> and then when we were kind of looking into that, cuz I've never done it, but I was like, Oh wait, that does kind of make sense. Speaker 0 00:09:11 Yeah. I love the idea. I think it's a really cool thing. Um, so this is basically, there's a few ways you could do it. I've heard it called like a Thanksgiving tree, which is kind of, I guess a play on Christmas tree or something, or a gratitude board, something like that. But it's a, an idea where people from within your church can write down on a piece of paper or a leaf I guess if it's a tree and they can write down something that they're thankful for. So, so it's something, I think this is a really great idea for churches with lots of families. It's something that your kids can get involved in and just helping them remember what Thanksgiving is all about here. So taking that chance to do that and then having a spot in your church dedicated to these basically they're almost like praise reports, right? Speaker 0 00:09:52 It's like Thanksgiving and praise is kind of the same thing. And so they're writing down, Hey, this is what I'm thankful for this year. That's something we do in our house. Like every, this is a little key into the Costello family Thanksgiving tradition. We have this tablecloth. Uh, and on this table, I think you've been there. I think I actually have some of your writing from years ago on this. Yeah, Yeah. We have a tablecloth that everybody ever joins us for a Thanksgiving meal. We have them write down what they're thankful for on there. We've been using this for, oh, I don't know, 15 years or so now, I would guess. Yeah. And it's so amazing every time I come to it, every Thanksgiving we open it up and we see all these things written on here of people that I don't even remember that they shared a Thanksgiving with us before. Speaker 0 00:10:34 Yeah, yeah. And they wrote down what they were thankful for. This is a small version of that. So it's something where, yeah, you would have a tree or a board in your church, a dedicated space. People can write down something they're thankful for and put it on there and they could do it anonymously if it's something that they're, it's more private to them, but I, in most cases they'll be fine to write their name. But it's so amazing to see just an overwhelming display of people's gratitude, thanksgiving and praise really to the Lord, to what he's done for us. Yeah. And uh, I think it's a really cool idea for churches to jump on. Speaker 3 00:11:05 That is a good idea. I should have, I do remember that now. I should have stolen that from my family. I think I wrote down that I was thankful for your wife's cooking. Um, so, but I can't remember. Speaker 0 00:11:13 You would say something kind of get true, but kind of a half joking at the same time here. Not really. Yeah, she is a good taking it seriously. She is a good cook. She will say Speaker 3 00:11:22 That. She is good. So right next one, family, a family Thanksgiving service while we're talking about family. Speaker 0 00:11:28 Yep. Yeah, right back to it. I think this is, uh, the board is a great idea for families. Uh, I think that it, there's a lot of value in churches, especially, I think smaller churches could probably execute this better. Uh, but having a week where you just really model this attitude of thanksgiving in your primary church service. Yeah. And you include children in it. I know it's something that sometimes can be hard and challenging, especially if, if you have a really dynamic kids program and you have a lot of kids, it can really make for a lot of distractions and service. This doesn't take those away, but I think it does give kids a chance to experience their leaders, their parents, the people, the adults, they respected their lives, really showing gratitude and it models that for them. So I think it's a huge opportunity, I think for churches to have, uh, maybe one week a year, the week, the Sunday before Thanksgiving is probably the right time to do this, but having a specific service that is dedicated just to Thanksgiving and it's a great time to include the kids in that one. Speaker 3 00:12:27 Yeah. No, that's good. Uh, this next one's uh, a little interesting too. Sharing an annual gratitude testimony. Speaker 0 00:12:34 Yeah. Well I think the idea here is that just bringing in testimonies, I think a lot of times in churches, yeah, we're looking for opportunities to share more testimonies, right? And sometimes we just need to be prompted in our hearts to remember to share testimonies, right? Yeah. Like, so we know in our brains that like that is the key to evangelism in a lot of cases and right, we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And so yeah, we know these things, right? But like how often do we really remember to include a dedicated testimony time in our church services there? So I think having a, a time, maybe it's 15 minutes, you have a shorter message. Uh, maybe it's that same one, that family one, you have a shorter message and then you invite five people maybe each to give yeah, a two to three minute testimony. Uh, and you know, I I'd encourage you to say 92nd knowing that it's gonna be three minutes when you do that <laugh>, but you have a kind of a testimony time where people share what God has done. Here's what he's said, Here's what I'm thankful for. It really is all kind of the same thing, but it's a great chance for you to remember that. And it always leaves people really encouraged when they get to hear testimonies from people within their church there. So I love that idea. Speaker 3 00:13:45 Or it could be, you know, video testimonials too that you just play throughout the month of November. You mix one in each service and, and, uh, and I think also to, uh, to the point of a testimony, and not only is everyone always thankful in a testimony <laugh>, which is good, uh, it takes, it takes the attention off the pastor too, and it, it brings out, you know, your members, you know, and sharing what God has blessed them with and not just coming from you as the pastor, you know, from the pulpit. So yeah, I think that's absolutely, that's a benefit of it as well. So, um, and other than that, so letter writing and a care package. So delivery, let me say that again. Letter writing and a care package delivery. Um, that's a very personal touch. I thought that that was cool. Speaker 0 00:14:31 Yeah, I think so too. I I really like this idea and I was thinking about this for my own family, but encouraging you could maybe do this as a church, like say, hey, let's get together and come up with some people we can do this for. But yeah, it's also a good chance for you to encourage families within your church to take some initiative and do it on their own. Yeah, but how meaningful would it be if your family or people from within your church, they took the time to write a card, uh, you know, to someone that doesn't get a lot of cards. This could be like deployed veterans or even just people that are local there. Your fire department, your police department, people that are within there, nurses, doctors, people that, that serve the community in those ways. Even public officials, people that are elected, Let's face it, midterms are coming up here soon. Speaker 0 00:15:15 Like this is a, like, it's not fun. What they have to do a lot of times the abuse they have to take. Yeah. How, how refreshing might it be if they got a letter from leaders in a church or members of a church and say, Hey, even though I don't even agree with you on everything <laugh>, I just want you to know that I appreciate you and I care about you. And just, it really, it means a lot that you, you serve our community in this way. Yeah. So I think taking the time to do that, writing something, even if you gave a little care package now, don't like, I, you know, in some cases maybe it makes sense to do something homemade or something, but in other cases, maybe it's a gift card or something like that, that just makes a lot of sense. But a thank you to some of those civic organizations, Speaker 3 00:15:53 Don't put, so don't just put a track in there. Speaker 0 00:15:55 Yeah. I would recommend not just a Heavens Gate, Hells Flames track or a four spiritual laws or that bridge track or something. You probably want a little more than that. Uh, so just be a blessing to them though. Like say thank you, but say thank you with a blessing that comes with it too. I think that goes a long way. And people don't forget this. If a, if a firehouse, I've, I've heard of some, Oh, how about this one too. Teachers, right? Teachers in your community. Like how, how much I, one thing that our church did is that, uh, one year right around this time we actually ordered a lunch for all the teachers at our local high school. It was a big expense. We went to, I think it was Subway or a sandwich shop, something like that. And it was back when, you know, we worked out a deal and we paid probably six or $7 per teacher. And so it cost us a good chunk to execute this here, but what a blessing it was to them. And you better believe that they remember, oh yeah, that's the church that meets right down here and they bought us lunch that one time. That was really nice of them when they did that for us. There. Just a way to say thank you. Speaker 3 00:16:56 That's good. That's good. So yeah, I was, I'm still, I was still laughing in my head about if, if you just put a track in there, I was thinking, you know, of all sorts of creative ways to, to not do it. Like, don't say, you know, would you be no one's thankful in hell. You know, no one's thankful in hell or we'd be thankful if, if you didn't spend eternity in hell. Anyway. We hope these are good ideas, right? Speaker 0 00:17:18 Yeah, I hope so too. I don't know if those two, uh, those are, those are two demonstrable bad ideas. Yeah. No, Speaker 3 00:17:23 No, no. That's, that was my, let me be clear. Don't do that. Please. Speaker 0 00:17:26 That's it. We don't recommend that. So I hope it has been helpful. If it has been, it would mean a lot to us. If you would rate reviews, subscribe, let us know in the comments, drop us a comment. If you have another idea, it'll really help I think the reach right community out there. If there are other ideas of things that your church does, yeah, that you've got a lot of results for around Thanksgiving, um, I think the community would really appreciate that. So thanks guys for being a part of the Reach Right family and we hope to catch you next week. Speaker 1 00:17:53 See you. Speaker 0 00:17:56 Thanks for listening to the Reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way. Looking for more resources for your church, check us out [email protected]. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us if you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week.