A few weekends ago, our Family Ministry team threw down my favorite volunteer celebration ever. I still have a perpetual fist pump going. Look, maybe it’s not the best volunteer celebration in the history of the world but it’s the best one we’ve ever done. If you’re interested, here’s what we did.
TASTY TREATS
The first order of business in any great party is food. Without good food the whole enterprise is in trouble. I’m just saying. Our volunteers came into the building and were treated to cheesecake and coffee. In my book, that’s a win.
CHAOS AND FREE STUFF
After tasty treats, we corralled everyone into one of our auditorium spaces and played a variety of mixers and stage games. We pitted department against department because we’re competitive like that. Here’s what we played:
- Always start with a Raffle…because free stuff is awesome!
- A mixer called In Room Scavenger Hunt. Click here for a description.
- Powerade Flip Out. It’s the Minute to Win it Game called Stick the Landing except we play four people at once flinging bottles on the same table. Essentially it turns into madness with players blocking each others shots and throwing each others Powerade across the room . It’s a riot. I’m pretty sure we stole the idea from Stuff You Can Use.
- Head-to-Head Flappy Bird. Somehow our tech geniuses figured out a way to put two iPads on the projector screen at the same time. I don’t even know…but it’s amazing.
- Clumps. A great mixer with a weird name. Here’s how to play.
- Quiz Bowl Time with Andy LoveHandles. Sorry, this isn’t really duplicate-able. One of our team members plays a game show character who throws Little Debbie Ding-Dongs at contestants when they get an answer correct. It’s a little dangerous and a lot hilarious.
FUNNY PEOPLE
For the next element, we brought in a local improv group called River City Improv. They were a huge hit with our volunteers.
MEANINGFUL WORDS
After the improv group, our Senior Pastor of Family Ministries, Brian VanderArk shared a few thoughts about “moments.” I’ll send you his notes for $500. Actually, he’ll probably just give them to me if you want them. The key was, it was short and meaningful. Volunteers heard, “What I do matters!”
CUTE KIDS
To cap the night, we showed this thank-you video.
Volunteer Celebration: Thank You from LifeLine Student Ministries on Vimeo.
There you have it. The best volunteer celebration ever. Feel free to steal any or all of it…except the video. That would be weird.
