If quarantine has taught us one thing, it’s our need for community and fellowship. RISING Church in Buford, GA is meeting that need with a monthly event called Driveway Dinners, and they’ve agreed to let me share the details!
What are Driveway Dinners? Driveway Dinners are a social distancing event for church families to get together and catch up. Each family brings a chair, blanket, bug spray, outdoor activities if they want, and enough food and drinks for themselves, then they meet in a host’s driveway for dinner and hangs with 3-4 other church families. It’s a great way to gather together while still accommodating different comfort levels since you ask people to socially-distance outside in the driveway. People can choose to wear masks or not (RISING Church is located in Georgia, where masks are optional – follow your local social distancing guidelines).
How do you set up Driveway Dinners? Pick one date and time for all Driveway Dinners to happen at the same time, at different host locations. RISING Church set up a registration form online where they asked what stage of life their folks are in (young adult, empty-nesters, single, or family of teens, elementary or younger) so they could group them together by stage of life. That way, all ages (kids and adults) can socialize and enjoy themselves. They also ask for hosts in their registration form, and the only thing you need to host is a driveway! Everyone is contacted by email a few days before the event with details about who their host is, and the host can reply with any details. One fun element is that they only share the host (not the whole group) with each family, so it’s a fun surprise to see who will show up for your Driveway Dinner!
How often do you have Driveway Dinners? RISING Church plans to do one a month for as long as the weather cooperates. In their location, it doesn’t get colder until very late in the year. The groups change each month, so families are with different families each time.
RISING Church has hosted Driveway Dinners for several months now, and Lori, the associate pastor, said this:
Driveway Dinners are an easy win because of their simplicity, and they safely allow people to stay connected! Our folks got really creative with this – one Driveway Dinner even happened on a boat/floating in the lake!
By asking people to share pictures of their Driveway Dinner on social media, families also have the chance to see familiar faces from different groups. And it’s a great way to collect and share pictures for your church’s social media accounts!
As the weather cools down from the heat of the summer, Driveway Dinners are the perfect way to socially-distance and still allow for connection! They’re easy to plan, simple to host, and provide a great way for families to stay connected with each other in this season. Thanks, RISING Church, for allowing me to share about your idea!
Looking for other social-distanced fall event ideas? Check out our favorites here!
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.