Serving One Another

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Serving One Another:Creative ways to serve one another and the community around you. 1. Serving New Members of Your Group - Agree as a Community Group that the next person to join the community group will win the "Community Group Quarterly Service Award". When they come into the meeting they are told that they have won and that the community will find a date in the near future to serve them with a house project of any kind. 2. Serving Unbelievers - Ask the group if they are aware of any service projects that could be done for an unbelieving friend or co-worker. Take the best idea and schedule this in place of one of your future Community Group meetings. 3. Leaf Raking - Ask if anyone in the group is struggling to keep up their yard work during the Fall season. If someone is, and they could legitimately use help (the need is real, not just convenient), then coordinate a group to spend a Saturday morning at their house. 4. Leaf Raking Outreach - Plan a day for the community group to rake the yards of the neighbors surrounding the host family's house. Consider communicating to the neighbors that you are doing it to say thanks for letting everyone park on the street throughout the year. 5. Oil Change and Salon Night - Schedule a night where the community group comes together and the men work on cars in the garage while the women stay inside and do each other's nails. Get pizza as a group and make it a full evening. 6. Care for the Elderly - Poll the elderly in your group and find a small project that they would each be blessed to have done. Assign each of these small projects (window washing, weeding, simple yard work) to different members of the group and then plan a day or evening when the group meets all together and then goes out in different directions and meets each need. You can return afterwards to talk and enjoy refreshments. 7. Care for Single Moms and Dads - If you have a single mom in your group, plan a night when babysitting is provided for their kids and they are able to enjoy an evening out by themselves. 8. Moving Members - Keep track of when members might be moving. If possible, plan to have a Saturday morning or other time when you help them pack/move. If needed, this can take the place of Community Group that week. 9. "Adopt" a Park or Highway - Find a public area that you can commit to clean together once or twice a year for the community. Best to have this be a place that is local to where the group meets. The visibility could be a great encouragement to the community. 10. Date Nights - Talk about how to help one another cultivate healthy date nights with each other. Perhaps plan a night in the Fall when half of the couples can babysit for the other couples and then switch halves again in the Spring. 11. Community Service - Discuss different burdens in the group for the community and talk about how you can express those burdens in different ways. Spend a night talking about these areas, praying for these areas, and then plan a night to address one of them together.

12. Soup Kitchen - Find a local soup kitchen that you can serve once or twice a year (perhaps around the holidays). Something like City Team could work really well (610-872-6865) 13. Second Sunday - Plan a month where in place of CG you attend a Second Sunday together as a group. Consider going back to someone's house afterwards to enjoy an ice cream party as a group. 14. Anniversary/Birthday Celebrations - Make sure the whole group is aware of each other's anniversaries (and birthdays for singles) and make it easy for each couple in the group to get away or go on a date by providing all of the childcare that is necessary. 15. Soccer Games and Water Bottles - Plan a weekend when as a group you go to local soccer fields and provide free cold water for the players. If possible, attach invitations to the bottles. 16. Little League Snack Bar Volunteer - Find out who in your group have kids in Little League and see if there's a way for your group to provide volunteers to man the snack bar throughout the season. 17. General Service Challenge - Take a night to compile half a dozen of the above options and talk about the value of service through the meeting. End by giving a service challenge to the group. Encourage everyone to personally pursue one of these options over the next month. 18. Pregnancy Center Service - Talk about a CG night or a Saturday morning that you can go to Amnion Pregnancy Center (610-622-9957) or Delaware County Crisis Pregnancy Center (610-872-2229) and serve in any way needed.