Harvest Party

Tonight my church is hosting a harvest party at the Faison Primary School in Homewood.  I love this annual event so much!  North Way is trying to become an externally focused church, which means that although we seek to provide healthy programs and worship experiences we also seek to be involved relationally with people outside the walls of the church.  Many churches offer "Halloween alternative events" that are often called harvest parties.  The intention is to draw families to the church building instead of trick or treating in their neighborhoods as a part of Halloween.  North Way traditionally held such an event which drew hundreds of people to the main church campus.  A few years ago I challenged our church staff to think of creative ways that they could get our church involved in the community.  The kids and student ministries staff members came up with the idea to take the harvest party from being an internally focused event to being an externally focused event.  They simply took everything they did on that harvest party night and offered all of those things at our LAMP elementary partner school in Homewood.  This is the third year that the harvest party will be held in Homewood, and we're expecting over 750 people from Homewood and possibly 200+ people from North Way to participate in the event.  It's a great onramp for people from North Way to get involved in Homewood, and it's a wonderful event for the kids in my community.  It's a unique example of how churches can partner with public schools (and remember, we started the partnership with long term, authentic relationships that we have built with LAMP over the years).  We're expecting some great weather tonight and a fun time all around.  I can't wait!