With the end of the semester approaching and Thanksgiving this week I wanted to give you an event idea that incorporates fun activities and a lot of food!
Every semester Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin holds a study day for the surrounding colleges. The week of finals volunteers make food in mass quantities and provide rides from the campus to the church using buses. The church announces online leading up to the event some of the food that will be provided for the event to pump students up. Along with the rides and food the church provides quiet areas for study and activities like sports, board games, movies, worship, and much more one day from noon to midnight. The church also provides volunteers who help tutor students who are interested as well. The Blackhawk Study Day is now in its eleventh year. What started out as a good idea for an outreach event has now grown to the point that the church serves over 1,200 students and has over 200 volunteers! What better way to reach out to your campus and invite students into the church in a nonthreatening way than with an event like this?
Your BASIC group and church probably aren’t prepared to serve food to 1,200 college students, but the Blackhawk Study Day didn’t start out serving that many students either. The event has been improved on year after year to where it is now the number one thing many students in the area look forward to around finals time. Wouldn’t it be great for your church and BASIC group to have that kind of reputation and publicity with college students? If you feel it’s too late to organize something like this for finals this year then file away this idea for the spring semester.
Take a look at this video they made from the event in 2008: