Neighborhood Gathering Events

Join us at Bethesda for special events for the whole family! Several times each year, we open our church in a fun and family-oriented way to everyone who lives around us! Each Neighborhood Gathering features a meal (don’t eat before!), a fun family activity, plus lots of new friends to meet and get to know!

In the past, we have had:

• A family movie night and bbq,
• Halloween Trunk or Treat with spooky finger foods and fun games,
• Chili cook-off with prizes
• A huge Friendsgiving feast for the whole neighborhood!

We try to bring the Bethel community something new and fun to enjoy with their loved ones! So many memories are made at these events, and we would really love it if you could join us.

We want this church to be a beacon to our Bethel community…a place where all feel welcome even if they don’t show up on Sundays.

How Do I Find Out When There’s An Event?

We will advertise our neighborhood events lots of ways:

• Our Facebook or Instagram
• Our website
• Our emails

How Do I Help?

• Volunteer at an event!
• Donate food or money.
• Sponsor or seek a sponsor. Sponsors reduce our need for member contributions and help us make the events even more fantastic. Plus, they get exposure and publicity!

Volunteer or inquire here: https://bethesdalutheranchurch.com/contact-bethesda/

Trunk-or-Treat Was a Massive Success!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still recovering! What a fantastic event. In case you didn’t hear, we think we had over 1000 people. We gave 720 slices of pizza away in an hour, and several hundred people were still coming through after that.

The Parish Hall was PACKED with people. It was crazy. We gave away nearly all the prizes we purchased (thousands), and we gave out all the candy. We had SO much candy. One person donated 3000 suckers, and that was a tiny fraction of what we had. And many of you brought your own!

This is why we want to do more of these events. As one person said, no one is doing things like this anymore. It’s true that far fewer community events exist that are good for families than existed pre- COVID, and as you know, our neighbors are, by and large, low-income and food insecure. If you would like to be a part of planning more events like this in 2024, please let Deanna or Sarah Peterson know.

Thanks to Pastor Tom, I mean Martin Luther, hundreds of people walked away with a lovely, faithfilled, and welcoming message. Many more took our flyers about upcoming events or filled out a survey.

Our neighbors say they come to our church because it is inviting, welcoming, and safe. Even if not even one person who came to this event ends up becoming a member, how awesome is that?

Thank you also to some sponsors. Premier Construction, Buchholz and Garber, LLC, Putters Pizza, Felicia Mondragon Real Estate, and the Detels who got a Thrivent grant for us. All of these contributed financially. Thanks also to Moore Sugar and SweetBay Shave Ice for contributing a portion of sales.

Thank you again, everyone.
Deanna, Sarah, and Pastor Tom