Making Friends in Rochester

On October 2, 2011 Family of Christ Lutheran Church in Rochester held their first annual Friendship Sunday as an intentional effort to reach others for Christ in a relational way.  The event was part of our long term outreach plan with a goal to reach neighbors of members who live in northwest Rochester. We encouraged members to invite their friends and neighbors to our Sunday Service. We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny and warm fall day and 110 members and non-members attended the service. God is good!

Our goal was to reach out to 20 families in northwest Rochester.  We were blessed by nine families that attended our service who were not yet members of any church. One of those families has since joined our congregation; they had recently moved to Rochester and are now considering having their two boys attend Rochester Central Lutheran School. The Cedar Valley Praise Band provided music during the service and following. The music rang through the trees and in the valley where the service was held. The sound was Awesome!”

Special thanks to Family of Christ Lutheran Church
Congregation President and LCEF Representative
Ken DeCramer for providing this follow up summary of the event,
Oct. 2011.

Here’s how they did it:

• A Minnesota South District 2011 $1,000 Lutheran Church Extension Fund Outreach Event Grant provided funds
• We rented a group of shelters at Essex Park in northwest Rochester
• We hired The Cedar Valley Praise Jazz Band for Service Music and play after our Church Service
• We provided numerous games for the children including cake walks, bean bag toss and sponge toss. Every child received a Jesus centered prize
• We handed out Family of Christ fliers and LCEF information
• A free will offering was accepted with the money going to RCLS