New Member Party

Last Friday Brian and I had a party at our house for the new members. As part of his position, Brian has started an assimilation program and has paired new members with existing members in kind of a mentor relationship. The program is pretty successful thus far and is meant to help people feel more connected to St. Peter and one another. At times, this can be hard to achieve in such a big church. We decided it was time for everyone to reconnect again so we made a ham, provided drinks, and some mentors brought appetizers and desserts.
We created a rotating trivia game out of 10 numbered trivial pursuit tables, which we set up in our unused second floor to provide a little fun for the evening. There were 6 rounds each 10 minutes long with an intermission to get food and drinks. Each couple kept track of their scores in each category. The couples that had the most overall points at their particular table when the round ended moved up a table, and the couples that had the least moved down a table. This way people got to play with and meet a bunch of different people. I found some plastic trophies and mardi gras beads at the dollar store, which we gave as little prizes for the couples that had the most correct answers in each traditional trivial pursuit category and one for the overall winner.
The neatest part of the evening for me was breaking down expectations people have of Pastors, Pastor's wives, or church people. A new member told us they didn't know what to expect when they came to the Pastor's house, but they sure didn't think they would be kicking back in their socks playing trivia until 12:00am. Hopefully, that was a good unexpected! It was a fun night and I think one that might become a tradition for new member classes.
Click here to view other pictures from this evening.