We are a young church coming up on 10 years of holding public worship. We would like to mark this milestone and find ways to share the stories of what God has done in and through our church. What have churches done to help mark significant anniversaries? Looking for suggestions both for a gathering time, as well as things that we could hang up or do in our space.
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Hi Kelli,
Trinity CRC in Rock Valley, Iowa, celebrated 50 years last year. Covid-19 threw wrinkles in some of our plans but we still had a very meaningful weekend of reviewing and celebrating God's faithfulness.
The council formed an anniversary team to plan the event. This team further divided into smaller sub-teams filled with additional members to tackle specific tasks (e.g., Saturday evening event, Sunday worship, food, commemorative book, etc.).
This page on our website will you give a glimpse into what we did: https://trinitycrc.com/trinity-crcs-50th-anniversary. It's not mentioned there, but we also published a book of info and memories from the past 50 years. And we gave away nightlights with Trinity CRC's logo on them as a piece of anniversary memorabilia and a reminder to keep shining for Christ in the years ahead.
Early in our planning we connected with a few other churches that recently celebrated an anniversary. One in particular that gave us some good ideas was Crosspoint CRC in Chino CA: https://www.crosspointchino.org/anniversary.
Hope there's something here you find helpful/inspiring as you celebrate your 10-year milestone!
~Stanley
Hi Kelli,
We are First CRC Red Deer in Alberta. In December our church became 70 years young! We are planning a special celebration service on Feb. 6. We originally planned for a celebration weekend including a dinner however Covid has changed our plans. We will have a special service incorporating many different people. We plan to have a few youth interview some senior members who have been here a long time, as well a couple of previous staff will participate in the service and our current chair of council. We will hand out a cupcake after the service. For previous anniversaries (25th, 50th) a memory book was created, sharing stories, photos and memories.
Sonya Wagenaar,
Administrator, First CRC Red Deer
I have always believed that if an anniversary is to be celebrated, it should be not simply a looking back, but a looking forward as well. Perhaps a vision and goals for the next 10 years and a call to renew one's commitment to Christ and the Body.
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