Are you looking for a fun, super easy and cheap way to connect with ladies in your neighborhood or your church? Here’s a great summer theme idea!
For decorations, you can use plastic tablecloths of your color choosing or cloth but since this was a beach picnic feel we went with plastic and chose purple since our Women’s Ministry color is purple. The centerpiece was some kinetic sand (which was quite the hit even for adult women to play with!), a pail and shovel, a small beach ball and some flip flops in the pail. Drape some leis over the chairs and your table is done! Most of these things can be gathered up from all the ladies, a Dollar Tree visit, or buy some items in bulk on Amazon. You can also do a giveaway with any or all of the items afterward.
Photo walls have been in trend for sometime now, so be sure to include a backdrop either one like this you can find on Amazon (all links are below), or put a palm tree, big beach towel behind you and don’t forget all the props of course! We had a table with sunglasses, beach balls, beach bag, beach towels, a hula skirt, hats, sarongs and more leis.
For our food table we used some beach containers we had, flip flop platters we found at Dollar Tree, and a picnic basket for chips, pasta, croissant chicken salad sandwiches, pinwheel sandwiches, cookies, and ice cream cups. Drinks consisted of just lemonade and water, but we added a little extra fun with some mango popping boba with large straws. We had considered doing a mocktail or milkshake bar with all sorts of add-ins and a menu inspiration with little umbrellas but, we were on a time constraint so we opted to keep it more simple this time. The boba was a lot of fun and the ladies loved it! But if you can, have fun with the drinks because it adds a whole other layer of connecting and conversation!
Since our group of ladies were coming from different churches all over the state, we wanted to mix everyone up and keep church groups from only sitting together. So, we had a pail for table numbers that everyone drew from to see where they were sitting and then the pails on each table showed the table numbers. At their seat was a card that said “Let’s be ‘sole sisters'” and places for them to write their contact information and pass it around the table. Our main goal for this gathering was to introduce our new team, network and stir up new and fresh ideas to inspire all of our ladies. We are a new board leading the women’s ministry for our state church denomination and we have some rebuilding to do so we wanted to reconnect and build community again.
Now, the ultimate fun part: the ice breaker! Yeah…yeah, most people hate ice breakers but it can also be LOTS of fun! And this one was certainly that! We had two pails, one that said “flop” and one that said “flip”. Inside were questions for each and a large beach ball we volleyed around the room while music played. When the music stopped, the last lady who had touched the ball had to answer a question from the pail of her choice. Below are the questions so you can use them as well! The answers were oh so fun!! The last question in each pail, you can take out until all other questions have been answered so it segways beautifully into a more deeper conversation around their tables at the end of this activity. Quick side note about the music, we used a beach oldies music playlist we created for the afternoon and in retrospect, we could have had a fun trivia sheet or game on the tables to see how many you could name!
Pail for flip
- Tell a vacation or summer story that made you flip out from a scare or surprise etc?
- What book or tv show do you mostly flip through or to?
- What is something you’ve had to look at the flip side?
- What is something that has happened in your life that God flipped around?
Pail for flop
- What is a cooking recipe or cooking story that was a complete flop?
- Did you ever have a date flop story?
- When you’re done for the day, do you prefer to flop on a chair, a bed or a couch? While “flopped”, what do you like to do?
- Is there something in your life that felt like a flop at the time, but later you saw God’s Hand in it?
After the icebreaker, the ladies can return to their seats (if it plays out like ours did and everyone is standing and moving around chasing the beach ball!). Inside the pail on the table is three more questions for more intimate conversation time around their table. Now, again, our purpose for this gathering was to brainstorm ideas on how we can lead our Women’s Ministry so our questions were targeted for that and we had carbon copy paper on the tables so the ladies could jot down their ideas and we could also have a copy. However, I also am including another list of questions you can ask if this is just for your church and you want to get into more deeper conversations
- What are some creative ways you have found in connecting with women in a group?
- What are things that you would love to see in the Women’s Ministry?
- When it comes to a women’s retreat, where and what would you like to experience?
Alternative personal questions:
- Have you felt like things have been a flop in your life or have you been on the flip side where you see God’s hand in your life?
- Is there an area in your life that you need to have God flip your perspective?
- If you had a “flop” in life you could redo, what would it be and why? And are you able to see how God has used it to “flip” things around through it?
To close your meeting, give time for prayer around the table. You can also close out with asking for different tables to share their top 3 takeaways from the meeting and do a large group closing prayer time.
I hope you have a blast just as much as we did with our Flip Flops & Friends! If you do an event, I’d love to hear how it went and your highlights so leave a comment below! I’m so thankful for this amazing team of ladies that share the same passion and vision for the women of our state and am looking forward to all that we will do in the coming years!
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