10 best summer ideas for your group

Summer means doing small group a different way at times. Make summer a fun time and your group will make plenty of memories this year.

1. Meet at the beach, a lake or a park a couple times this summer on your normal meeting day and invite friends to join you and check out the group.
2. Schedule several BBQs during the summer. Try having front yard barbeques and invite curious neighbors to come join the party.
3. Ladies in the group, have a "girls night out" for dinner, coffee, a movie or whatever the girls like to do.
4. Guys, do the same with a "guys night out" for Indoor Kart Racing, Bowling, a movie, Paintball, or whatever the guys like to do.
5. Mix up what you study:
   1. Use the "Talk it Over" sermon discussion notes and new video clips for really lively conversations.
   2. Get Pastor Buddy's study "Finding God in the Desert of The Soul" and enjoy the sweeping visuals and insightful thoughts.
   3. Read through particular chapters in the bible as a group (see 9 below).
   4. Share each week from a daily devotional or Pastor Tom's daily DriveTime Devotions.
   5. Check out the small group curriculum Lending Library at the Lake Forest campus. We may have just the study you have been wanting.
6. Go to a movie together and then have dessert or dinner afterward and discuss the biblical themes in the film.
7. Do a serving project together. What a great time to help out at your campus, fix up a group member's house or apartment, do some yard work for someone who is not doing well, or serve one Sunday morning at the motel ministry. See our list of three easy ways for groups to serve here. Or, for a huge list of ideas, go here.
8. Commit to have your regular meeting even if it's just one person. Rotate leadership and homes. Hosts, if you're going to be out of town, ask someone to have the group meeting at their house. This is a great way to start sharing leadership, if you aren't already.
9. Pick a book of the Bible and have everyone read a chapter a week and come ready with at least one question for the group to answer. Bring a commentary, a Serendipity Bible (available at the Pavilion), or other study materials to help.
10. Grab your group and head for the outdoors. How about an overnight retreat together? Find a campground, plan an overnight or two-day outing, meet up around a campfire at night and eat, sing, and have a devotional. Oh yeah!

Okay, here are five bonus ideas for groups with lots of kids - grab all the kids in the group and everyone goes for picnics at the park with games, a day at a water park, a day at the beach, or even a hike around Newport's Back Bay , kayak the Back Bay, or a group bike ride on the many trails of Orange County and the Inland Empire. End with a picnic and have one member of the group share a quick devotion.

And, the two final words on the subject - ice cream! Summer is the perfect time for ice cream so have sundae night, banana split night, best ice cream dessert contest, root beer float night, and after trying all of those have a Daniel Plan night!

Check out this verse. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25

So, keep going and have fun this summer. Together.