Last year many of you were brave and invited friends new and old for an (in) real life meetup at your church. {Have you heard about our (in)RL Webcast – it’s free you know and coming to you the weekend of April 25 & 26! You can register here.}

We hosted an (in)RL meetup at our church last year as one of our women’s ministry outreach events. It was a blast in every way. We had over 30 women attend, half from our church and half from the local community. And what a blessing it was to have a morning together to connect in person and over some good coffee and cupcakes.

This event gave us an excuse to open our doors and make ourselves available to women who were seeking community, even if they weren’t in the market for a new church. It was such a blessing to simply invite friends to pull up a chair and come and share their stories, their journeys, with us. Our church hosts a monthly women’s brunch and so (in)RL was a perfect chance that month to gather together around a study that was prepared for us and designed to encourage us in our heart for creating new opportunities for community.

And part of what surprised me was what an unexpected blessing it was getting to throw the event with our women’s ministry. It was such a time of bonding and connection for each woman involved. Each person getting to lead in her strengths and add her creativity to how we prepared for (in)RL. And here are some of the resources we used that made the event so easy to pull together.

1.) Helpful Hosting Ideas – Here you’ll find everything from figuring out the technical aspects to an opening prayer and welcome. If you’re worried about coming up with ice breaker questions, don’t be! There’s a whole list of great suggestions. We pretty much worked our way down the list and checked off each item as we planned. It was easy and fun.

2.) Save the Date cards – We used these for sharing at church and emailing to our women’s ministry list to let them know about the meetup.

3.) Flyers – Just like with the Save the Dates, simply click to download, fill in your information, and print! Easy peasy. And we posted these on the church doors the day of. {coming soon!}

4.) Technical Checklist – I printed this out and gave it to the church’s techy fellas and they were able to walk through it and get us all hooked up for the webcast no problem. It was a big relief not to have to actually explain any of the technical gobbly-di-goop but just hand over the form. But maybe that’s just me 🙂

5.) Name tags created with the (in)RL logo

The most beautiful part of the whole event was that while the whole group hasn’t connected again, many women who were at our meetup have kept in touch. A neighbor I invited has since become a dear friend this year and she literally lives just around the corner. The meetup was a catalyst for many conversations, for a renewed commitment to making time for one another, and to a deeper appreciation for real life community.

I spend a lot of time online – this is where my job is and where many of the women I admire and love the most are. But God has challenged me through (in)RL to connect with the women he’s placed around me in real life. And it’s a gift I hold onto with both hands. So we’ll be hosting (in)RL again this year at our church and looking forward to seeing many faces from last year. And especially new ones to connect with and discover all that we have in common through the Jesus that connects us.

To see all the (in)courage (in)RL Meetups happening worldwide, Click Here »
Want to know more about how the (in)RL Meetups work? Click Here »
Not registered yet for (in)RL? Click Here »

~Lisa-Jo Baker, community manager for (in)courage and a fan of friendship.

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