There are lots of things you can do to celebrate your church plant’s Grand Opening. Here’s a great idea I got from Grace City Church which recently launched in San Diego:

Arrange for Church Launch Food Trucks

As he was networking in the community, Randall ran into a local food truck event that donated 10% of its proceeds to the community’s schools. He invited them to come for the launch of Grace City. They set up their trucks right out front during the service so that food was ready immediately after the worship gathering.

The Win-Win

The genius of it hit me right away:

• Food truck events are hip right now
• It’s a cultural norm to celebrate Grand Openings
• There was no extra burden on the Launch Team to set up or clean up food
• It was cheaper than catering
• People stuck around afterwards to eat, talk and make new friends
• The church helped local business
• And they helped local schools (the church meets in one of them)

Grace City took it to the next level by promising to match the 10% to the local schools. They made an announcement during the Grand Opening service inviting everyone to stay for food and explained the matching ‘grant’. Now effectively 20% of the proceeds were given to the schools.

Potlucks No More

But beyond setting up food trucks for the Grand Opening, you could use the idea to replace old-fashioned church potluck events on an ongoing basis. Potlucks are particularly challenging for people with dietary restrictions, so you could take it to the next next level by getting at least one truck that offers vegan or gluten-free, etc.