10 Fellowship Activities for Christian Seniors

1. Volunteer Together at a Local Shelter or Food Bank

It's always good for church members to get out in the community and serve. You can make a list of each organization or shelter you would like to serve at and take a turn at each one throughout the year. They will appreciate the help and you will gain relationships and experiences that you otherwise may not get to have.

2. Attend a Weekend Retreat

Planning a weekend retreat is a great way to bond with your fellow church members and a great way to fellowship. It's fun to go somewhere different to get away from the daily pressures of life. You can relax, spend time with the Lord and in prayer, and learn from some brilliant speakers. A retreat doesn't have to be something big and expensive, like going to see a famous speaker. It can be something that you go to that is available through your local church that has local or regional pastors speaking. The bottom line is, it isn't about the expense, it's about spending time with the Lord and each other.

3. Starting a Book Club

Starting a book club is a fantastic way for seniors to fellowship together. Each book the club reads brings everyone closer to the Lord and they can discuss different things about the book. What they learned, how it affected them, what they feel God was telling them through the book, etc.

You can go through the Bible together or choose either a Christian fiction or nonfiction book to read together. One of the easiest ways to figure out what book to read is to choose a topic for each month and choose a book that correlates with that. For example, if prayer is a topic, I would recommend Fervent by Priscilla Shirer. It's one of my favorite books and I usually read it once a year.

4. Organizing a Talent Show

Our congregations are full of people, both young and older, with many talents. Your group could organize a talent show for your congregation and host it on a Saturday afternoon or evening. You could have different categories like singers, artists, dancers, comedy, etc. This is a great way to bring the entire congregation together to learn about each other and enjoy the special gifts that God has given everyone.

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5. Community Meals

Food always brings people together. Organize a church supper where you serve something simple, like spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread, pancakes and sausage, or Dutch chicken pot pie.

Where I'm from, church suppers are common to raise money for the church or a charity. Often, church suppers would be dishes like ham and green beans or meatloaf or Dutch chicken pot pie, which is made of homemade dough noodles, chicken, and chicken broth. Not in a crust with chicken, vegetables and sauce, like most people think of.

Each meal would cost a certain amount and come with a drink. If the seniors in your church love to cook, this would be a great idea for both fellowship and serving others.

6. Church Picnic

This is always a great spring or summer activity. Seniors can organize a church picnic where everyone brings a dish or dessert. It's another great way to combine fellowship with food.

A picnic can be as simple or as complicated as you wish. Some churches may hire entertainment for afterward or set up games for the kids to play. It's up to you and your group what you want and can afford to do.

7. Block Party or Festival

This is another great fellowship activity, but it needs a lot of planning and will be more expensive than some other ideas on this list. Most festivals have food, games, entertainment, and fair activities. It can be overwhelming, but with some wonderful organization, you can pull it off.

Talk to local vendors to see if they want to be involved and get prices for their services. You may get a deal from the local bounce house vendor compared to the national chain rental company. Ask other local businesses if they would like to set up booths to get the word out about what they offer. As for entertainment, ask around about local family-friendly bands that may want to come and provide entertainment. Also, ask your congregants if they know anyone who would like to be involved. People usually have some connections, so you never know what you will find out or who you could talk to.

Make sure to spread the word on your church's social media pages, post flyers around town, and tell friends and family.

8. Community Yard Sale

Having a community yard sale is a great way for seniors to fellowship with each other and reach out to the community. It's also a fairly low cost event to hold. Congregants and members of the community donate items to sell and volunteers price the items low to draw people in. The only cost is renting tables to display the items, volunteer hours, and a little advertising.

Seniors will have fun not only socializing with each other and other congregants, they will also enjoy seeing what comes in to sell. You never know what you are going to get, and maybe something will come in that will trigger a story in them. This is a great way to learn about people, too.

For example, I used to work at a daycare that put on a yard sale fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis each year. One year, we had an old Kitchen Aid mixer come in and my friend Becky went nuts because her mom had the same mixer. It was awesome hearing her tell stories about baking with her mom. At the end of the day, it was still there, so she bought it and took it home. It still works today, and she loves it.

9. Date Night for Parents

Organize a night where the seniors and maybe a few younger people watch people's kids for a certain amount of hours so the parents can go out on a date. This is a great way for older people to enjoy children and reminisce about their own child rearing days. It also helps them connect with a younger generation.

It's definitely a good idea to have several younger people around to help as well. As a former daycare teacher, you never know what kids will do, and if somebody takes off, you want to make sure you have some nimble bodies around. Kids can be unpredictable, and you never know what they will do. Make sure you have the parents' numbers and emergency contacts, just in case.

If all goes well, this would be a great event to do several times a year like around Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, and in early to mid-December. This is when parents are overly stressed for time and need time away from the kids to get things done. We all know what it's like around the holidays when you're trying to plan meals, buy gifts, keep track of schedules and school programs and other things. It can turn into an absolute nightmare if you are not organized. Giving parents a night to spend time planning, shopping, or whatever they need to do will feel like an enormous gift to them.

10. Movie Night

You can do this two ways. You can all meet at the theater to see the latest faith-based film that is playing or you can meet at someone's house.

If you go to the theater and it's not too late, go for coffee or dessert afterwards and discuss what you saw. Talk about your favorite parts of the movie, the actors and actresses, and the message it sends to viewers.

If you gather at someone's house, have everyone bring either a drink, snacks, or dessert and relax afterwards and fellowship. Sometimes you can rent the latest films at home but if not, take a vote on which faith film you want to see. There are a lot of good ones out there.

Some of my favorites are War Room, Breakthrough, Tulsa, Home Sweet Home, Sweet Inspirations, and I Can Only Imagine. Some of these were released in theaters, and some I've seen on Pure Flix, but they are all excellent.

There are all kinds of ways that seniors can get together and fellowship. If you are in a small group with your senior friends, ask and see how they would best like to get together to enjoy each other's company and serve the community. You are bound to have a fantastic time of faith and fellowship with these ideas.