Church Anniversary

I always recommend using anniversaries as a way to celebrate Christ's first miracle at the wedding feast of Canaan...

Actually, I would say find out what is important to your church.
If you have charter members, I can't think of a better time to celebrate their faithfulness to God.
Also, one of the things I've seen a number of churches do is invite former ministers (that you're still on good terms with) back for a panel discussion on a Sunday.
A special concert and invite area churches you're close with to participate.
Use the anniversary to give something back to the community you're serving.
Put out press statements, call reporters, get in the local paper, its a great way to say "hey we're still here!" and maybe get a couple of guests.
Have a meal.
Have a meal.
And I usually see churches doing all of this over the course of a weekend that marks the true anniversary.

Just some suggestions. I don't have all the answers by far. Certainly others have better insights.

 

just my .02 cents
We just celebrated our 100th anniversary. We encouraged various groups like the choir, youth ministries, women's groups, SS classes to have a party on Saturday night as a way invite and talk with former members.

On Sunday, we had 1 service from 10 am to noon that had lots of previously enlisted testimonies from past and current members. btw, it's important for the celebration to not only be about what God has done in the past but to celebrate what is going on now... in other words, don't let it turn into "we were great 50 years ago, but we suck now" kind of thing.

We got a former staff guy who could really preach and told him to turn it loose about God's plan and purpose for the church. Avoid the temptation to get a former pastor who is well past his prime to preach. Take about 10 mniutes so you can say something as pastor of the church.

The smartest thing we did was to reserve a dining room at a local hotel and have a caterer for the food. That way the people who are at the church now can enjoy the service and fellowship and not have to set up and clean up.

 

Time capsules are kinda fun. Make one to be opened 50 years from now. Stuff like a church bulletin, current directory, DVD of a service & pastor's greeting, get creative.

If you put a deacon in there, be sure and make some air holes.

 

Air holes are only for the good ones :laugh:.

 

Our church turned 175 last year.

We made it a year long celebration of our history by reading parts of our recorded history every morning during the annoucement times in the service.

We had a revival in which former Pastors were asked to come back and do the preaching and share testimony of their time and experience at our church.

We had a birthday party/open house and invited people in our community to come and see and learn about our church. Basically what we did here was have a slide show of pictures from our past as someone read them our recorded history. We gave away door prizes and had cake and icecream afterwards. We actually picked up a few visitors and prospects through this one.

We had a baptism service for some new converts but we used that as an opportunity for older members, some in their 90's to share their conversion testimonies. This was a real learning experience and opened eyes to the differences in the times.

We ended in November with a big Homecoming. A former pastor preached the service, we recognized the wives of deceased pastors. We recognized former Sunday School teachers, deacons, etc...We started 45 mins earlier than normal so the service could be longer and we had a huge meal on the grounds.

It was a fun year!

 

We celebrated our 150th anniversary last year. In addition to those things that have already been mentioned we invited the elected officials of our city and county. Several showed up. The mayor presented us with a certificate of recognition. We sent an invitation to the governor. He sent a beautiful proclamation. An invitation was sent to then President Bush who sent a congratulatory card. We also did a new church directory that was a commemorative edition and was delivered a couple of weeks before our anniversary service. We catered lunch so we would not have to do anything but show up. The caterer brought his crew and set up, served, and cleaned up.

 

Just an aside... we asked for letters of congratulations from various gov't official like the President, Senators, our representative the governor and the county commission.

Wegot nice ones from everyone except President Obama who sent exactly .... nothing.

 

We created a CD with the church history and lots of photographs and made copies for all attendees.

 

If you do a video retrospective, it's very doable now to use Windows MovieMaker (on all XP's...I think it's on Vista) and import pictures. You can then save it as a movie file and do lots of stuff with it.