Mother's Day Church Banquet Ideas

Mother's Day provides the ideal opportunity for you to honor and celebrate the special moms and women in your congregation. A celebratory banquet, however elaborate or modest, can be a meaningful occasion to be enjoyed by all, providing you adequately plan the event. Form a planning committee and involve everyone. It's easy to make everyone feel a part of this special banquet, if you assign tasks within everyone's capabilities.

To ensure that all the moms in the church don't get caught up in food preparation, make it a potluck banquet to be prepared by the men of the church. You will probably have some volunteers who are more than willing to grill some food, and even the least culinary minded of the men can throw a salad together or buy a cheesecake for dessert. Plan ahead, and make sure that everyone is prepared to fulfill commitments to provide something for the banquet.

Gather poems and stories together from the children in the church, and compile a tribute book to present to the moms at the banquet. Ask some of the children to read and share their poems or stories with the church during the banquet. Your choir or individual singers could also sing a medley of the favorite songs of moms in the congregation, and those that can't sing could perform dance routines or demonstrate their other talents.

Think about inviting some women from the local community, who may otherwise be alone on Mother's Day. Check at your local senior center and ask if the staff members know of seniors who would welcome the opportunity to get out and socialize.

Decide on a theme for your banquet and possibly a color scheme. Since it will nearly be spring, choose pastel colors and decorate with spring flowers, if they are available. Your theme could represent a Biblical passage, such as Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Artistic members of the congregation can be asked to produce a photo montage of family photos that have been gathered from everyone. Perhaps you could even get a computer-savvy member to make a PowerPoint photo slide show set to music. You could even have a fun guessing game by using baby or childhood photos of the moms in the group and having everyone guess who the moms are.

Your banquet program could feature the pictures and stories of Biblical mothers, such as Mary, Eve, Naomi, Hannah, Elizabeth, Rebecca or Sarah. The young people of the congregation could be asked to draw the pictures and write the stories. These pictures and stories could also be pinned on a bulletin board or wall in the banquet hall.

A fun idea might be having the kids come up with things they think Biblical mothers might say, such as Samson's mother saying, "Sam, get your hand out of that lion's mouth!" Noah's mother saying, "Noah, I told you not to bring another stray animal home!" and David's mother saying, "David, how many times do I have to tell you not to play with that sling, you'll take your eye out!"

Have members of the congregation donate services for a raffle prize. These may include yard work, window cleaning or a car washing. Try to get as many auction items as there are moms, so that they can all win something. Give each mom a raffle ticket and have the drawing during the banquet.

You could even turn this into an auction, where you raise money for a church project, and dads can bid on services for their moms and wives.

Get moms in the congregation to share their favorite recipes, which can be turned into a cookbook and sold to raise funds. The cookbook could be launched at the banquet, and some of the recipes used for the food items you will eat.