Memorial Back to School Bash becomes uniting force for church,…

GREER—In August 2023, while preparing for a new school year, Memorial United Methodist Church decided to take a new approach to a longstanding tradition.

As their congregation was navigating several transitions, uncertainties and impending changes that many other neighboring United Methodist churches were facing as well, they recognized the need for one crucial thing at the time: to be together.

While their youth ministry historically hosted a “Back to School Bash” for the students each year, the church staff and lay leadership took that event and crafted it into a vision of a church-wide gathering that would bring together all generations in different ways to enjoy fellowship with one another.

With fewer than six weeks of planning time, they turned their parking lot and North Main Street property into a venue that ended up hosting more than 300 people for two hours on a hot Sunday afternoon.

Sunday school classes came together to cook hamburgers and hotdogs in the parking lot as a free supper to the crowd. DJ Pre-K (a local elementary school teacher and professional musician) set up his music right next to the face painter and kept the music and dancing going all night long. Youth twirled cotton candy all night long and supervised the inflatable bounce houses spread out around the grassy lawn. Different groups, classes and committee teams put their hands together to help set up and clean up even as thunderstorms rolled in and out.

Through all of the uncertainty of whether or not the event would come to fruition, how many people would attend or if the weather was going to rain out the fun, their vision came to life as members looked around to see people they hadn’t seen in months, but even more so, people they had never met before. Their prayer for everyone to come back together as one body of Christ and church family was answered right before their eyes with an even greater response than they could have anticipated.

The Back to School Bash was brought up again very early in 2024 and it was never a question of if they were going to repeat the event or not. Instead, the obstacle instead became, “How do we grow it even further to reach more people?”

With the added efforts of social media promotion and marketing, their attendance grew even larger this August as community members and people from cities away marked their calendars for the occasion. They welcomed local vendors and neighbors to be a part of the event and did several give-a-ways of backpacks stuffed with school supplies and goodies from local businesses in downtown Greer.

Members of Memorial all gathered early to set up for the event in blue T-shirts made with the church logo on them.

“All you could see from the street was a sea of blue T-shirts, but the blue very quickly became outnumbered again by the visitors and new friends who came to enjoy the fellowship and fun,” said Director of Outreach Tawny Johnson. “It’s now a unique opportunity for us to open our doors to our community in a way we thought to be impossible, made possible only by God.”

Lainey Hannon, director of Youth Ministries and Spiritual Development, added, “The Back to School Bash has always been a fun time for our kids to come together, but in 2023, it became a pivotal moment in our church’s history. We were all reminded that we are at our very best as Christians and disciples when we are together as one. Regardless of what changes may continue to come, our love for each other and God’s love for us remains unchanging. Since then, we’ve been able to live into that promise with a renewed energy and sense of hope as a church family.”