MEET-UPS BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER TO CREATE MEANINGFUL FRIENDSHIPS AROUND THE THINGS THEY LOVE.
Has finding community been a challenge? Not knowing where to start can be tough, and finding community can often feel forced when you’re brand new. Meet-ups break the tension between strangers by bringing people together around something they love – crafting, hiking, fishing, biking, crocheting, baking, cooking, etc. A meet-up would be an activity that you enjoy outside of Kessid, that you can invite other people in our church to experience with you.
They’re hosted, from initiation to execution, by anyone at Kessid. Meet-ups will be a place where people are connected, meals are shared, and cities are served.
Hang out at the dog park, play some disc golf, attend a painting class, go for a hike… these are all examples of meet-up activities you can experience.
TYPES OF MEET-UPS
The best way to build strong community is to be on mission together. Join others in serving the city through volunteering at a non-profit or serving people in need.
Join in on some great game day parties, game nights, holidays, and more!
ANYONE CAN HOST A MEET-UP
Whether it’s hiking, reading, painting, or eating tacos—anyone can host a meet-up centered on something they love doing. You can host one by yourself, with a friend, or even as a group. Simply fill out the Hosting form with the details of your meet-up, our team will be in touch, and it will soon be listed for others to join. Visit our Launch Kit page to learn more about how to have a successful Meet-Up! Note: All meet-ups will be held off-site from our Kessid Campuses.
FAQ’S
Meet-ups are events hosted by people at Kessid that bring people together to create meaningful friendships around the things they love. Whether it’s hiking, reading, painting, or eating tacos, anyone can host or join a meet-up centered on something they love doing. Hosting a meet-up is easy, whether it be a one-time thing, or recurring.
In general, meet-up hosts and participants must fund the event themselves and find their own venue. The only cases in which Kessid might provide funding for your meet-up is if it is service or mission-oriented. Contact Pastor Kip at kipg@kessidchurch.com for more info.
The Meet-ups Lead should have asked you for a capacity limit to add to your event. If not, email Pastor Kip at kipg@kessidchurch.com right away so they can add it. If not enough people RSVPd, try reorganizing your meet-up at a later time with more notice or try a different idea.
We want to ensure that meet-ups stay fresh and have a high level of engagement from both hosts and participants, so we require all recurring meet-ups to be renewed on our trimester schedule. This gives our hosts an easy exit if they feel the meet-up has reached a natural end or if their availability changes. It also helps us be sure that no one signs up for a meet-up that has fizzled out already.
The other way to make sure that we are delivering the best experience for participants is to keep the event calendars up-to-date for each meet-up. When a new meet-up is created, we will set up the initial event (one-off or recurring), but it is your responsibility to add events or make changes. If we see that a meet-up does not have a calendar event scheduled, we will ask you to update it or consider cancelling the meet-up.
Meet-ups communicated by Kessid should have a primary activity that is not explicitly controversial. “Trivia Night” (at a pub in your neighborhood) makes sense. On the other hand, “Let’s get drinks” does not. Because we don’t know what goes on behind-the-scenes in anyone’s life, we can’t promote public invitations to consume alcohol.
Meet-ups are independently hosted by people at Kessid. They are external events planned and supervised by the meet-up hosts themselves, and Kessid communicates their events to our church body. To limit liability, we require background checks for meet-up hosts, as well as a Release Waiver for participants in meet-ups with potential physical danger.
Meet-ups are events hosted by you, the host, so the liability for meet-up hosts is equivalent to inviting friends to participate in a private event you’ve organized. Participants for meet-ups with potential physical dangers complete the sixty-second Meet-up Digital Waiver which releases the host and Kessid from physical liability.
No problem! If people are okay with paying the costs, you are responsible for communicating and organizing your funding.
As for Kessid’s forms of communication, meet-ups will be occasionally shared on our social media, looping announcements and Kessid news. For the most part, the general ongoing traffic to the meet-ups homepage should help give exposure to new meet-ups, as well as word of mouth and personal invitations from the host.
Meet-ups will help you make more friends and connect with the wider church family by doing things you love together. Many Community Group members appreciate the long-lasting, committed relationships they’ve found in their Groups but may feel disconnected from others in their life stage or from most of the people they see at Sunday Gatherings. Meet-ups help fill this gap in relationships.
Meet-ups help provide a space of connection around similar interests. Community Groups are longer-term, family-like communities. This is the place where discipleship, accountability, and deeper friendships happen. Expect to make friends who feel like family, learn the joy of serving others, and take your next step in following Jesus.
The main purpose of meet-ups is to do an activity outside of Kessid that you already enjoy doing, and invite others from our church to participate with you. Therefore the church campuses are not available for use for meet-ups.