The Importance of Fellowship: Behind the scenes at church picnics

With long, sunny days and an abundance of free time, summer is the perfect season to slow down, breathe and enjoy the simplicity of existence. Summer is also the season to appreciate the company of those around us, and for many churches in Southeast Missouri, summer is the time for hosting community picnics. Here, three churches show what it takes to host their summer picnics.

__St. Lawrence Catholic Church in New Hamburg, Mo.__

The St. Lawrence Church sits on a hill overlooking State Hwy A in New Hamburg, Mo. The building was dedicated in 1859 but was rebuilt after being burned by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. The parish has been having their picnic for 106 years. Photo by Jasmine Jones

At the St. Lawrence New Hamburg Parish Picnic, rain soaked the grass minutes before the start of the annual picnic. Luckily, the harsh summer sun found its way out of the clouds and illuminated the dozens of tents and food stands set up below the St. Lawrence Catholic Church. Walking down the hill in front of the church, the parish picnic resembled a fair with its striped blue and white tents, carnival games and funnel cakes.

Billy Ray Johnson Jr., office manager of St. Lawrence Church, says this is the 106th year the parish has hosted their annual picnic. Many of the parish members have volunteered at the picnic for decades and watched as their children and grandchildren grow up to volunteer themselves.

“Our future is our kids. If your kids don’t carry it on, you’ll lose it,” says Frank Glucek, parishioner at St. Lawrence Catholic Church.

A young girl admires the donkeys at the St. Lawrence Picnic Petting Zoo in New Hamburg, Mo. Every year, the parish picnic includes activities for children, such as a tractor pull ride, petting zoo, bouncy house and Little Miss New Hamburg Contest. Photo by Jasmine Jones

At the event, children ran from the petting zoo to the tractor pull ride to the bouncy castle with pure delight on their faces. Years ago, Glucek remembered being one of those children running around at the picnic and playing “Knock Down the Cat,” a game that requires players to knock down three sandbag cats. The game is still part of the parish picnic and is just as popular as it was in Glucek’s youth.

At the hamburger stand, which is painted with the phrase “Home of the New Hamburger,” workers scrambled to keep up with the crowd. Inside the enclosed structure, volunteers cooked hamburgers, corn dogs, brats and cheeseburgers while workers outside collected customers’ money and grabbed their orders from a line of labeled compartments resembling mailboxes. Throughout the two-day picnic, the volunteers sold approximately 1,600 hamburgers and 900 corndogs. All the money raised each year is donated back to the church. Besides raising money, the parish picnic is an opportunity for church members and community members to see each other again.

Teams warm up before the cornhole tournament at the St. Lawrence Parish Picnic in New Hamburg, Mo. This year, 27 teams signed up to compete in the annual tournament. Photo by Jasmine Jones

“Everybody’s famous in this town because everybody knows everybody,” says Chris Grojean, chairman of the hamburger stand. “But we still don’t see each other that much. This brings everybody together at one time and reminds us of how much we think of each other.”

__Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Mo.__

Dale Bohnert and Angie Kiefer smile as they carefully remove freshly-fried fish for customers at the Trinity Lutheran Adults in Christ Picnic. Every year, the picnic occurs on the third Sunday in July and helps the church raise money for needed updates or projects. Photo by Jasmine Jones

While the St. Lawrence parishioners cleaned up their picnic on Sunday, July 18, Trinity Lutheran Adults in Christ hosted their picnic 42 miles away in Altenburg, Mo.

For approximately 20 years, Trinity Lutheran Adults in Christ have hosted their picnic, keeping almost everything the same from the date to the menu. Many volunteers have worked the picnic since its beginning, but they look forward to passing the job down to younger generations. At this year’s picnic, teenagers from the Lutheran Youth Fellowship worked the pie stand while the younger children performed small tasks such as retrieving duct tape.

“Start 'em out young getting duct tape, and eventually, these guys will be running it,” says Kim Ponder, Trinity Picnic Committee member.

Warren Schmidt, Lynn Degenhardt and Earl Weber operate the beer stand at the Trinity Lutheran Adults in Christ Picnic. While working in the stand, they chat amongst each other and discuss their memories of the picnic.Photo by Jasmine Jones

All around the East Perry Community Fairgrounds, church members rushed to prepare fish, burgers, pork steaks and desserts. Stan Hadler, picnic volunteer, cooked approximately 240 pork steaks for the event. At the pie stand, Lydia Schlimpert, picnic volunteer and youth group member, helped organize 10 types of pie, all donated from Trinity Lutheran church members. Meanwhile, Ponder helped make arrangements for the picnic and ensure it went as planned.

Once the picnic opened at 4 p.m., community members arrived with donation money in hand as they walked through the fairgrounds, picking up dinner and dessert to enjoy at the wooden picnic tables. Country music played softly in the background as attendees and workers talked and enjoyed each other’s company on the humid summer evening.

Pies sit on a table at the pie stand as Lutheran Youth Fellowship (LYF) members wait to receive an order at the Trinity Lutheran Adults in Christ Picnic. Each year, the group operating the pie stand rotates so all groups can have the chance for fundraising. Photo by Jasmine Jones

Just like the organizers at the St. Lawrence Parish Picnic, Ponder thinks the best part of the Trinity Lutheran Adults in Christ picnic is the fellowship.

“We all go to church together, and we all see each other out in the community, but this is the time we can all get together and just hang out,” Ponder says.

__Bethel Assembly of God in Cape Girardeau__

David Meade, second from the right, chats with the rest of the grill team at Bethel Assembly of God’s Back to School Splash Bash on Sunday, Aug. 22, at Kiwanis Park in Cape Girardeau. The church plans to host the event every year at the end of summer, right before school starts. Photo by Jasmine Jones

A month later in Cape Girardeau, Bethel Assembly of God hosted their version of a summer picnic on Aug. 22 at Kiwanis Park. Instead of calling their get-together a picnic, however, they called it a “Back to School Splash Bash.” For Bethel, the goal was not to raise money but to provide an opportunity for fun and fellowship before the start of the school year.

Driving through the park, Bethel’s Splash Bash was hard to miss with their two giant inflatable water slides, snow cone shack and homemade Slip ‘N Slide. Throughout the heat of the afternoon, children laughed as they climbed the slides and splashed in the water below. The older kids took turns throwing themselves down the soap-covered Slip ‘N Slide, sometimes colliding into each other or sliding off the tarp into the grass. Parents watched their kids, talked to each other and ordered snow cones from the SEMO Snoballs Shaved Ice Truck.

Vaquon Johnson and Obreveous Lane slide down Bethel Assembly of God’s makeshift water slide at the Back to School Splash Bash. Youth Pastor Danny Wilson, wearing a red shirt, waits at the bottom to take pictures of the students in action. Photo by Jasmine Jones

To prepare for the Splash Bash, Bethel staff members started by discussing the event at their staff meetings. John Bechtel, Bethel’s children’s pastor, said everything came together smoothly after that. Dwight and Shari Lackey donated snow cones for the event; Danny Wilson, Bethel’s youth pastor, bought 18 bottles of soap for the homemade Slip ‘N Slide; and Bethel Assembly of God members purchased hot dogs to feed 150 people. This is the church’s second Back to School Splash Bash, and they plan on making it an annual tradition.

“The intention is to do this right before school every year,” says Bechtel. “[For this event], we have two main goals: outreach and fellowship.”

Dwight Lackey serves snow cones out of the SEMO Snoballs shaved ice trailer to attendees at Bethel Assembly of God’s Back to School Splash Bash. Throughout the afternoon, there was a constant line at the shaved ice trailer where children waited excitedly for free snow cones.Photo by Jasmine Jones

Between the century-old tradition of St. Lawrence’s picnic to the second-annual Bethel Splash Bash and everything in between, summer church gatherings show the importance of fellowship. The way each denomination celebrates, from carnival games to pie stands to water slides, doesn’t matter. It is simply being together that makes each of these picnics so special — and, of course, the delicious food.