Throwing a Party for Harrisburg: The Great Harrisburg Egg Drop!

We had a great idea to throw a party for Harrisburg AND 8000+ PEOPLE SHOWED UP! We approached the town of Harrisburg a few months with the idea of doing The Great Harrisburg Egg Drop. The idea came from hearing about it at a few different churches around the country. But our real motivation behind the event was the question, “what does our community really need?” We feel like the Harrisburg / University City community needs some times where families can have a great time together spending time with other families. So we began our planning. And boy were we RIGHT! Families definitely want to have a great time playing together along side other families in our community. We just didn’t know how right we were. When 8,000 – 12,000 people show up, you have definitely tapped into a need. It was great and challenging all at the same time. The crowds were awesome and also created some chaos that we are already working hard at solving for the future. Check out www.eggdropharrisburg.com for pictures of the event!

It was particularly interesting how one reporter characterized the event in a conversation with him. He started out by saying that he generally “HATES covering these things.” He doesn’t go to church and usually all of these type of events are nothing more than one long promotion for the church putting them on. As he put it, “They play this crappy music and mention their church over and over again.” All in all they masquerade as events that serve the community, but they are really more about just getting people to show up on Sunday morning. UCF is different. We want to love people around us by tapping into and meeting a heart-felt need whether they come to church or not. We certainly hope that people do come to UCF, but we don’t want people to have to endure our endless promotions so that they can enjoy a day in the park. This reporter was pleasantly surprised with our event. He knew by the materials and the volunteers that a church sponsored this event, but it wasn’t thrown in his face and shoved down his throat. He appreciated that. It made him curious as to why we would do something this way and we simply said, “for people like you.”

Doing things this way is different, because you have to put in a lot of extra steps. You begin to forge friendships with others who care about the community and have to avoid the different agendas of many. You reach into the lives of the many people who have been burned by churches just doing their church thing because you exist “for the good of the world” and not just “for the good of your church.” It is a cool thing to be a part of.

So what does our community really need? From a spiritual standpoint, I think the answer to that question is pretty easy, people need to be in a life-changing relationship with God in such a way that it impacts every aspect of how they relate to people around them.

The problem is that the very people who need this are pretty sure they don’t need it. However somewhere in the lives of those in our community, there is the need for something. A need for love, for community, for peace, for real joy, for contentment… and the list could go on. I know these things are ultimately found in God and I simply want to help people connect the dots!

The other problem is that some church people who think they have it (a life-changing relationship with God that impacts every aspect of how they relate to people around them)… don’t because it doesn’t cause them to love their neighbor as much as they love their self… their church… their agenda. The sooner church people can get over their own agenda and adopt the agenda of “love,” the sooner people in the world see a true picture of God.

love loud... risk often!