In this week’s episode of Key Ministry the Podcast, Beth Golik shares her 3 favorite things about Night to Shine. She shares the benefits not only for those who attend Night to Shine, but also the benefits for the church congregation and the surrounding communities!
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Hey everyone, I’m Beth Golik, one of your co-hosts for Key Ministry: The Podcast. If you are listening to this podcast the week that it airs – or reading this in blogpost form the week that it posts – then I’d like to wish you Happy Night to Shine! If you know, you know, but if you don’t, I’d be happy to fill you in.
But first, I want to make sure you know about the early bird ticket price for Disability and the Church, Key Ministry’s national disability ministry conference. When you register by Feb. 29th to join us May 1-3 in Orlando for the Disability and the Church conference, you will get the lowest price available. Visit https://www.keyministry.org/datc2024 for the details. Of course we’ll have that link for you in the shownotes for this episode which are available at keyministry.org/podcast.
OK, Night to Shine. It’s familiar to many of our listeners but might be new to some. Night to Shine is an initiative of the Tim Tebow Foundation. It is a prom experience hosted by churches for honored guests, who are individuals with special needs and disabilities. But it is more than one event. It is a worldwide movement. On the same night each year, the Friday before Valentine’s Day, more than 700 churches around the world host Night to Shine events. We’re talking all over the U.S. and in more than 55 countries around the world. All on the same night. The Tim Tebow Foundation started Night to Shine ten years ago, so this year is a huge celebration. According to the TTF website, since its inception in 2014, Night to Shine has impacted more than 1,000 cities across the globe, in over 55 countries, and has provided experiences for over 555,000 honored guests.
I started volunteering at Night to Shine nine years ago as a buddy at a church in our area. For the past five years, our church has been a host church and I’ve served on the planning committee for our event. The purpose of Night to Shine is to celebrate each honored guest as a king or queen, as they are image-bearers of our God. Whether or not you are part of an event this year, I encourage you to check out the hashtag #NightToShine on social media this week so that you can see photos and videos from events around the world and really get a good picture of what it’s all about.
I’d like to share my three favorite things about Night to Shine.
Night to Shine is one of the biggest outreach events a church can do. The fact that it draws guests from the community (and in many cases surrounding communities) is obvious. But what is incredibly powerful is the way it brings the congregation and the community together in ways I’ve rarely seen happen with other events. Let me give you a few examples. Volunteer opportunities for Night to Shine are available for a variety of skill levels, and there’s a place for teens, adults, and senior citizens to serve. It’s the perfect opportunity to invite local high schools to rally their troops. Volunteers can come from the community at large. They do not have to be members of your congregation or affiliated with any church at all. Volunteers do have to pass a background check, but other than that the opportunity is open. When an unchurched person sees a community of faith in action at Night to Shine, it can be very powerful and cause people to lean in, wanting to learn more. Also, local businesses often support Night to Shine through financial or in-kind donations or with providing volunteers, which creates pathways of partnerships between churches and the community at large. So I’m a huge fan of Night to Shine for the ways it provides connections between congregations and the community.
The second thing I love about Night to Shine is the way that parents and caregivers are honored. Yes, of course, every guest is celebrated with a red carpet experience. But the parents and caregivers of the guests are also invited to relax and be pampered with their own concurrent event. It’s a tremendous way for the church to honor and treat parents and caregivers with a little bit of a respite along with dinner and entertainment. It’s a very tangible demonstration of God’s love that can be incredibly impactful for parents and caregivers as well as for the volunteers who are being the hands and feet of Jesus.
The third thing I love about Night to Shine is that it is a worldwide movement. It’s a blessing for each church and community that hosts an event, but there is something powerful about more than 700 events all happening around the world on the same night. News stations often capture footage from the red carpet of a local event which means thousands of viewers with no previous knowledge of Night to Shine or disability ministry are seeing the light of the church in action through an uplifting human interest story. There is also a collaborative element among churches in this worldwide initiative. Ministry leaders around the country have shared and brainstormed ideas for Night to Shine on Key Ministry Idea Shares and roundtables. This was especially true in 2021 and 2022 as we all sought to create memorable events when the traditional in-person prom experience was not available due to the pandemic. A church can also co-host with another church, which provides even more opportunity for God to be glorified.
So those are my three favorite things about Night to Shine: it’s a huge outreach event, it’s a way to honor and bless parents and caregivers, and it’s a worldwide movement.
I’m feeling festive since Night to Shine is this week, so I’m going to give you a fourth favorite thing. Night to Shine provides us with a glimpse of what our churches are potentially missing with the number of individuals and families impacted by disability in our communities. I live in an area where there are multiple Night to Shine events in a geographic region and our events are maxed out even when each venue can accommodate 200 or more guests. But our churches are not reflecting those numbers. What can the “big C” Church do the other days of the year to welcome and include our Night to Shine guests in Christian community? The Tim Tebow Foundation (TTF) provides a next step for churches with the Shine On initiative. TTF has invited a dozen ministry organizations to be Shine On Contributors to help provide resources, training, and guidance to churches seeking to take steps toward disability inclusion. Key Ministry is one of the Shine On contributors and is honored to be part of the initiative. We’ll link to Shine On in the shownotes so you can check it out.
Well friends, whether you are celebrating Night to Shine at a live event, or watching your socials blow up with amazing pictures from the red carpet, I want to wish you a very Happy Night to Shine. Thank you for joining me today to hear about my three favorite things about Night to Shine, plus a little bonus info about Shine On. Don’t forget to grab your early bird ticket for Disability & The Church 2024 by February 29. And when you are at the conference, make sure to say hi to the Tim Tebow Foundation folks who will be there as our title sponsor. Maybe you can even tell them your three favorite things about Night to Shine.
