Larah Roberts sits down with Beth Golik and talks about the annual Night to Shine Event sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. Beth gives a peek into what the event looks like and also shares how your church can prepare and host one of these events in your city!
Listen Anywhere You Find Podcasts!
Larah Roberts: Beth, how are you?
Beth Golik: I'm doing great. How are you Larah?
Larah Roberts: I'm doing fantastic. Hey, curious, for those that are listening, we're wearing the same exact shirt.
Beth Golik: Oh yeah, we are.
Larah Roberts: I feel very, I get to “be Beth” in the same shirt.
Beth Golik: We're a team.
Larah Roberts: We're a team. That's right. Okay. So when you were a kid, did you ever read the books, Where's Waldo?
Beth Golik: Oh yeah. Well, I'm too old for that, but I'm very familiar with Where's Waldo.
Larah Roberts: Gotcha.
Beth Golik: I did not do it as a kid. Where's Waldo was not born yet when I was a kid.
Larah Roberts: Where Waldo was not born yet, when you were a kid.
Beth Golik: Yeah.
Larah Roberts: Okay. Alright. Okay. All right. Well, we look like where's Waldo?
Beth Golik: We do right now.
Larah Roberts: So my question to you is, if there were a Where's Waldo book for disability ministry, what room would your little, Where's Waldo emoji, what room would you be in?
Beth Golik: That is a good question.
Larah Roberts: While you think about it, I'll just tell you where mine would be.
Beth Golik: Okay.
Larah Roberts: I would definitely own the crash pad room.
Beth Golik: Oh yes.
Larah Roberts: That would be where my Where's Waldo, 'Where in the world is Larah’ in her, for those of you listening, we're wearing neon striped shirts.
Beth Golik: Yes, we are.
Larah Roberts: I would take up the crash pad room for my Where's Waldo Disability Ministry book.
Beth Golik: Yes, for sure. Any kind of sensory room, sensory friendly area is a place I want to be for sure.
Larah Roberts: There you go. Okay. Well, we need to make it happen. Where's Waldo Disability Ministry book be our next project? Speaking of projects...
Beth Golik: Yes.
Larah Roberts: Beth, you've been busy this month.
Beth Golik: I have.
Larah Roberts: You've been busy for the past year, Beth. Let's just be honest with that.
Beth Golik: Well, I think ministry leaders in general are always busy, and those of us who are representing Night To Shine churches are particularly busy right now. And I would love to fill you in a little bit about that.
Larah Roberts: I would love for you to, okay, so today we're going to talk about Night To Shine specifically because Key Ministry is a Shine On contributor. So if you don't know what a Shine On contributor is, Tim Tebow has a foundation called Shine On and Night to Shine is a big proponent of that because Beth, I know you already know this, but listeners, I tell Beth and our team one statement all the time, and it's called "Everything's Connected." So just like Tim and how he serves those families and individuals impacted by disability, it's all connected, Shine On as a proponent of that or an outreach arm for us as Key Ministry also. And so tell us, how does Shine On and Night to Shine? How does it play into our world?
Beth Golik: Yes. For those of you who are not familiar with Night To Shine, as Larah mentioned, the Tim Tebow Foundation, which is this amazing organization with an international reach, one of their pillars, if you will, has to do with creating this worldwide event. It's a movement and it's a prom type experience for individuals ages 14 and up with any kind of disability. And so it happens on the Friday before Valentine's Day all around the world. And so what this looks like is churches all around the world, and this year there are over 800 participating churches.
Larah Roberts: That's awesome.
Beth Golik: So on Friday, February 7th, all around the world, there will be these prom events, red carpet, every single guest will be crowned King or Queen of the prom. It's just this wonderful outreach event. We can talk more about that in a second, but that's one night a year. That's the Friday night before Valentine's Day, every single year. Well, what happens the other 364 days of the year, and so Shine On was set up by the Tim Tebow Foundation. So it's a group of organizations are the Shine On contributors, and like Larah said, Key Ministry is very, very happy to be one of them. So Shine On is set up to equip and encourage churches to welcome individuals and families impacted by disability into their churches, the other 364 days of the year.
Larah Roberts: Wow. Well, that's awesome. So tell us a little bit, Beth, how you got involved with this Night to Shine?
Beth Golik: So Night to Shine is in its 11th year, and either 10 or 11 years ago, so I think it might've been the first year, first or second year that they were a thing. I volunteered at a local church, so it wasn't my own church, but I volunteered at another church who was hosting their first Night to Shine event. And it was just this incredible experience. And the next, maybe a year or two down the road, we brought it to our church and we do something a little bit different, not completely unusual, but we actually partner with another church. So we're hosting it together and we actually have ours at an off-site location. So it isn't at either one of our churches, it's actually at an event center.
Larah Roberts: Wow. Okay. So what made you say, I want to do this?
Beth Golik: It was such an incredible event to participate in as a volunteer. And what's really amazing about Night to Shine, it is an event that will, it's such a great outreach opportunity into the community. So people who, I mean for sure, it's a wonderful opportunity for your congregation to serve, but it's also an opportunity to reach out into the community and bring folks in to volunteer to serve. There are people who will serve at Night to Shine, who would never consider stepping foot into your church otherwise.
Larah Roberts: Wow.
Beth Golik: And so this is such a great opportunity to give folks a chance to see what Jesus sees in the guests and the families that are attending and to see what it looks like for your congregation to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Larah Roberts: That's right. That's right. And we talk a lot in disability, mental health ministry of if you want to call the stages or maybe phases of seasons of ministry type of thing. And a lot of churches that have already have established ministries are doing great and growing, but that kind of stage or seasons still has the question of how do we do outreach? There are still families in our community that are not reached, that are not able to attend church for various reasons or accommodations. Is this a great opportunity for outreach?
Beth Golik: Absolutely. So there are a lot of churches who are doing some kind of disability ministry. My church was one of those, but we had not been a Night to Shine Host church and now we are. There are some churches who don't have any type of "established disability ministry." And I'm air quoting for those of you who can't see me, who don't have an established disability ministry. But this is how they're getting started. I can tell you I'm in northeast Ohio and we have just in the Cleveland area, we have a half dozen of these all happening on the same night. And you might think, wow, that's a lot of events. I bet you have trouble filling up your guest list. Unfortunately, that's not the case. These events fill up so quickly. We reached our 200 guest max, and that's because of what our venue can hold between guests and volunteers and parents, which I'll tell you about that in a second. But we filled up within two weeks of when we opened it several months ago. So I can tell you that if you are thinking, oh, I think our church should do a Night to Shine, but I know there's already one or two in our geographic area, I am pleading you to please reconsider because it breaks my heart to have to tell people that our event is full. So there's definitely a need.
Larah Roberts: Absolutely. Okay, so that's a great segue into the remainder of our time. Beth, let's do this. So if there's a need, you're saying there's a waiting list all over the place. I know where I'm at. I'm states away, in North Carolina, there's also a waiting list. So this is a need, I'm sure Shine On Organization is prayerful and hoping that it would go from 800 churches to a thousand next year or more. So here's what we can do in the next 10 or so minutes. Let's do a two-part explanation. Let's walk us through what, give me a visual. I've never been to a Night to Shine. I plan to go. So give me a visual step-by-step journey through what Night to Shine the night of looks like. And then our listeners will actually have a picture of what that is. And then after that, we'll, I'll kind ask you like, okay, well what does it take to do that? What does it take to step by step? So send me on a journey when I walk through the doors or even before that, what does this night of Night to Shine look like?
Beth Golik: Okay, great question. So first I will tell you what my experience is, and then also I do work with some other churches and so I can kind of share some other ideas. But just overall, because this is a Tim Tebow Foundation sponsored event, they do have guidelines and all that. So I talk about some of those things later. But you're not inventing this on your own, is what I'm saying.
Larah Roberts: Yes, and that's good news!
Beth Golik: There are a lot of features of Night to Shine that are mandatory, and so they're going to be very similar among all the different events, but what it pretty much in general looks like. So guests register, and these are guests of all ages, like I said, 14 and up. I mean, we've had all the decades represented. And so these events are, they are red carpet events, and so when the guests arrive, they get to walk or roll down the red carpet with paparazzi on either side of the red carpet. And so I mean, these are cheering fans holding up signs and streamers and everything. Some have superheroes lining the red carpet and just the look on not just the honored guests faces, but their parents and caregivers as well as their loved one is making their way down the red carpet. I mean, they are celebrated and it's just amazing. And many events have a DJ that's kind of MCing the red carpet experience. Every guest gets a corsage or boutonniere.
And for some events, our event is actually a sit down dinner. And so every guest is seated and we share dinner together. For some, it's a buffet. It really depends on the event. But throughout the night there's dancing like DJ dancing. That's just a very favorite thing of our guests. Every event has a few elements that have to occur according to when you fill out your official paperwork; karaoke sensory break room...
Larah Roberts: Wow. Okay.
Beth Golik: Shoeshine.
Larah Roberts: How neat is that?
Beth Golik: There are limo rides, so the guests can go, it's around the parking lot or whatever, but they had the limo experience. There's photographers there, photo booths. And then at some point in the evening there is a crowning ceremony. And this looks like different ways for different churches, but what is common is that Tim Tebow actually does the crowning. So at some point there's a video of Tim just expressing to every guest their importance, how much they matter to our God. And it's just a very beautiful ceremony. And then every single guest gets either a crown or a tiara. So that's a very special time, but it's dancing and it's just a lot of fun.
Larah Roberts: That's awesome. And Beth, I have tears in my eyes just when you said that, just because our family's life, I have an autistic guy, and so in a few short years, he'll be participating in this. And it just makes families, I mean, I'm the mom that you're talking about that or will one day attend this and be able to look at my child and know that he feels special for that night. And so again, I'll echo what Beth said earlier. We're super thankful for the Tim Tebow Foundation and Shine on.
Okay, so church leaders are listening. They just went through a timeline of what that night looks like. Now, Beth, we know that all of us in ministry, nothing happens overnight. It is careful planning and attention to details. Tell us, how many months does this take to plan something like this? Again, knowing that the Tim Tebow Foundation helps so much in the preparation phase, but what does the church, if they were to sign on and say, yes, we want to do this, what does that look like for them?
Beth Golik: So first of all, for anybody that's listening, I really encourage you to right now, go do a Google search, find a church in your area who's doing Night to Shine. You could actually go to the Tim Tebow Foundation website and navigate to Night to Shine, and there's a locator map. So you could find a church in your area. Please sign up today to volunteer at a Night to Shine so that you can experience it and you can get excited and bring it back to your church. So there is an application process, and again, you can find that information at timtebowfoundation.org. There is a way to recommend your church to be considered as a Night to Shine church. So there is an application process and you can actually, your first years of hosting a Night to Shine, you can get a grant from the Tim Tebow Foundation. So what it looks like for, at our church, we put together a committee, and you have to make sure early on that you reserve your space, whether it's in your church, get it on your church's calendar, and if you're hosting at your church, make sure you have the space.
If you're doing it at an off-site venue, make sure you have all that reserved because you know the night that it's happening. And then usually in about November, we open up the guest and volunteer registration process. Every volunteer does get background checked. That's a requirement. So you do need to know who is actually going to be at your event. Plus if you're doing, you're matching up guests to buddies, so you need to know who you have to work with. So that usually happens around November for most churches, or at least the churches in my area. And then as you approach, we're in January right now as we're talking about this, and that means that we're really starting to hone in on matching volunteers to roles. We do a mandatory volunteer training. So for us, that's coming up next week. So we're kind of finalizing, making sure we have all of our photographers and finalizing the menu, and we have all the things like the DJs been in place for months, all that type of thing. But we're getting down to the actual matching and volunteer roles and all that.
Larah Roberts: Awesome, awesome, awesome. Okay, so we know what Night to Shine looks like, go visit a church that's in your area, the things that kind of come in the planning stage. What would you tell a church leader are some things, what would you have wanted to know that maybe at the beginning and the planning stages to just be, Hey, just be mindful of this, this may happen kind of thing. Some hurdles maybe that you may have to jump, but what would you want maybe to have known upfront?
Beth Golik: So one of my takeaways from the first time we hosted, so part of the event is that you at the same time have a parent caregiver event so that like an optional event so that parents or caregivers can drop off their loved one and then kind of hang out and enjoy dinner and entertainment or whatever in another part of the venue. And this is a super important piece, and so incredibly, I mean, it's so meaningful to some of these parents and caregivers who maybe don't get a break a lot, but also have the opportunity to see their child, see their loved one, experience the event, but then they also have their own event going on. So they can, and I've seen two ways of how this is handled. So you can either have a lot of entertainment going on at this other event or not a lot of entertainment and just an opportunity for parents to just relax and chat and everything. So the first year we did it, we had entertainment and our parents really just wanted to hang-out. But I have seen it done very successfully where there is entertainment for the parents. So I guess that was a piece that I would love church leadership to know. This is an opportunity to really reach out and love on parents and caregivers in the community, not just the guests. Obviously the guests are being celebrated and loved, but this is an opportunity to really make a difference in the parent and caregiver community.
Larah Roberts: That's right. That's right. Amen. Okay. Beth, as we kind of round-out just the Night to Shine piece and podcast, do you have a story just of any type of thing that's happened in your 11 years of doing it or one that just sticks out most in your mind that you could kind of just tell us an encouragement of just your experience with a guest or a parent?
Beth Golik: So this isn't one particular story, but my absolute favorite part, well, two favorite parts. One is when a volunteer, especially a volunteer who's maybe not associated with our church's ministry, maybe they're not even associated with our church, when at the end of the night I've had people come up to me and say, this is the most incredible time I have ever had. To me, that is just, it doesn't get any better than that, right?
Larah Roberts: Sure. Yeah.
Beth Golik: After this last one, I had this young high school guy and high school guys can sometimes be too cool for school, right? He came up and he said, this has literally been the best night of my life. So that's pretty cool. But I think what's most meaningful to me is when I watch a parent or caregiver watching their loved one boogy-ing on the dance floor, or I mean, just having the time of their life and just the stars in the eyes of the parents. It's beyond description for me.
Larah Roberts: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Beth, for just helping us learn, okay, what has to happen to put details in line so that this amazing event can happen in our community, but what we both as team members at Key Ministry would encourage church leaders to hear out of this podcast is just make a way. A way is either find a church in your community who's doing it and partner with them. Another way is do it yourself. Your first step is to go to the Tim Tebow Foundation website and see how you can do that, but just take a step, right? Wouldn't you say, Beth?
Beth Golik: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's so needed and it's needed for the community, it's needed for your church as well.
Larah Roberts: Absolutely. Like you said, hands and feet of Jesus in a practical, fun, a fun way, right? Like you said, the people you just mentioned in your story, guests, parents, volunteers, students, everyone has fun and is the hands and feet of Jesus. And so it's wonderful. So yeah. So thank you for listening to today's podcast and we're just encouraging you. Take a next step, partner with us as Key Ministry, but also with Night to Shine with the Tim Tebow Foundation and take your next step today. Thank you for listening.
