Meet-ups

Meet-ups are events hosted by people at Reach 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.

Meet-ups are independently hosted by people at Reach. They are external events planned and supervised by the meet-up hosts themselves, and Reach 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.

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.

In general, meet-up hosts and participants must fund the event themselves and find their own venue. The only cases in which Reach might provide funding for your meet-up is if it is service or mission oriented. Contact meetups@reachchurch.cc for more info.

Meet-ups and Groups both have an intentional, complementary purpose. Meet-ups are for temporary connection around similar interests, helping people to make friends from around the region. These friendships help provide a connection for people in our church who aren't ready to join a Group and its rhythms. Groups, and the discipleship and mission they incubate, are committed, family-like communities that are indefinite and location-based.

As for Reach's forms of communication, upcoming meet-ups will be occasionally shared on social media, the weekly newsletter, or app notifications. Also, at the beginning of each month they will be announced from stage at the Sunday gathering.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 help provide a space of connection around similar interests. Groups are long-term, family-like communities with a regular family meal, and are the heartbeat of Reach. They are followers of Jesus and their friends, learning to live like family, for the good of their city. This is the place where discipleship, accountability, and mission happen. Expect to make friends who feel like family, learn the joy of serving others, and take your next step in following Jesus.

Meet-ups will help you make more friends and connect with the wider church family by doing things you love together. Many 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 relationship.

Meet-ups communicated by Reach 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 going on behind-the-scenes in anyone’s life, we can’t promote public invitations to consume alcohol.

The Meet-ups Lead should have asked you for a capacity limit to add to your event. If not, email meetups@reachchurch.cc 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.

No problem! If people are okay with paying the costs, you are responsible for communicating and organizing your funding.

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 Reach from physical liability.