The Father / Son Game Feed Outreach is is an annual event, organized together by Oakwood Church in Becker and Bridgeview and Riverside Alliance Church in Big Lake.
A Little History
The game feed was started here at Bridgeview by our previous youth pastor, Joe Weiers. Joe always hada big passion for hunting and fishing. He could talk about hunting for almost as many hours as he could sit in a tree stand. God gave Joe a vision to use his passion, which is shared by so many men, as a way to reach the unsaved in our community. Hence, our first game feed was born.
Each year it grew in size and popularity and soon became an event too large for our own church facility to handle. Pastor Joe could have kept the game feed scaled down to keep it here in our church, but he wanted to spread out the gospel to as many as possible.
At this point two other churches were brought to help: Oakwood Church in Becker and Riverside Alliance Church across the street which could handle a much larger group of people. Pastor Joe has moved on to pastor his own church in Wisconsin andhas started his own annual game feed there and it's growing larger each year.
What Exactly Is The Game Feed?
Each year we give free tickets to people who need Christ: neighbours, coworkers, friends, etc. We collect donated game meat such as venison, buffalo, goose, duck, fish, etc from three church bodies as well as through some contacts we have established over the years. With a lot of preparation and help we cook for and serve over 500 invited guests. We also give away tons of doors prizes that are donated by local businesses.
After they eat an evangelical guest speaker that is well known in the field of hunting and fishing shares his personal testimony and the Gospel to our guests. On average we get about 60 men making a first time decision for Christ as their Savior.
Where Are We Today?
2010 was our 15th consecutive year putting on the game feed. In the last few years we have had other churches contact us and come to our event to see how we work it. We then go to their churches to help them with their first game feed. Over the years we have spoken to many people about our game feed and there are two things that we hear over and over.
One is that they are amazed that three different churches can work so closely together on an outreach ministry in such harmony. The second is that church game feeds have been tried by many churches but almost always fizzle out after a few years due to the amount of work and dedication needed to put on a successful event year after year. Why has our lasted so long? First, we have to thank God for his blessing every year in providing us with what we need. Second, we have to than you, our church body for all the hard work, dedication, and generosity you all give each year.
