HOW TO GO:
What: Christmas Mini Golf
When: 6 to 9 p.m. today and Friday
Where: University Baptist Church, 4125 Riverview Ave., Middletown
How much: Free and open to the public
Call: 513-424-2612
The Rev. Glenn LaRue hopes what worked at a church in Huntington, W.Va. works in Middletown.
Last year, LaRue, then pastor of a church near Marshall University, organized a Christmas mini golf event that attracted hundreds of people and introduced them to Christ.
He hopes golf and God are equally effective here.
University Baptist Church, where LaRue, 37, has served for three months, is hosting its inaugural Christmas Mini Golf event from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight and Friday. Food and beverages also will be served and the public is invited to the free, 18-hole Putt Putt contest.
On Wednesday morning, workers and community volunteers were busy putting the final touches on the 18-hole course that winds through two floors and numerous rooms in the church. Church member families decorated the holes differently, typically with a theme.
The holes are outlined with PVC pipe and feature Christmas lights and include numerous obstacles, even a few sand traps and imaginary ponds. LaRue said every hole is designed to make a hole-in-one, though while giving a demonstration at several of the holes, he never made it on the first shot.
“Don’t show that shot,” he said to a TV cameraman after clanking a putt off a brick that rolled back at his feet.
The goal of the event is to introduce the community to the church, provide a night of free entertainment, and share the Christmas story. Whatever works, he said.
“You are supposed to use what you love for the sake of Christ,” said LaRue, who played Putt Putt with his family while growing up in Tampa, Fla. “This is just another way, a unique way, to reach out to the community.”
Last year, after a similar event at Marshall, LaRue said most of the students returned home for the holidays, but weeks later, he saw new faces in the congregation.
“That showed me that it worked,” he said. “You want to introduce them to the church, then the rest is up to God. It’s amazing how God sometimes works.”
Matt Thorpe, 19, a 2013 Monroe High School graduate and sophomore at Miami University Hamilton, has assisted in building the holes and distributing flyers at MUH, Miami University Middletown and Cincinnati State Middletown. He called Putt Putt “a good vehicle” to drive traffic to the church.
But LaRue insisted the event’s success won’t be judged entirely by a jump in church attendance.
“You want purity and people,” he said. “You want to grow well.”
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