PARSIPPANY — Liquid Church was selected to host “Night To Shine” sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, an unforgettable prom night experience designed especially for teens and adults ages 14+ with special needs. This year, Liquid Church turned the special event into New Jersey’s largest Night To Shine prom, with over 500 guests and 1000 volunteers gathered under one roof, in the church’s brand-new Broadcast Campus on Webro Road. The event was held on Friday, February 9.
Parsippany-Troy Hills Mayor Michael Soriano said “An impressive event in scope, scale, and heart.”
Guests at Night To Shine received the VIP treatment, with a red carpet prom entrance and friendly paparazzi snapping their photo. Once inside the guests visited stations for shoe shining, corsages and boutonnieres, limo rides, and games before they entered the main event – dancing! The highlight of the evening was the crowning ceremony, where each Night To Shine guest is crowned a prom king or queen.
Respite Rooms throughout Liquid Church had events all evening, from magicians, bingo, comedians and live music to entertain the guests.
“It’s truly our privilege and passion to serve families with special needs. We want our honored guests to feel supported as they engage with their peers, to feel a sense of belonging, and to recognize their God-given potential. Hosting Night To Shine is an incredible way that we do this at Liquid Church,” said Tim Lucas, lead pastor and founder of Liquid Church. “We know that New Jersey has the highest rate of Autism in the nation. The need here is tremendous, and so we’re not only hosting this event for the third year in a row, but in 2018 we’re turning it into one of New Jersey’s biggest parties – gathering more guests and volunteers in one location than ever before!”
This year the event drew 90,000 guests at 537 churches nationwide and in 16 countries, supported by 175,000 volunteers, celebrated 90,000 kings and queens at Night to Shine, an unforgettable prom night experience, centered on God’s love, for people with special needs.
“Night to Shine is my favorite night of the year! It’s also a favorite night for thousands and thousands of kings and queens all over the world that we crown at the end of this prom. Every town, every village, every state, and every country needs to host a Night to Shine for their special needs community. It’s a time in which people can work together and be a part of something significant and life-changing – and be blessed in the process. It’s about being a part of one team, God’s team,” said Tim Tebow, founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation.
Worldwide, 375 churches honored more than 75,000 kings and queens of the prom in 2017 with the help of 150,000 volunteers across 50 states and 11 counties, showing tremendous growth since Night To Shine launched in 2015 with 44 host churches, 7,000 guests and the help of 15,000 volunteers. Night To Shine 2018 promises to be the biggest event yet, with over 500 locations already signed up to participate around the world.
For additional information on Night to Shine hosted by Liquid Church in Parsippany click here.
For more information on the worldwide movement of Night to Shine, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation click here.
Liquid Church is one of New Jersey’s fastest-growing Christian churches. Officially launched in 2007 by Lead Pastor Tim Lucas, the church’s vision and mission is to “Saturate the State with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” with six campuses in Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, and Union Counties. Each week, over 4,000 people experience Liquid Church’s worship services in New Jersey and around the globe through Church Online. As part of its global outreach, Liquid provides clean drinking water to the poorest of the poor, with dozens of completed wells in several countries including El Salvador and Nicaragua – and most recently, Rwanda! Liquid Church’s innovative approaches to outreach and ministry have been spotlighted by CNN, FOX News, and The Today Show. For more information click here.
The Tim Tebow Foundation exists to bring Faith, Hope and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need. That mission is being fulfilled every day through the foundation’s seven areas of outreach, including W15H, Timmy’s Playrooms, Orphan Care, Adoption Aid, the Tebow CURE Hospital, Team Tebow and Night to Shine. For more information on the Tim Tebow Foundation click here.
