Evangelism Musings 11/15/13

During the summer and through the end of the year, our church has been foregoing Sunday evening services about twice a month to participate in what we're calling community gatherings. The idea is to spend that Sunday afternoon/evening time gathering with other people from our church in smaller groups around some sort of activity (be it dinner or an outing at a park, etc.), something that allows for friendship with others and Spiritual growth. This past Sunday, my good friend, Kim, and I invited the teenage girls of our church over to my house for lunch and to help us with an evangelism project.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, then you know that Kim and I usually line up with the early birds on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) in the wee hours of the morning. The crowds are there in hopes of receiving a really good deal on a product. We're there to spread the gospel message. We usually make up bags containing a treat (granola bar of some sort), a message about the reason we celebrate Christmas, and a gospel tract. Kim and I usually procrastinate about preparing the bags ahead of time and then recruit our poor husbands in the 11th hour of Thanksgiving Day. This time, we thought ahead. Cue the teenage girls.

These lovely ladies (Michaela, Courtney, Emily, and Allie) helped us put together over 400 bags for the day after Thanksgiving event. 

When we finished that project (in record time, I might add), we moved on to making "Christmas Packs". Kim and I also make up several of these "Christmas Packs" during the holiday season and hand them out when we run errands between the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas day (feel free to borrow the idea). 

Each pack contains a few pieces of candy, a message about Christmas, and a gospel tract, all tied up with a bow. 

We encouraged each of the girls to take some of the packs with them and seek to hand them out over the Christmas season this year. Several girls took packs with them and a few expressed interest in joining us on the day after Thanksgiving to help us hand out the bags we put together. It was a well spent community gathering Sunday. It was fun to get to know the teenage girls of our church (not all in attendance here)  just a little bit better, to enjoy conversations around the gospel, and to sharpen each other in our witness for Jesus Christ in everyday life. (I would guess you could do the same thing with a teenager near you). 

P.S. The picture below is just for fun. Kim had attended a craft fair the day before, bought these knitted flower rings, and gave us each one. It added a little extra flare to our event.