Rethink Your Church-Wide Events
I have always enjoyed doing evangelistic events to reach segments of the community with the gospel of Christ.
I realize that some pastors and church staffs don’t encourage doing events for their church and community. Some feel evangelistic events are not productive. Others feel events take too much time and energy.
But I have found church events can be very fruitful to either equip God’s people or help reach the lost with the gospel. No doubt there are times when a church event has lost its effectiveness.
The question is what to do with the event.
- One option is to continue doing the event the same old way and getting the same old results.
- Another option would be to cancel the event and never bring it up again.
- A third option is to revamp the church event and breathe new life in it. Make the event effective again for reaching the lost for Christ and challenging God’s people spiritually. Sometimes events like a Fall Festival, Easter Egg Hunt, Golf Tournaments, Revivals or a Friend day must be refreshed for it to be effective.
Here are some things to consider when looking at church events.
- Is this event going to strengthen my people spiritually?
- Is this event going to give our church the opportunity to share the gospel with others?
- Is this event going to bring honor to Christ?
- Will this event make an impact in our community?
I remember being in a service in a strong church in South Georgia where the pastor said we are not going to do our normal Fall Festival this year. He said we have too many people coming and were not able to present the gospel clearly and affectively with the children and adults that attend. At first, I was very surprised because they would have over 1000 people attend this outreach event.
So being inquisitive I asked the pastor, “Why wouldn’t you do the Fall Festival event when you have so many people coming to your church?”
The pastor told me that because of the number of people and the type of event it was they were not able to present the gospel clearly to the guest. The Fall Festival event had lost its effectiveness in sharing the gospel. It had simply gotten too big. The pastor said instead of doing one large massive event that the church planned to do small events across the community in neighborhoods, trailer parks, and apartments complexes. He acknowledged that the numbers will be smaller at these events, but the event will be so much more effective. They will still offer fun for kids with blowup games, candy, face painting, and hot dogs, yet they will be able to share the gospel in a more effective way to children and adults.
The pastor did not continue doing the fall festival the same old way.
Nor did they decide to completely do away with the fall festival. They decided to be innovative and have small fall festivals across their community where they could handle the crowd and share the gospel with children and adults in a more effective way. The great news is they were able to win many children and parents to faith in Christ. After revamping the event, the event was a success.
In your evangelism strategy consider having three approaches.
Equipping in personal evangelism.
Encourage your church members to share their faith with those that are lost.
Have church-wide evangelism opportunities. Friend days, student events, vacation Bible school. And have community evangelistic opportunities where the church goes out from the walls of the church to engage the community that surrounds the church with the good news of Christ.
Published April 28, 2022