Gimmick Evangelism

Some pastors and leaders are not fond of using anything which has a gimmick in church ministry or evangelism. I personally think that if it doesn't compromise our values and message, then it is ok. The dictionary defines a gimmick as: an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, esp. one designed to attract attention or increase appeal. (source: Dictionary.com)

One of the challenges I have found is that of staying on the cutting edge. I don't want to lose the freshness of God, the touch of heaven. Neither me personally, nor the church. And I never want to see the church lose its passion for souls. So I constantly look for ways to stimulate the church to action. There are people in the community who need Jesus! We must reach them.

The church I pastor is small by comparison to many. Our attendance the last quarter of the year averaged around 90. It stayed at about that level through mid February. The first Sunday of the year, I preached a message, "It's Turn Around Time." We began to sense it, first in the Spirit. The winds of God have been blowing on us. Times of refreshing have come. People are crying out to God!

Sensing the stirring, I called for a special attendance day for the last Sunday in March. We advertised it within the church family for about four weeks. I challenged them to invite their family and friends to join us for worship. We planned ministry for the kids, a skit for the youth, and had special guest ministry in to sing and preach. With dinner afterward, it would be a BIG DAY if our people responded. I even put some "gimmicks" out there. Pies in the faces of some leaders, if we reached our goal. We exceeded the goal! Yeah, I got a pie in the face. They posted some pictures on facebook.

You may be thinking we grew the church for only one Sunday. Possibly, but I don't think so. The 30 or so ministry guests will return to their home churches. And some of the family and friends will return back to their church, if they had one. But we have introduced, or reintroduced who we are and what we are about to faces that hadn't been in church for a while. We showed them we cared, have fun, worship God. They had an encounter with Jesus. We accomplished our mission.

Not only that, but the week prior to the big day, we had an attendance of 135. That was on the Sunday we lost an hour, when many churches were down. I think it had something to do with excitement about evangelism, and the fire of God that is burning. And the 210 we had this past Sunday may go back down to half that, but you know what? We can do it!

Let's reach them for Jesus. I'll take a pie in the face anytime!