PEACH BOTTOM, Pa., (BRN) – An explosion of orange and gospel excitement descended on southern Lancaster County on Saturday, Oct. 28, as Wrightsdale Baptist Church in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania, hosted a brand-new community outreach event called “Big Orange Party.”
Imagine a fall harvest party, but injected with a super-sized dose of orange and gospel-empowered excitement. This is Big Orange Party! From 3-6 p.m. on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, 50 volunteers from Wrightsdale joined together to provide outdoor carnival games, inflatables, hayrides, pumpkin bowling, face-painting, fantastic door prizes, music, costume contests, a petting zoo, a giant 8-foot photo frame and orange-themed food and drinks— all saturated with the love and gospel of Jesus.
With 325 people in attendance from all around our two-state community in southern Lancaster and Northeast Maryland, guests arrived on our church campus to discover 50 volunteers outfitted with smiles, joy and bright orange t-shirts.
Upon arrival, every child was given a special “game card” that listed all the activities and games on-site, including a gospel presentation area. Any child or young person who completed all the activities received a special prize of their choosing. Adults and teenagers weren’t exempted from the fun, as every registered person was eligible for free door prizes including collectible Wrightsdale t-shirts, restaurant gift cards and even a 40-inch Samsung TV.
In addition to the fun and festivities, our guests interacted with our “Community Connection” team and learned about weekend church services, along with the various ministries that we offer weekly for children, youth, young adults, families and seniors. In addition to extending church invites, we also distributed “new believer” New Testaments in the New Living Translation.
One of the highlights of this special day was the awesome work of our “Gospel Presentation” team led by our Next-Gen Pastor Jared Carline. This team was assigned with actively sharing the good news of Jesus with Big Orange Party attendees by helping them to create a leather-and-bead bracelet featuring colored beads that corresponded to the components of the gospel message.
These color combinations and gospel explanations were also displayed prominently by three full-size, full-color, framed posters. As each person created their bracelet, our team was there talking about the individual components of the gospel and why it is so important for us to acknowledge our sins and believe in Jesus by faith.
By the end of the afternoon, our evangelism team shared the gospel one-on-one with more than 60 individuals, with dozens of additional conversations about Sunday worship services, Kid-Min and Youth Group. We are confident that at the end of the day, more than 100 conversations happened that intentionally shared the gospel and pointed to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life.
As of today, we have not heard of anyone making a specific profession of faith in Jesus, but we are praying for God’s Spirit to bring fruit from these gospel presentations. Our Kid-Min Director, Christy Kraus, was able to pray with different families during the event about some personal needs and challenges they were experiencing at home. We were especially delighted that on Sunday morning, a family of eight people came to Wrightsdale after attending Big Orange Party the previous day.
We have received incredibly positive feedback from both our community and our church family about the debut of Big Orange Party, and we are already thinking about expansion and development for next year’s orange-themed outreach. While nothing else can compare to the red blood of Jesus, we’re excited to use the power of orange to point to Him!
Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!
