NATRONA HEIGHTS, Pa., (BRN) – This is the first year that Harvest Church – Natrona Heights participated in our town’s Christmas parade.
We decided to host a Christmas movie night the following week so we could invite everyone at the parade to come and watch the Grinch movie on our large screen, knowing it would give us the opportunity to share the gospel with them and invite them to church.
We were able to be a part of the festivities in three ways: The first was the most fun. A team of our church members built a wonderful parade float that looked like the Grinch, and the kids along the parade route loved it! The folks who walked beside the float were able to hand out invitations to all the bystanders, encouraging them to join us for church as well as for the upcoming movie night.
The second way we became involved was by giving away hot chocolate at the end of the parade, where many families had gathered to get pictures with Santa. This provided a great opportunity to engage in conversations with people and talk to them for a longer period of time.
The third opportunity we had was to host the parade participants at our church by offering warmth, refreshments and bathrooms before the parade started. Members of Harvest were there to greet and have conversations with everyone who came in to warm up and enjoy a donut.
All-in-all, we were blessed with the chance to reach out to hundreds of members of our neighborhood and share the gospel as God opened the doors.
Our final step to engage our community occurred a week later at our Grinch movie night.
The evening was a success in terms of quality engagement, but not so much in numbers. We have had successful movie nights in the past, but never this close to Christmas. We decided to give it a try anyway.
Although the attendance was lower than we had hoped, God used it to allow us to personally speak to everyone who came in and get to know them in a deeper way than would have been possible with a large crowd.
It was a good event, and our outreach team is gong to be meeting soon to work on how to hold events like this that do draw more people.
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!
