MILLERSVILLE, Pa., (BRN) – We are pleased to provide this report of Crossway Church’s 2nd Annual Independence Day Celebration, which took place on Sat., July 1.
We held our inaugural event in July 2022, with the impetus behind the event being the desire to provide a context in which we could invite members of the Millersville, Pennsylvania, community onto our property, provide them with an enjoyable family experience, share the gospel with them and invite them to join us at our Sunday Service.
This year, our event consisted of a Welcome Tent with a free giveaway, face painting and balloon animal tents staffed by members of the church, food trucks, a brass band performance consisting of patriotic songs, an audience sing-a-long featuring the hymn “Amazing Grace”, an approximate 10-12 minute presentation by our senior pastor, Peter Privitera, and a fireworks display. The event represented a strong effort by the church body to serve our community as over 100 church members volunteered in one way or another.
For this year’s event, we estimate that there were 700-800 people in attendance, with over 1/3 of the attendees consisting of guests/community members. To market the event, we mailed postcards to all of the households within a one mile radius of the church. We also paid for a half-page ad in a local, weekly journal that goes out to residents in Millersville Borough and a few adjacent municipalities.
Additional marketing was through our website and a road sign. Last, we provided postcards to church members so that they could make personal invitations to those that they know. One church member that I know personally, invited around 30 friends and family, with a large percentage of those accepting the invite to attend. I personally invited the teller at the credit union across the street. Not only did she and her family attend, but she also invited a co-worker and friend, both of whom came as well. These two stories highlight the effectiveness of what is often called a “personal invite” from a member of the church.
As previously mentioned, pastor Peter Privitera spoke to the audience prior to the fireworks display, starting with our (nation’s) founders’ fight for independence, born out of a recognition of the dignity and rights they inherently possessed as humans created in the image of God.
From here, Privitera explained that for all the value the political freedom holds, all of mankind is still subject to the slavery of sin as a result of the first man, Adam, failing to obey God in the garden. Every one of us is born under this condition (original sin) and is rendered powerless to change our condition. However, through the perfect obedience of the God-man, Jesus Christ, and his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, all mankind can know the forgiveness of their sins and true, abiding freedom in Christ.
While we did not make an altar call at the event, our call for a response consisted of inviting any interested hearers to attend a seven-week Christianity Explored course, which we scheduled to start on July 11. The Christianity Explored course consists of a video series that explores who Jesus is, why he came and what it means to follow him.
Each week, attendees enjoy a pizza dinner, followed by the Christianity Explored video and, finally, a discussion time led by one of our church members. While we had previously run the Christianity Explored course as a church, it had been a few years and the turnout for this round has far exceeded anything we anticipated. We’ve been averaging at least 50 attendees each week consisting of parents who are bringing their adolescent and teen children and other adults who were not previously associated with our church. We thank God for the strong turnout, thus far, and desire attendees to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
We’d like to thank the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) for partnering with us to fund our Independence Day Celebration through the evangelism grant that we received. We trust this summary of the event, and the corresponding Christianity Explored course, serve to encourage your hearts in the truth that the gospel is going forward in our community!
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!
