Vision and Mission
- To identify public events to cover the unreached fellow human beings.
- Identify and challenge nearby followers of Christ to do the outreach.
- Equip them with ideas and resources.
- Coach them to complete the outreach.
- The goal is to reach as many people as possible with as much follow-up contact as possible.
- Our Team Members will partner with you to do this.
Overview of an Outreach Plan
- Decide your goals and objectives.
- Find an event and book the booth.
- Collect resources and materials.
- Recruit volunteers.
- Pray and prepare.
- Do the outreach.
- Follow up contacts.
Pros and cons
- Public Events evangelism is best for “broad sowing.”
- Gets followers of Christ out of their comfort zone and into the world.
- Increases boldness.
- Increases visibility of followers of Christ serving unreached community.
- Is challenging but not impossible to get good contacts for follow-up.
Goals and Objectives
- Build bridges of trust among followers of Christ and unreached.
- Provide opportunities for relationship building with unreached.
- Give gospel materials and witnessing opportunities on the spot.
- Serve physical and social needs.
- Bring attention to Christian services available for the community.
- Get information useful to followers of Christ (surveys, interviews).
Finding Public Events
- Find public events at State/County/City/Community levels.
- State Fairs
- County Fairs
- Food festivals
- Cultural festivals of variety of ethnic communities
- Conventions/conferences
- Exhibitions.
- Book Fairs
- Trade shows like jewelry/gems shows.
- Parades
Reserving a booth
- Preferable to use an appealing, religiously neutral name.
- Approach organizers as a non-profit, community service group; you may qualify for a discount.
- Do not hide that you are “faith-based” and even followers of Christ if asked
- Pray for favor with organizers and visitors.
- Discrimination by religion in reserving booth in a public event is not legal in US, so you can be respectfully insistent on your rights.
- Aim to keep best possible relationship with the community you are trying to serve.
Preparation of Volunteers
- Operation and flow of booth activity
- Friendly approach line, “Have you got your free gift yet?”
- Share an appealing message or thought question without using Christian jargon
- Obey rules of the organizers, but if possible get out into the crowd.
- Share “Why I follow Jesus” or “What Jesus has done for me
- Prepare for occasional hostility: Do not raise voices, do not criticize any religion, or even defend “Christianity” as a religion; talk only about Jesus; ask
“Do you object to anything about Jesus?”
Ideas for Booth Activity
- Give out evangelistic literature – JESUS DVDs, tracts, gospels, etc. The Concise Bible is highly recommended, since it is designed for non-Christians in easy-to-read layout with footnotes and summaries. Write to nayajeevan@cru.org for multiple copies of the Concise Bible in English, Hindi, and Nepali
- Give out cards that point people to evangelistic websites. Examples:
* JESUS Film Outreach Cards – In English or Hindi; Christmas, Easter, or Year-round cards with QR code point people to the JESUS film website with online follow-up available.
* ExploreJesusBible.com Cards – In English/Hindi or English/Nepali, cards have a QR code to point people to the website where they can request one free Concise Bible per address. - Other gifts (water bottles, pencils, glow sticks, flags, balloons, etc.).
- Prayer / counseling.
- Raffle, game, quiz, survey, popcorn machine, face painting and balloons.
- Offer a social service (acupuncture, counseling, medical, legal).
- Art display (“Jesus the Asian” or “If Jesus came to my school /my city…”)
- Record interviews with passers-by on video.
- Children’s emphasis – live Bible story, puppet show, gifts; take signups for a VBS to be held the following week.
- Have JESUS or other short movie continuously playing on DVD player, and offer for sale on table.
A Creative Follow-up Idea
- Find creative ways of fun, food and friendship
- Build genuine trusting relationships
Increasing Follow-up Contacts
- Pray for boldness in your volunteers, for responsive people in the crowd.
- Encourage and train your volunteers to approach people in a friendly way and strike up conversations.
- Consider having each volunteer wear similar T shirt.
- If you pray for someone, get their name, and contact so you can call later to ask how it’s going, if their prayer is being answered.
- Offer an incentive such as raffle or free gift to people who are willing to give their contacts for follow-up.
- Put your church’s flyer or business card in the gospel packet.
- Use good follow-up questions for a phone call or personal visit after viewing the JESUS Film, which can spark spiritual interest.
- Make a postcard with your response address to insert into the JESUS DVD, for requesting further contact or materials
Coaching for Your Outreach
Our team members are experienced in public and parade outreach and will provide free coaching for you to help make your outreach a success.
Step Out in Faith
Expect God to multiply your efforts to reach thousands of people in your community!