One of the purposes of Pastor Connection is to share ideas which have worked in helping us reach people.  I must say more of the things we’ve tried at Bethel have failed than things which have succeeded.
Let me recommend the book, “Innovative Church: by Jonathan Falwell.  It is a compilation of strategies which Thomas Road is using that is getting real traction.
Here’s a few things we’ve done which is out of the box which has had good results.
1.     We went to the gas station next to our church and made an agreement to buy down the cost of the price of gas.  We dropped the price by $.50 or so per gallon for two hours.  We had teams of people pumping the gas, washing windows, and even checking the oil.  We put brochures of our church in a give-a-way bag, along with goodies to eat.  Our church was doing a huge musical, Easter Drama the next Sunday.  We had a chance to invite folks through this community service.  Our local newspaper gave us front page billing.  It was great exposure.
2.    We also did a “Friendship Connection Sunday.”  For 30 days our families read devotions on reaching friends and families and acquaintances.  I preached 4 messages on Sunday morning prior to the Big Day.  All the sermons were pointed towards reaching folks.  All of our Sunday School lessons were on Soul-Winning.  Praise God, We had 1004 in attendance and 13 people saved.  Many of the attendees enrolled in our Sunday School, and we saw a good solid increase.
3.    I’ll share one more.  It was called Community Catalyst.  We had our Local Officials to come.  We invited Senator Dole.  She sent a representative who received Christ in the service.  We got policeman there, fireman and people in the Health Care Field.  We saw a great response from this special day.  Our community saw our love and our appreciation for their services to our community.