Gift Bag Blitz Outreach
We’ve called this a Smiley Bag Blast Outreach. It’s guaranteed to make each person smile! The goal is to mobilize your whole faith community to show kindness on a specific day or week and invite 10, 100, 1000, or more people to your church in one week.
Overview: This servant evangelism act is a connection outreach designed to bring a smile to the face of the giver and the recipient. It’s a “be encouraged-life’s good-God love you” action given to business employees, food servers, care-givers, convenience store workers, office workers, or anyone you come in contact with who needs encouragement.
Don’t limit your imagine to the destination (I’ve gone into liquor stores and head shops). A small gift bag with a few practical or tasty goodies is given to whomever God puts in your path that day, just to say “Here’s a gift to say God loves you.” Then, be ready to answer questions.
How many servants needed: Aim from one to a bunch to make this project successful. Decide first how many gift bags you think you can deliver and how many people you can talk into taking part in the blast, pick the day and hours for the blast, then connect the giver, the gift and the person God places in your path, and let God do the rest. This Outreach fits anytime in the year, but especially is good at St. Valentine’s Day, Easter, mid-summer/Independence Day, and Christmas-time.
How to create the gift: All you need is an inexpensive gift bag, some filler or paper, some tasty, pre-wrapped candy, practical items like pencils or pens, some “come-and-see” cards, and a smile on your face. A really effective way of blasting your community is to prepare a bunch of bags, have them down front during a service, pray for connections, and challenge the crowd to take a bag or three and look for someone to encourage during the week.
What do you say to get started: Try this: “I have this gift for you today to help make your day a little happier..” Or: “This is for you, from our church, to say you are appreciated and just to show you God’s love in a practical way. I hope you enjoy what’s inside.”
What to expect: With all servant evangelism acts, you’ll get the whole range. A few may be a little less responsive, but most will respond with a big smile and an open door to talk further. Ask God to give you the words to say! And have fun!
If you have any questions or if you plan to organize this outreach, please send me a note on my “contact me.” If you try this, tell me your stories!