Passion for Evangelism

Our next in the series of women evangelists by Catherine Coffey #linkinbio for the full blog

What if Hallowe’en turned out to be bigger opportunity for the church than Christmas? By Sophie Bannister Maybe it’s just our little market town, but Hallowe’en celebrations seem to have grown year on year here since the silence of the pandemic. Every little shop gets out the fake cobwebs during October, and every café and supermarket sells spooky treats. When we first arrived here, we noticed that Hallowe’en was more of a ‘thing’ here than in other places we had lived. Trick or treating in particular seemed popular. I read this blog about outreach during Hallowe’en, which got me thinking about what could be possible, and helped me to start thinking about Hallowe’en as a mission opportunity rather than something to be dreaded and avoided. So, two years ago, we tentatively put out a friendly pumpkin or two, got some sweets and fun light-themed Christian fliers in, and waited to see what would happen. From about 5.30pm we had a decent number of mostly primary-age children, dressed up and ready to get high on sugar. The next year, I wanted to do more: the church is surrounded by houses and right next to the church primary school, and so the opportunity for connection seemed big, but we had no capacity for it, and I still wasn’t sure what it could look like. Then we were joined by an energetic new Families Worker, who quickly got the idea of making the most of the spooky season. Eventually he decided on a Light Party drop-in, which we would hold on Hallowe’en during the trick or treating rush hours of 5-7pm. The idea would be to welcome in trick or treaters as they foraged around the parish, walking past the church doors. On the night, the church looked great with lots of fairy lights, and pumpkins on the church steps with crosses carved into them (we majored on the light theme rather than going spooky, can you tell?). There was a scavenger hunt around the church, and different stations with a craft, a game, and a story. There may also have been sweets. Read the full blog #linkinbio

"The children and families were surprised by the generosity of the gift the fact it was a bag of treats rather than just a sweet. But they were more thrilled with being able to do something with their children rather than just knocking at the door. They had never seen anything else like it." Angela McDonald @stmarysmaidenhead shares her experience of being a light in the darkness at Halloween this year. Read the full story #linkinbio

"Seeking to develop a culture of evangelism in our church, we recently surveyed our church members about how they felt about evangelism. One response made me laugh out loud, only because it resonated so much with me: ‘I absolutely hate evangelism, but I do love to talk about Jesus whilst sharing my daily life’. The truth is, I would go a step further; I hate evangelism and really don’t think I talk about Jesus much in my daily life. I wonder how many of us feel something of that and the guilt that that induces! And yet, for me, when I’m pushed to think about it as I am today, virtually every week I am in the joy-filled position of spending time with several non-believers and sharing in a piece of Scripture, a discussion around it and a prayer time (sometimes even a worship song). And I love doing that. But I still don’t feel like I am an ‘evangelist’ - in fact in many ways I feel a fraud agreeing to write this article." Anna Price @evangelicalsnow Read more #linkinbio