Parties With A Purpose

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Parties With A Purpose

by Doris Beck with Barbara Ball

No matter how beautiful or warm a church building, it cannot match the intimacy and comfort a home offers. God wants us to surrender our residences to Him because He wants to use our resources to introduce people to Him, then lead them to the church.

I like what my husband, Howard, says about our role in witnessing: "The Lord never told the world to go to church He told the church to go to the world." When we make our homes available for His use, He blesses us. 1

Hosting a party in your home - or backyard - is a great way to bring people together in a comfortable atmosphere and to share the love of Christ. Through the years, Women Today staff and others have had "entertaining with a purpose" parties as a platform to share the gospel. You can do this in a variety of ways, including having a speaker share a testimony and invitation to receive Christ and giving away an evangelistic video like the JESUS film or material such as Would You Like to God Personally. Here are some ideas to get you going.

Decide on your target audience

Depending on who you feel comfortable with and how much room you have, this could be for children only, ladies only, adults only, or entire families. It is important to decide at the beginning who you are going to target. That will determine the time of day, who to invite, what kind of activities and ice breakers to plan, and what kind of leaving piece you want to give them.

Plan an event for your audience and the season

This summer, why not plan a neighborhood block party? June is also a great time for "celebrate the end of school party" for families. And you can always fire up the grill for a barbecue for a large group.

At Christmas, one woman had a Family Christmas Open House. Neighbors were asked to bring a sample of their Christmas baking, and children taking music lessons were asked to perform. Consider using a theme of Christmas carols, sharing what each carol means. Or perhaps you could ask families to bring their favorite Christmas ornament and have them share why it is important to them. Christian families could be encouraged to bring an ornament with a Christian message and you can finish up by sharing an ornament with a nativity scene, an angel, or a star. The day of the open house, Invitations were given out to come to their home the following week to view the JESUS video. The following year the same family loaned the video out to families in their neighborhood.

During Easter season, the same idea could be used to plan a family Easter egg hunt with a brunch afterward, or with a JESUS video party.

A Neighborhood Open House - Our neighbors have come to expect the little invitation that lets them know when our annual open house is going to be. Everyone helps out by bringing some food, and each year our focus is a little bit different.

A "Different Culture Open House" A good time to invite neighbors who may be from different cultural backgrounds to watch the JESUS video in their language. Finish by giving your guests the video when they leave to watch again or share with their family members. You can use this excellent tool any time of the year!

An Evangelistic Coffee Party for couples or for ladies only. The flow of the evening could include a special feature, (making beeswax candles or angels - something seasonal). Have a guest speaker who shares their personal testimony along with an opportunity to invite Christ into their lives. Use comment cards afterwards.

Make the invitations

Whatever kind of event you decide to do, make sure that you are very clear on the invitation that there will be a spiritual component. Don't invite your guests and then "spring" something on them. When you invite, clearly mention on the invitation what the speaker will be sharing.

Prepare

Planning for an outreach event should begin at least one month ahead of the event itself.
Just as Jesus involved His disciples in His plans, pull together a team of Christians to help you.

Pray

Pray specifically for the right location, date, time, speaker and special feature.
Pray for those you invite, that God would prepare their hearts for what they will see and hear, and a supernatural working of the Holy Spirit to bring people to know Christ.
Pray individually and as a group.
Pray for wisdom (James 1:5)

Put it together

Decide what type of event to have (i.e. morning coffee, barbecue, evening dessert) and when.
Prepare with the people you have chosen to help you.
Select a special feature and, possibly, a theme(i.e., for a Christmas coffee brunch you may choose to make grape vine wreaths or holiday hors d'oeuvres; for a Valentine's feature you could make greeting cards and stationery with stamps). A theme may be worked out with the speaker you choose.
Identify and secure the resources you will need: location, speaker, feature, music, materials, decorations, refreshments.
Decide on your guest list and send out invitations.
Prepare thank-you's, hostess gifts, evangelistic gifts for the guests to take home, comment cards and follow-up letters to guests who prayed to receive Christ or requested more information. Develop a schedule for the flow of the event and have team members take on various roles. See

After the party
After the event, celebrate with your team, and pray again for all those who attended.

For those who indicated a decision for Christ, you may want to direct them here to receive an online mentor. You and your team might also choose to host an investigative Bible study with those interested in learning more. Continue to reach out to your guests through friendship, and consider inviting them to a future event or to attend church with you.

~ Doris Beck graduated from the University of Alberta and has worked for the last 27 years with Power to Change formerly Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada. In her current role, she coaches the hostesses of the Women Today chat rooms. Doris also travels across the country to speak about God's work in her life and to teach others to share their own stories. She and her husband, Dave, have three grown children.
Listen to Doris tell her story, For low speed dial-up connections, click here: http://audio.hcjb.org/english/friendship/IF0173.16k.mp3
For high speed connections – higher audio quality, click here:
http://audio.hcjb.org/english/friendship/IF0173.64k.mp3

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