The small groups (called Care Groups) in our church have leaders called Evangelism Coordinators that serve their group by keeping up prayer for lost friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers along with organizing outreaches into the community.
To conclude our orientation for the new "EC"s on Saturday we split up in teams of two and went to high traffic areas around town to give away $1 McDonalds coupons attached to a "How Good are You?" booklet that has information about our church. The goal was not to get into as many long conversations as possible, or to bait and switch, but to give them something for free as an expression of the free offer of God's love in Christ and in hopes of generating some "wow" which could lead to a conversation about the gospel.
Me and a friend named Will stood outside of the front of the mall and fanned out $1 coupons and said, "hey, free coupons to McDonalds if you're interested...grab a sweat tea or ice cream." As easy and fun as it was, I was still in need of grace. I find getting "out there" and doing anything in the name of outreach is like throwing on a Halloween costume--you know it will be fun--but you still have to get comfortable with it and make it your own.
It's amazing how easy it was to do, as well as how many folks assumed a catch at first glance. "Free" doesn't mean free in a consumer culture. Some folks were just plain suspicious. I don't blame them. I'm usually in lock-down "robot" mode when I see dudes passing out stuff. But the majority of people were surprised and thankful. Helping to demonstrate what "free" means can be a great avenue for communicating the love of Christ.
It took only 30 minutes and made a great memory as well as opened up several conversations about the gospel.
Find something to give away to folks and tell someone today...
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