Event Evangelism: Take the Gospel Where the Crowds Are

Many soul winners who use Chick tracts have learned to target events which bring a lot of people together. At local ball games or world class events like the Rose Parade, Mardi Gras, and Olympic events, hundreds of thousands of Chick "paper missionaries" go into the hands of the spectators, athletes, or performers.

One current event is the two weeks of Olympic games in Bangkok, Thailand in mid December. Teams were formed and a quarter of a million tracts were shipped to the site. Five days into the event, half the tracts were already gone. The teams reported that people from each of the 43 participating countries had been reached.

Although the teams had been stopped from handing out tracts at several of the gates to the stadiums, the guards at one of the most heavily used gates just watched without interfering. In fact, the teams have made friends with many of the guards and gotten literature to them, also.

Other teams are heading for Brazil soon for the Carnaval, a Latin equivalent of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. Seven hundred thousand Chick tracts are on their way for that event. Each year, on "Fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday, more and more cities around the world are holding this "bash before the fast." In the larger cities, millions congregate to celebrate with unparalleled debauchery. But, in the anything goes atmosphere, almost no one turns down a gospel tract.

Many churches are becoming alert to the possibilities of event evangelism. Using tracts imprinted with the name of their church or ministry, they are organizing teams to target local events, large or small. They have found that this greatly extends their reach into the community.

Often, such events can be located by checking the internet. There are dozens of "Fat Tuesday" events in major and even some smaller cities around the world. Some high schools and universities maintain web sites listing athletic events. Some cities maintain sites with a schedule of community events. Event evangelism is becoming a great way to reach a lot of people in a very short time with the challenge of the gospel.


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