Welcome to the final Launch Pad article, we hope they’ve been useful and fruitful. We don’t anticipate that anyone will have been able to do all 52 challenges: things like sport, art, or writing will suit different people. What we do hope is that you are becoming bolder, clearer and more visible in your witness for Jesus!
Underlying Launch Pad is a firm resistance to the pressure we face from secular society to ‘privatise our faith’. No-one minds if we think Christian thoughts, read Christian books or sing Christian songs in our own homes or in church; the challenge of evangelism is to live all our life for Jesus and find ways of showing the world who he is, and what he means to us.
Our last suggestion for a way to get the gospel outside the four walls of the church is to engage in some good old-fashioned carol-singing. To go out into the public arena and openly declare the praises of Jesus is a great thing to do. Carol singing provides us with one of the few culturally understood ways of doing that! And many of these well-known songs contain the gospel.
So try following:
- Pray!
- Chose a venue and get permission. Town centres are great, old people’s homes often welcome them, and one church we know sings outside Tesco’s every December. Failing that, if you can muster a good crowd, then local neighbourhoods have also been used: people will come out of their homes to listen!
- You’ll need a musician to keep you in tune. An acoustic guitar is easiest (electric instruments can be limited by access to a power source).
- Bring printed lyrics sheets—not everyone knows the words!
- A quick run-though is a great bonus so that you are all together.
- Create a festive atmosphere with ‘Light of the world’ balloons, and church-flyers and chocolates to hand out (check that the venue are OK with these things). Be ready to chat to passers-by.
- Invite anyone who wants to join in the singing to tag-along!
- Go out and sing, and really worship the Lord with all your heart, publicly declaring His praise with gusto!
“O Come Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!”
Pray: Lord we love you. Help us to tell the world! Amen
Previously: Launch Pad #51
