by Alex Chavez
Knowing what makes an event a success helps determine what the event needs. Our vision from the beginning was to Connect the Love of Christ with the Heart of the Community. What that specifically looks like at our annual fall event is broken into two goals: 1. Everything is Free at our event; and 2. Everyone hears the Gospel. Although we accomplished these two, so much more was done for God’s glory.
Over 300 people, specifically from our 50317 community, came to Rock The Pumpkin. These 75 families came from the five elementary schools we have invested in over the past two years. The event was geared toward kids, but we took every effort to reach the parents as well. Our event had the typical outreach methods such as 1. have visitors complete an information form for contact and follow-up; 2. offer free Welcome Center bibles and literature; 3. personally greet and invite people to church; etc. What I believe makes our event a little different from others is our intentional gospel presentation. An hour into the event, we pause all activities and invite everyone to our prize table. Pastor Steve, our Lead Pastor, then takes a few minutes to share the gospel with everyone.
One of our core values is diversity. We want to see ethnic, social, and financial diversity. We want to see people groups from all over the world working together for the sake of the gospel. At our event, we got to see small business owners working together with former drug dealers. We got to see former bank robbers invite people from the community to church. We got to see God use people from all sorts of diversity for the purpose of reaching more people for Jesus.
This is our third year doing Rock The Pumpkin. We have seen many repeat visitors to our events who haven’t yet responded to our offers of the gospel, prayer, or help. They know LifeChange Church is here for them. We will continue to reach them by showing the love of Christ so we can share the Gospel as we pray for their lives to be changed.
