My life is filled with so many misfires that it is hard to think of one you’d like to hear about. Probably the most intriguing misfire I have carried through on was a few years back when I lead a musical outreach. Our outreach was lead by some very talented people and we felt it would be very effective. It was in fact more effective than we thought it would be.
Normally I lean toward outreach that requires no talent, special gifts or significant preparation. But there are talented people around whose gifts can be tapped from time to time with great success. I had written a musical with this group in mind to perform it and totally unchurched people to attend.
The venue we used was our auditorium but the song formats and script were very non-religious. We did covers of some of the best “secular” tunes out there. We developed a story of a call-in radio talk show host who got a call from a desperate seeker. The talk show host didn’t know how to handle it but was intrigued. Another call-in person helped answer some of the questions over the air. It was a cool format. Church people didn’t care much for it but many of their friends loved the outreach.
The problem arose our first night of four. Tickets were two dollars so we could see as many people attend as possible. We had sold out all but the last night. But our person in charge of ticket sales couldn’t see how. She assumed that tickets above her last count had been misplaced. And she had a new set printed and sold them. The first night in a room that could accommodate 2000 people had 2500 people trying to get in. It was a disaster in the parking lot. There were fights in the parking lot. Our parkers were heading for cover. Everyone was looking for me. And I was hiding.
We escaped by giving away free book coupons and tickets for another night. And we put big screen T.V.’s up around the facility to try and assuage some hostility. I discovered that many people however were having the time of their life with it all. They had never seen anything like it around a church event. I decided to go with this crowd and turn the stress into joy. And we reached many folks that night. I just didn’t read my mail for awhile.
So what did I learn? Here are some thoughts.
1. Be prepared.
2. Be careful (But, not too careful!).
3. Don’t underestimate people’s interest in what we have to offer.
We continued to present such outreaches a couple of times a year. But we bought numbered tickets there after. And we continued to see many folks receive Christ and churched people often not care for what we were doing. This only confirmed that our musical efforts were worthwhile.
