INDIANA, Pa., (BRN) – The Indiana Campus of Harvest Church resides in the center of the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
In addition to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the town is best known for being the childhood home of actor Jimmy Stewart, who starred in films such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo and The Philadelphia Story.
Every year in November, the town hosts the It’s a Wonderful Life Parade. As part of the festivities, a 30-40 foot tree is placed in the street directly outside the entrance of the church. Several thousand area residents gather in the town center to watch the parade, roast marshmallows and enjoy the light up night.
One of the necessities that is in short order for this event is clean restrooms. In 2022, we made a late decision to open the church for restroom use and provide some snacks for the visitors. The response was overwhelming.
This year, we significantly ramped up our efforts and the results were wonderful, despite the rainy weather. Church member Carina Potts assembled a team of over 30 volunteers to pull off this event.
Harvest Church – Indiana is located on the third floor of a commercial building, so its presence is not traditional or obvious to the local community. With the permission of the first floor restaurant, we set up a tent and flat top on the patio outside the lobby entrance and served 750 hot dogs, while church members encouraged people to come inside.
Warm smiles greeted visitors in the lobby and directed them to elevators. Once upstairs, they were again greeted by friendly faces and directed to our main room. In the main room, visitors could use the restroom, get some popcorn, hot chocolate and cookies. They could also sit at a table and warm up, or spend a few minutes listening to “Storytime with Mimi.”
When the visitors exited the elevator on the way out, they also received a card that shared upcoming events on one side and the gospel message on the other.
One of the strategic lessons learned during the first outreach, in 2022, was that people stay for a period of time when they come in, rather than use the restroom and leave quickly.
In response to that lesson, we assembled and trained a team for the purpose of having gospel conversations. In all, over 700 people came up the elevator that evening, and every one that sat at a table was met with a smiling face ready to learn about them and share the love of Christ.
God provided a quick encouragement to the team as two days later seven people who came through that evening visited the church. All seven of them also came back the next week.
Additionally, the event built our local body as team members who worked diligently in areas in which they were gifted. Some never left the background while making popcorn and preparing food, which allowed others to be free to greet and have conversations with new people. The evangelism grant from the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) allowed us to take this outreach to the next level. We are excited to see what God brings to next year’s outreach!
Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!
