Stamps for Christmas

During the autumn of last year I decided that it was time that I figured out what was wrong with the traditional ways we do evangelism in the church and to make it easier. I read a whole lot of books including AKA Lost by Jim Henderson and Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren.
The nett result of this was a challenge to the church of which I'm part, to find new ways to connect with our community.
This is what happened.
At a leaders day at the beginning of December we were taking our first steps towards engaging in servant evangelism. I’d been reading and studying and this was the day to ask my core leaders what they thought about the idea.
They responded enthusiastically and we began to bounce around some ideas about the things we could do. The ideas came quite quickly and then all of a sudden one of the leaders said, “Stamps. We could give everyone in the village some stamps. It’s nearly Christmas and everyone needs stamps.”
So we did. We bought enough stamps to deliver six second-class stamps to each of the 287 homes in our village. With a contact card two of us spent just over an hour going to each house and putting the stamps through the doors. We didn’t know what to expect.
I think I can honestly say that the response was truly amazing. We didn’t do it to get a response; we did it simply to demonstrate God’s love in a simple practical act of kindness. But people responded. I’ve had cards, letters, telephone calls and comments from across the community. Everyone I’ve spoken with was impacted by this simple act of kindness. We always invite our community to join us at Christmas. The difference was that this year they came. We had more visitors at our Carol Service that I think we’ve had in the previous four years. I don’t know if it was the stamps, but it certainly didn’t do any harm!