Evangelism Through the Seasons

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

These verses from Colossians 4:2-6 have always inspired me in my daily evangelism. Firstly, it shows the need to pray for opportunities to share the gospel. And secondly, for boldness to proclaim the gospel clearly when those opportunities arise.

I wonder what potential gospel opportunities you feel your church has to look forward to each year?

Perhaps you might be waiting until Christmas for the easiest evangelistic invite of the year. Or maybe you’ll wait until the next A Passion for Life mission, and invest your energies into a week (or month) of evangelistic events.

Personally speaking, I think we need to broaden our horizons if these one-off events are the main focus of our evangelistic efforts. Look back to that passage in Colossians 4:2-6 where the Apostle Paul says: “Make the most of every opportunity”. He was writing that from a prison cell – which one would have thought had very limited opportunities. But not if you have the eyes of faith.

I believe there are far more opportunities scattered throughout the calendar year which churches can take advantage of.

So, here are a few that I can think of, and hopefully it might fuel ideas which your church can consider too. I’ve included some ways that we have done it at my church, Cornerstone Church Nottingham, too.

Skip to:

• New year
• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• Christmas

A short New Year series

That word new brings with it the idea of something fresh!

It conjures up thoughts of change, or new beginnings. That’s why New Year can be a great launchpad to begin a short evangelistic sermon series as an immediate follow up to build on your Christmas events.

The secular world around us often encourages people to get fit in the New Year or to kick-start it with a fresh challenge. Why not take this opportunity to put on a two or three week mini-series called ‘Fit for life’ or ‘New Beginnings’?

Or, as we once entitled ours ‘New Year - New You!’ We covered topics like:

• New relationship (with God based on Psalm 19).
• A New Guide for life – (focusing on Psalm 23, or Psalm 1).
• New you (Zacchaeus in Luke 19).

Advertise this at all your carol services and put a flyer in your Christmas guest packs to encourage people to return in the New Year.

Valentine’s Day

We ran an evangelistic event with International Students on Valentine’s Day to help them with their experience of the UK.

When the culture is talking about love, there is a great opportunity to share the news of the one who loved us so much that he gave his life.

A Lent Challenge

I’m not an Anglican, but I have to say there are some things in the Anglican calendar which FIEC churches might like to adopt for gospel purposes. Lent is one of them.

The season of Lent can offer a great evangelistic opportunity. It’s often a time when unchurched people talk about “giving something up for Lent” – which is usually chocolate!

Graham Albans at Grace Community Church in Bedford came up with a brilliant idea: challenging people to give up atheism for Lent and try God instead. I think it’s brilliant!

You could get business cards made up for the congregation to give out to friends and work colleagues with “Give up atheism for Lent and try God” on one side with an invite to church or your seekers course on the other.

Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day) is the day before the start of Lent.

We put on pancakes at our church for folks to invite guests to. You could have someone share their testimony via an interview, which is a great way to communicate the gospel in a low key way because unchurched folks are used to watching interviews on telly. Then invite people to take up the Lent challenge (mentioned above).

The Good Friday Experience

Our church runs The Good Friday Experience as an interactive afternoon experience for under 11s and their families. The church is laid out with four different stations which are decorated to depict key scenes form the Easter Story: Palm Sunday, the last supper, the cross, and the empty tomb.

Each station has people dressed up in character, who describe what happened at each location, with scriptures and suitable visuals (perhaps a short age-appropriate video) for people to look at and then ask questions of the characters. There is usually a craft to make (or colour in) at each station.

It’s a walk-through experience that enables young families to journey through the Easter story in time allocated groups, with refreshments afterwards and the all-important guest packs to take away!

Good Friday Service with communion

This is always a moving service where a clear cross-focused gospel message is given and we share communion together.

This might be an appropriate service to challenge people who may have sat on the fence of faith, to make a personal commitment and receive the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.

Handel’s Messiah

Some churches might try putting on an evening performance of Handel’s Messiah with a church choir (or forming a choir from the local community). The performance can be followed by a short gospel talk.

There are several backing tracks and choral music scores available online. All you would need to do is arrange sufficient rehearsals with your singers before the performance. If you have some classically trained musicians, they might be able to play along with the tracks too.

Saturday Easter Extravaganza

Who doesn’t like an easter egg hunt?

This is a fun time for children under 7 (accompanied by an adult) featuring games, crafts around tables, music, refreshments, and a simple explanation of the Easter story: perfect for churched children to invite their unchurched friends.

The way we do it is with a tea and coffee area for adults to sit and relax whilst the children have fun. At the end of our time, everyone gets an easter egg and a guest pack with a booklet about the real meaning of Easter as well as invites to various children’s clubs and our all-age Easter service.

Saturday Resurrection Breakfast

You can run an evangelistic breakfast with bacon baps, cereal, and toast.

We had someone present a twenty-minute power point presentation on the evidence for the resurrection followed by a time for questions. So, it was a bit like a grill a Christian.

The Mark Drama

I know a number of churches (and CUs) who have put in their own performance of The Mark Drama.

It’s great when you can go through the whole of the gospel, pretty much word for word, with actors from your own congregation. It works best if it’s done in-the-round.

Make copies of “the script” available at the end (Mark’s gospel) and an opportunity to do a suitable evangelistic course.

Heaven and How I Got Here

This is a free one-hour video drama based on Colin Smith’s book of the same name, and it is new for 2025. It’s based on the imagined life of the thief on the cross who turned to Christ.

So, if the thought of rehearsing a drama is daunting for your church, then I highly recommend this excellent one hour performance: it’s superb and the gospel message of grace is extremely clear.

There is a short 3-minute summary by Colin Smith at the end with an invitation for people to respond or to investigate further. There are also resources for discussion around tables or in small groups afterwards.

All the resources are free to download from Open the Bible UK.

Easter Sunday

Easter is always a joyful Sunday morning service which is great to invite guests to. We run it as an all-age service, with a clear gospel sermon and challenge to respond.

Guest packs with our follow up courses, a gospel, and a tract or booklet are included. Perhaps they could include Graham Albans’ excellent book: How One Weekend Can Give You Everything You Ever Wanted.

Summer holiday clubs

A week-long holiday club will always get filled up because parents are very grateful for safe things to occupy their children in the summer season. So, this can be a fun and effective way to introduce children into the orbit of the church and give them access to the gospel.

Our holiday clubs are always themed. They are full of outdoor and indoor games to burn off energy as well as activities and crafts, as well as a gathered time to hear something from God’s word at an age-appropriate level.

Often the friendships made here encourage unchurched children to start coming along to our weekly children and youth groups.

Family fun days

If a holiday club might feel like a lot of work, then perhaps your church could put on a family fun day, with a barbeque, bouncy castle, craft tables, and some outdoor games?

This is very much a pre-evangelism event where Christians are just hanging out in close proximity to unchurched folks, simply making friends and being welcoming.

These are great occasions to have someone at the end advertise events or ministries which your church runs topped off with a short engaging interview with someone whose life has been changed by the gospel.

Summer sporting events

Summer is great to invite people round to your home (or church) to watch a major sporting event together. Be that football (the Euros or World Cup), rugby, tennis, or the Olympics.

You might like to run a sports quiz evening with a short talk or interview with someone who is sporty. Christians in Sport provide some superb resources to enable you to run your own sports quiz night, or they can come in a run it for you.

Christian holiday camps and conferences

There are many Christian holiday camps for children such as Yorkshire Camps, Contagious, Scripture Union, and Gloddaeth, to name but a few. These offer fantastic gospel opportunities to build up the faith of Christian children as well as being a superb introduction for unchurched children to hear about the Christan faith.

The Keswick Convention in the Lake District is an amazing event and location to go with friends, groups or families.

As you can imagine, there is so much you can see and do, from hill walking, sailing, cycling, camping etc. And if you can persuade your unchurched friends to come with you, you might be able to persuade them to attend one of the Conventions’ evening celebrations where there is a clear gospel message.

The Convention also offers ‘after hours’ events which are more café style, with Christian music and interviews (there’s usually a main stage concert each week too). I’ve known people who have made a commitment to Christ at Keswick.

Harvest thanksgiving

Our church has only recently started doing harvest thanksgiving services. And I suspect that those in more rural communities might find it easier to draw in the unchurched to such a service than those in the cities.

We have linked our thanksgiving service with our local Foodbank. Children and adults are encouraged to bring in non-perishable goods displayed at the front. And after the service is over, they are transported to the Foodbank (which happens to be run by another gospel church).

The service is naturally focused on God’s provision to us for all our needs, both physical and spiritual.

Hallowe'en

Hallowe’en is becoming more and more popular in the UK, encouraged by retailers and advertisers who are keen to sell sweets and sinister costumes to children who (alongside their parents) knock on doors trick or treating.

The attraction of sweets can be a challenge even for Christian children. That’s why a number of years ago our church decided to put on an alternative to Hallowe’en which we call Ignite the Light.

We have fun games - like apple bobbing - and a host of crafts as well as sticky toffee apples and hot dogs. But we also have a clear message that points people to Jesus as the light of the world who overcomes that which is most fearful in our lives.

Lots of unchurched families come to Ignite the Light as they appreciate having something that feels more positive for their children to attend.

Remembrance Sunday

Though not as well attended as in years gone by, we still find there are people from an older generation who want to attend a Remembrance Day service.

Naturally, themes of peace and liberation are there for us in the gospel to unpack to guests. There are some excellent tracts available from 10ofThose and The Good Book Company to give away at the end of your service too.

Christmas craft making evening

This is hugely popular and gets booked up very quickly. Each year, we choose a different craft for people to make and supply the necessary materials for things such as wreaths, Christmas crackers, table decorations, gingerbread house, or home-made mince pies.

Halfway through the evening someone gives a short gospel message and at the end of the evening we offer out free copies of a Christmas evangelistic giveaway book from 10ofThose or The Good Book Company, alongside flyers for all of our different Christmas services.

Carolling in the community

If your church has never tried carol singing in the streets before, then start!

This is a great way for the church to be outside of its walls and doing evangelism together. We have a fantastic time going out into our local community in groups of 16-20 people singing favourite carols whist others who felt confident enough knocked on doors and gave a gospel tract and a warm invite to come to our Christmas services.

We have sometimes found that people applauded or filmed us for social media.

Kids’ carols on a Saturday

We have found it helpful to run age-appropriate carol services at different times to help attract unchurched families to our services.

The 45-minute Kids’ Carol Service is for younger primary school age. We sing popular children’s carols with plenty of visuals and a simple gospel talk followed by a party tea to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

All-age carol service at 4pm

Geared towards parents and children, this is a fun one-hour service full of songs, scriptures and a short but clear gospel message.

Traditional evening carol service

We find this such an easy invite as folks of every age still love to sing traditional carols.

We tend to base this service along the nine lessons and carols format with its scripture and hymn sandwich structure. There is a 30-minute clear gospel message.

Christmas Eve midnight service

Some unchurched folks still ask us if we do a Christmas Eve service. We don’t.

But some of you might find that there is more of an appetite for running a short reflective service at midnight. I personally like to be tucked up in bed!

Christmas Day service

It always surprises me that there are some churches that don’t have a Christmas Day service. For us, this is by far the largest service of the whole year, with sometimes up to 100 or more people out in the foyer overflow!

There are many visiting relatives in attendance, some of whom will be unconverted, as well as those in the community who only ever come to church on Christmas Day. So, this service remains a very strategic gospel opportunity.

If I could make one plea to everyone reading this article, it would be this: please, please make sure your church has a guest pack available to give away - at every service!

And I don’t just mean the evangelistic services mentioned above, I really do mean at every service. All 52 weeks of the year.

You never know when unconverted people will be in attendance. In fact, we are seeing a growing rise in the number of unchurched people, with no connections with our church, simply showing up because they felt strangely led to come in. I know that other churches are experiencing this too.

What should be in your guest pack?

In ours we have the following:

• A John’s gospel from bridgebuilders which contains the bridge to life illustration.
• An invitation to investigate the Christian faith further with a course.
• A copy of Journey into Life, or a gospel tract, or an outreach give away book from 10ofThose or The Good Book Company.
• And any invitation to other guest events which are coming up.

So, let’s make use of every opportunity the Lord provides for us to make Christ known.