Creative evangelism at Christmas and through advent this year may seem challenging. But according to the excitement on the Church Christmas and Covid facebook group it’s not stopping us sharing the hope and joy of Christmas. Here are over 10 creative evangelism ideas for Christmas and the advent season, plus links to other resources to get your juices flowing.
In fact, the facebook group has inspired the admin team to bundle all resources together plus source a whole load more to launch a new website, ‘Advent Online’ in November. It will be multimedia, videos, ideas, and so on I will update this post when it goes online.
Resource #1 – go and join the facebook group!
Then check out the modules and files areas of the group for many of the resources.
In the meantime, here are some rough ideas, some are distillations from the group chat. Some are other original ideas of my own I submitted, as well as ideas I’ve gleaned from conversations with others around the country.
1) Church of England resource page.
Preparing for Christmas and advent 2020: Comfort and Joy
2) Using QR codes.
Up until a year ago I had to explain to people what these strange boxes were. With QR scanning for track and trace, people are at last getting used to this 10 year old technology. Essentially, data is recorded in a black and white image. For our purposes, the most useful application is linking to a website.
• How to use it
• Go to the web-page you want to send people to.
• Copy the url (the web page address)
• Go to this web address (opens in a new tab if you click now) https://qrcode.tec-it.com/en
• Click the URL choice (left hand side options)
• Paste the web address you want to send people to in the big box in the middle
• Click the ‘refresh’ text
• Finally choose the big red download button.
You can do a few little tweaks as well.
In the top right corner of where the QR code is, there is a little cog. Clicking that will give you options to change the border width and colours. Its worth checking the QR code does what you expect by scanning it with the camera on your phone before downloading and putting it where you want.
Modern smart phones recognise QR codes easily. When I open my iPhone camera app, I hold it up to the QR code and without even taking a photograph the phone will ask if I want to open the associated webpage, and I click ‘yes’.
So how might you apply this?
Put a few QR codes on one piece of paper for people to scan and tell local good news stories. Each QR code links to a page on your website telling the story.
Put photos telling the Christmas story on your website, a different photo on each page. With the printed QR code ask an open question. The image should be to help people ponder the question further. You cold put a few questions on one page, or you could put one QR code and a question on posters around your community.
Our local community has a public (and free to use) electronic notice board. If you have something similar you could use that.
Because the QR code and the page address doesn’t change, you could use just one QR code but change the content of your webpage.
Do a walking augmented reality nativity
QR codes can link to youtube (and vimeo) videos as well. Since walking nativities are most likely not legal, you could try this:
1) video a couple of people from the same family acting out part of the scene, maybe in front of the place where you would normally do a performance 2) upload to youtube 3) get permission to put a QR code poster at that venue. Make sure that you tell people where to go next to get the next part of the story. You also need to publicise the first qr code place! Done right, you could make a kind of augmented reality experience by having the QR code the place to stand… and that being the point at which you made the video from.
More simply, church members could read passages from the bible, or act. Put those videos online. Or voice recordings. And link to them using QR codes.
If you used a picture which told much of the Christmas story, you could drop QR codes which connected with verses of the story onto the image.
QR code experiments for Christmas outreach and evangelism ideas
I am experimenting with what QR codes will link to. I discovered that you can even link QR codes to google maps street view! So try this one… (scan your computer screen with your phone… or your tablet with your phone)
Allow google maps to open.
It’s ‘reputedly’ where they buried Jesus. Even if it isn’t, it means someone using the QR code can explore the tomb. Imagine that on an image of the cross, or a picture of the resurrection. But how cool is that? Now you can browse around. All sorts of ideas spring to mind.
Scripture Union are looking at other ways in which they can use QR codes. Again I will update this page as soon as I know anything.
A couple of years ago I produced posters to go into people’s windows concerning Halloween. On the poster, I put a QR code which linked to a video I made about why vampires are afraid of crosses. It worked: but not as you expected. Instead of it being people visiting who scanned the image in people’s windows, it was the host themselves who scanned the image.
3) What 3 words.
https://what3words.com/
You may have seen this advertised on TV or the radio as a way of pinpointing your location so that rescue services can find you. Though I use it in Somerset when I can, rather than postcodes. This is because what3words pinpoints your location to within a 3×3 meter square. Give someone the 3 words, and they can find you. There is a phone app that goes with it as well, but you can just use the website.
How could you use it?
Connect with the QR code ideas above to locate the next QR code.
Christmas tree festivals (see below) are going to be socially distanced. So put them in peoples gardens, but provide what 3 words for people to find them.
Eventbrite
4) Any plans where you were going to get people together is going to be tough. You could have as many creative Christmas and advent ideas as you like, but if you can’t make it easy for people to access, it will be a waste of time. And social distancing measures have got to be our biggest challenge. But you could use Eventbrite to have people book when they could come. Perhaps if you set tableaus up in church, if you are sufficiently socially distanced, it would help with the organisation.
Memories
5) Memories seem an important factor to many people as I have talked with people around the country. So how could you do this? You will perhaps need permission for some of these ideas if on public ground. You could have prompts dotted around: what have people gained? What have people lost? What have they lost they are glad to have lost? Who have they lost? Who has been an angel for them?
A memory tree (or anything else to hang things on).
An artist in Bristol introduced me to this idea. Have the materials for people to tie to branches. But also think of ways in which you can make such a temporary installation more permanent – perhaps capture the ideas on paper, or on a website. Eventbrite could be used to help manage this if a lot of people are coming past/.
There are other creative installation type ideas you could try. Gardens could be used as galleries.
On the road, not just in church
6) Whilst lots of people are missing going back to church anytime soon, we must remember where people DO go. So look for local routes that people walk. Perhaps as they go to school. Don’t see these as church notice boards, but places to pause and interact.
Have people along those routes available to simply chat and listen.
Angels
7) Angels. Some people are looking to ‘knitted angel bomb’ their community. Another suggestion is to ask people who their angels are during this period. Don’t be too concerned about people talking of relatives who have died, it is still a place to start with people. Some knitted angels are going to be given directly to people. At other times they are going to be left lying around with blessings. Others are hiding them in local shops for children to find.
Story
8) https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/christmas-resources
9) Some churches are turning their large doors into advent windows. Adding new things each day. They are also providing a letterbox so people can post prayer requests.
10) Crib service
11) Bible society pop up nativity script
12) Here is an hour of a discussion of doing worship in at the moment.
Have you got any ideas? If so, please add them in the comments. I do read them all.
(This post is the unedited version. The edited version will appear in a couple of weeks on the diocese of Bath and Wells Website. Link posted here)
