This Saturday is our 11th annual Give-Away day at Seven Oaks church of Christ.  I want to share a little bit about this ministry with you as it might be something your congregation would like to do as well.

The Aim of the Ministry

• To remember the poor.  Paul wrote, “they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” (Gal. 2:10).
• To impact our community with the love of Christ.
• To provide an opportunity for our church family to work together.

A Description of this Ministry

• We select categories of items to be given away on a Saturday.  We select the number of families we wish to serve.  For example it is 200 this year.  We then try to supply enough in these categories for the number of families served.
• Church members donate items through the year.  We typically will take a month to emphasize a category and collect for it.
• We also use our church budget to purchase and buy many of the items.  Category coordinators will purchase and organize the items.
• This ministry can also be done on a smaller scale by simply doing donated items.  Church members could just bring them in a given month and set them up like a yard sale and let items be taken on a first come-first serve basis.
• We use Wednesday night after services and Thursday evening as work nights to set up all of the items in the auditorium (all the chairs are moved out).
• Since we have so much and try to give most families a similar amount, we take our families through our auditorium with shopping carts.  It happens on Saturday morning from 8:30 – 11:30.  Families will start arriving early in the morning.  Some of our men will give them numbers and then we call them to go through the line based on these numbers.
• After receiving their items they meet with a brother who discusses the plan of salvation, our church family, and has a prayer with them.
• Our members work the outreach and are friendly and loving through the whole process.
• The categories we did this year include:  baby items, toys, coats, hygiene items, cleaning supplies, food, books, blankets, pillows, and towels.

Outcome of this Ministry

• After doing this ministry for 11 years we can now make some evaluation of the outcomes.  We have observed the following.
  • We have not converted anyone directly because of this ministry.
  • We have improved the name of the church in the community.
  • We believe this ministry has been a great blessing for our church.  It strengthens our ties, changes us internally, and is encouraging.  It gets us giving, working, and serving.
  • We have found this ministry  works well for getting the involvement of our kids and teenagers.

Here are some pictures of us setting up for this ministry.  If you have any questions please contact me.