Delivering decorated cupcakes to our Police Department. July 2018
Our first FLASH Project! In late July 2018 we tried our first project as Bridges United Methodist Church. We weren't used to going out and sharing our faith or inviting people to church or even talking about our church - so this was a bit of a stretch for us.
Police Department
We had a couple of service programs to support people without shelter, and we had problems with people hanging around our church yard using alcohol and drugs and sleeping overnight. So we knew a bunch of our local police officers who handled our problems, and City Hall is just a few blocks from our church. Giving them a little bit of sweetness as a thank you was a great place to start for us.
Cupcakes
Everyone loves cupcakes these days, so we thought decorating a few dozen and delivering them to City Hall would be fun. We did have fun, although we won't win any prizes for our decorating skills! Three people volunteered to bake cupcakes during the week, one person went to Dollar Tree to get cupcake carriers, and one person made the frosting and prepared tubes with colors and decorating tips.
After worship, six people gathered to decorate - as well as get frosting all over everything including themselves! Then two people delivered the cupcakes on Monday when the Police Department was open.
Thank You
We included a card with a hand-written thank you message for the Police Department, and we taped business cards with our church name and information on the cupcake holders so people knew where the cupcakes came from.
No Fireworks
I can't say that dozens of people showed up at church the next week because of our cupcakes. But I know that the police officers appreciated being appreciated, and more people in the community know about our church. Our main goal is to show gratitude, train ourselves to think about others, and let God do God's work in bringing people to church.