Showing gratitude, connecting with community, engaging more people.
FLASH Projects are born
As we build a new faith community, we wanted to have regular activities that engaged more of our people in reaching outside our walls, showed gratitude to our neighbors, introduced new people to our church, and wasn't a burden on the small number of leaders we have.
Can we have fun reaching new people when we feel uncomfortable with traditional forms of evangelizing?
We can absolutely have fun reaching new people in new ways! If our God created an animal as funny as a platypus, then we can be creative in new ways as well.
Building on ideas from others
We heard about the core idea of a FLASH project from a pastor in Texas. A church wanted to create a quick project for people to do on Sunday mornings after worship for 10-15 minutes. The leaders wanted to provide a first step for people who weren't participating in other service projects at the church. They decorated cookies for local first responders and built pre-cut bird houses for a nursing home.
FLASH Projects @ Bridges Church
Our projects are not meant to be serious service projects meeting the needs of our neighbors. We wanted a quick and fun project that we could use to meet people and show our gratitude. A big part of what we are doing is re-training ourselves to be thinking about people outside our church walls instead of focusing on our personal preferences. We have done five projects so far and have a schedule prepared for 2019. Our people love these projects, and awareness of our church is spreading in our community.
One of the needs we have identified in our community is that a lot of people work really hard with little recognition. Providing a small token of gratitude can be a big gift to people. In most cases, we try to include a card with an explanation of why we are doing this project that includes a statement about God's love. We do not include this when we are giving gifts to government employees to make sure that we are not infringing on people's rights in a government workplace.
Our Standard Card for most FLASH projects
We use Vistaprint for most of our printing needs because it is fast, cheap and their templates make us look good.
Our Simplified Card for Government Employees (Fire, Jail, Police)
We will post separate entries for each FLASH project so it is easier for you to share ideas with others.