Pastor Leads the Way in Delivering Christmas Gifts Bags in His Neighborhood
A group of 75 adults and students at Village Bible Church in Sugar Grove, Illinois spent Wednesday evening putting together 5,000 Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags (check out how they did it here). The bags include an ESV New Testament Christmas Edition, a Christmas tract by Max Lucado, and an invitation to celebrate Christ’s birth with the family at Village Bible Church throughout the month of December. Church members will be meeting at the church at 9 a.m. this Saturday and will be given a map and a box of gift bags to deliver to the homes on their maps.
But Tim Badal, Teaching Pastor at the church, got an early start, spending this morning delivering Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags to 100 of his neighbors. “My wife and son came with me and we prayed for our neighbors as we walked through the neighborhood,” said Pastor Badal. “Our church has always been known for our missions emphasis, which is usually focused on the ‘uttermost part of the earth.’ But the last couple of years we’ve been looking for more ways to become witnesses to the gospel in our own community. We believe this effort is going to get our church members thinking about their neighbors in a whole new way, as they prayerfully deliver the Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags.
“We hope that even if those who receive these Bibles don’t read them immediately, that the Bibles will sit around on an end-table where someone will pick them up and begin reading at some point—perhaps for the first time,” said Keith Duff, Shepherding Pastor at Village Bible Church. “What if only 1% of these Bibles are actually read by someone who hasn’t read God’s Word before? That would be 50 new people reading God’s Word! 5% would be 250 people!”
