Special Event Gospel Outreach - Elton John

Some young Christians wanted to use the two sold-out Elton John concerts in Summerside, PEI as springboard to share the Gospel.

After prayer and consultation with other Christians and the elders of the local assembly it was decided to develop a small pocket size card to give concert goers as an attractive momento of the occasion that would also contain a short Gospel message.

All were agreed that anything distributed by the Christians would have to be wisely handled. We were reminded that these were 'fans' who were attending. They had paid a big ticket price to attend. Nothing about our behaviour and nothing on the card should hint or suggest that we were criticizing Elton John in anyway. Utmost respect would have to be shown.

The double folded business card looked like this:

FRONT

INSIDE

BACK

Sorry about the quality of the images above.

A list of anticipated questions that could be asked by concert-goers and suitable answers were prepared in advance. The group wanted to minimize any opportunities for adverse public or even negative media coverage - given the celebrity status of the performer.

The bus carrying Elton John arrived at the Credit Union Place.

People arriving for the concert and receiving the EJ Momento Card.

2000 cards momento cards were distributed.

We thanked the Lord that the distribution went smoothly. At one point the security asked some of the momento distributors not to interfere with the people trying to enter the building and suggested that they move out further on to the parking lot and nearby streets.

The business card double fold was great; however, if we were doing it again we would go with a better quality and heavier stock for the cards so they would be more durable. We ran into some problems with the design work at our local printer and if we were doing it again, we'd have it prepared and printed a month in advance.

We also noted that the Elton John tour was going to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Oshawa and Windsor, Ontario. Too bad we hadn't prepared far enough in advance for Christians in the three other areas to have piggy-backed and benefitted from our work. This could have easily been coordinated and 1000's more could have received the little Gospel-themed momento in these other locations.