Submitted by David Valvano as requested.
History – and First Move (1989)
Originally the "Italian Gospel Hall" back in the 1930s, located in Orange, New Jersey, the believers relocated to Livingston, NJ in 1989.
The Second Move (2022)
It's never an easy task moving an entire assembly to another location. Much was to be considered since we had a rather large footprint in our Livingston location. Our yearly Vacation Bible School was approaching nearly 100 children, and conferences were well attended, but assembly (numerical) growth was stagnant.
Second Move Sign
With much prayer, our little assembly moved to a town in Northern New Jersey - Parsippany, in the fall of 2022 (located just 12 miles to the north of our previous location). Parsippany ranks high in the list of New Jersey towns in terms of population, with about 50,000 people. Parsippany's majority ethnicity/race is Asian, making up 45.6% of residents. Be mindful that New Jersey ranks #1 in population density by area, so we have a great opportunity to reach the lost just within our community.
We were able to purchase a building previously owned by a Christian Fellowship church group whose pastor was retiring. Through God's perfect timing, the building became available for purchase with two stipulations. First, the buyer had to believe in baptism by immersion; second, the buyer would also be in the practice of breaking bread each Lord's Day. In our present age, it's hard to fathom any non-assembly-type church mandating this! We could see the providence of the Lord working.
Our new building in Parsippany
Fall Festival
According to the town news brief - The Parsippany Fall Festival is a yearly event that celebrates the community, local businesses, and culture of Parsippany, New Jersey. The festival includes food, drinks, entertainment, and more. We
Parsippany Gospel Hall Tent at Fall Festival
Opportunity knocks
This was a perfect opportunity to reach the community through gospel tracts, verses, and Bibles in multiple languages (Spanish, Hindi, English), plus invitations to the upcoming gospel series.
New Jersey retail and grocery stores have been prohibited from selling or providing single-use plastic carryout bags. If you shop in our State, be sure to bring your own shopping bag. What better opportunity than to purchase hundreds of shopping bags (cloth) and hand them out during the fall festival! Each shopping bag had an exterior verse, and we placed some prepackaged gospel material inside each bag. We (easily) handed out over 600 bags over a 5-hour period. We also had some excellent conversations with individuals concerning their lost estate.
Shopping bags with John 3:36 verse
Ideas - Some old, some new.
Leading up to the gospel series and Fall Festival, signs were placed in front of the building. Mailings and invitations were sent to the community —approximately 17,000. From experience, mailings never seem to have much of an impact in attracting individuals to gospel meetings. We know personal contacts are always the best way to get people out. A 4' x 6' banner of the same print as the invitation below was displayed on the front lawn of the hall in plain view from the street.
What other ways can we motivate family, friends and co-workers to attend? What if we hosted a dinner each night before the start of each meeting? It would take the drudgery out of having to come home from work, prepare a meal, clean up, and then leave for a gospel meeting. It seemed like a great idea, and it was!
Road signs set up in front of our building.
Each night, we served a different ethnic type of food. Monday – Italian, Tuesday – Cuban, Wednesday – American, Thursday - Indian, Friday – Chinese. Most of the food was catered but some home-cooked. The meal was brought hot and kept warm with Steros. Dessert was provided by the saints in the meeting or bought at a local Costco.
The plus side of dinner was the conversation we could have beforehand, one-on-one with any newcomer. We could take the time to listen and ask questions to understand their spiritual background, issue or problems they may have in their lives.
We know the Lord ate with sinners, tax collectors, and His disciples. In Luke 19:5 — I wonder what the conversation the Lord had with Zacchaeus when He stayed at his house. Eating with publicans and sinners must have been high on the Lord's priority list. So much so that the Pharisees saw it and said to the Lord's disciples: "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?" Eating seems to be an important part of evangelism.
Enjoying food and fellowship
First-timers / newcomers
The meal portion of the evening was not publicly advertised but was mentioned with all personal invitations. Any walk-ins off the street were invited back the next night along with an invitation to dinner.
We did have a good amount (5 to 10 a night) of personal contacts attend, mostly family members, friends, neighbours and relatives. Someone once said, "If you feed them, they will come." A few walk-ins off the street attended via advertisements. After the Gospel meeting each night, dinner food was also available for any latecomers who might have missed the dinner hour.
Joseph Baker preaching the Gospel
What we learned from the week (some suggestions)
Be in prayer for those individuals God has placed on your heart.
If possible – piggyback the gospel meetings with some other in-town event to maximize your invitation effort.
Use the meal to get to know people and have good conversations with them about the Gospel.
Keep the whole meeting (opening song, prayer, message) to < 45 minutes.
Our dinner time was 6:00 pm-7:00 pm. Gospel from 7:00 pm – 7:45 pm (end time was flexible)
Attention spans are short; keep the message to around 20-30 minutes.
After the meeting, serve coffee/dessert and have that conversation, especially with those who may have missed dinner.
Be sure to get visitor's names and phone numbers – follow up.
Cater the meals – takes much of the burden off saints. There is still much to do with setup and cleanup anyway.
Some people may not stay for dinner – ask if they would like to take some food home with them.
Conclusion
We were very pleased with the turnout and the new faces we were able to meet. Let us pray that the gospel seed sown yields a great harvest.
"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
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