Side-walk-chalk blues

[Beth Turner]

I'm depressed. No, really, I am. Let me tell you a little about it... maybe you've had a similar experience and you could tell me how best to approach something like this.

We have an "out-reach" ministry in our church that just started up. So when we got back from Israel and I found out about it, I was inspired and uplifted at the thought that our church was interested in the community. In fact, the group just had someone saved out of the program 3 weeks ago named Eric. If you'd pray for him, that'd be great because we all know how frustrating our first few years of being in God's family were.
Anyway, I've had this idea FOREVER about reaching out to college students on my campus. There's a Bible College in our town, and it seems that if any of the churches wants to "impress" with their outreach programs they go and do activities there, which is silly to me because those people, or the GRAND majority, ARE ALREADY SAVED. eek rolleyes
So. I go to a state university. A university like any university of our times, filled with secular ideologies, bad influences, and new freshmen who've not yet found a home-church in this new and exciting city. These freshmen will either eventually stumble across a church through friend invite or of their own motivation, or they will just stop going now that mommy and daddy aren't holding their hands. A lot of excuses I hear are "But I can't find a good church," or "But I'm (fill in the blank) denomination and I haven't seen one of those churches around here!" etc.
Now, our university does something special to advertise around campus. No one reads their school-sent-e-mails, and everyone knows it. So. They write BIG BOLD MESSAGES ON THE SIDE-WALK IN SIDE-WALK-CHALK that you couldn't miss if you tried.
So my idea has always been "Hey, what if we advertise for our church in side-walk-chalk?" You don't need permision or anything from the university, the signs can be as big and as frequent as you want, and EVERYONE SEES THEM. What a better way to reach out to those kids looking for a home church, right?
So I tell our new out-reach minister about this. He seems like a nice, genuine kind of guy, but I think that I kind of surprised him with the idea. He said that they were trying to get a video of their ministries on my university's campus going, and that my chalk idea might be a good thing for the video.
So the next Sunday I go up to him and ask about it and he gets this deer in the headlights look like he totally forgot. Which made me really depressed. Then he tells me I need to work with this OTHER guy in the ministry because he is an artist and he could do it. So I go talk to this guy and he said "Sure, it's a possibility, I just need some chalk!" And I got excited because I thought hey- they actually care!
But.
Now...
It's been a week and a half.
And I've scoured the campus.
And...
There's no side-walk-chalk advertisment for my church at all... not even a small one... nothing. And I'm thinking, maybe they forgot about it? Or maybe they were just trying to be nice? And now I feel like if I asked them a third time or offered to give them some chalk or something like I'd be annoying them... It just makes me kind of depressed and I don't know what I should do...
Church starts in an hour, so I probably won't get an answer on this topic before then, but I still wanted to see what you guys thought or if I should talk to them again on Sunday...  

[Mandralyne]

Do you think they just got busy and forgot about it. Sometimes that happens when there is a lot going on. I don't think you should confront, but you could ask. As a gentle reminder. Maybe, the best thing to do, would be to bring it up, that you hadn't seen an ad, and ask if you should do one yourself.

Maybe that's what he thought you meant. That you would make one, and he's wondering why you didn't.

Crossed communication lines. (which happens easily. i'm studying communication in my human relations course.)  

[Beth Turner]

Mandralyne

Do you think they just got busy and forgot about it. Sometimes that happens when there is a lot going on. I don't think you should confront, but you could ask. As a gentle reminder. Maybe, the best thing to do, would be to bring it up, that you hadn't seen an ad, and ask if you should do one yourself.

Maybe that's what he thought you meant. That you would make one, and he's wondering why you didn't.

Crossed communication lines. (which happens easily. i'm studying communication in my human relations course.)

I think the communication wasn't an issue but maybe you're right- I'll try it again.
Thanks  

[Grandma Lady Bug]

Beth I think that you have a really good idea. Maybe to get it started you could do a sample of what kind of sidewalk signs you want and share them with the people you talked to. That way you can easily remind them and let them see how important it is to you to see results. Hope that this idea will help you out. smile  

[animefreec]

aybe if they aren't doing anything then you can do it by yourself. i really like this idea... maybe i'll sneak out at night and write something^^  

[Beth Turner]

Woohoo I've started a trend! xd  

[Beth Turner]

Wow, there aren't a lot of these on the internet... maybe I will do one myself and then post it, like these people did!  

[animefreec]

coolio  

[Kezel]

Hey Beth has your chalk idea started or still being thought over?