East Texas church offers hot chocolate and hope

LUFKIN—Members of First Baptist Church brought hope, hospitality and hot chocolate to go along with the twinkling lights and festive floats of the city’s Christmas parade.

As thousands of people bundled up in coats and lined the streets, members of the congregation distributed about 1,000 free cups of hot chocolate and 2,000 Texas Hope 2010 multimedia gospel compact discs on a chilly night when the parade circled downtown, passing in front of and behind the church’s facilities.

“We’re always trying to get people to come to the church,” said Deacon Kurt England. “Well, this is a great opportunity because there are 7,000 to 8,000 people coming to the church each December when they have the parade.”

Shauna Pittman, wife of Pastor Andy Pittman and a volunteer who helped hand out hot chocolate and CDs, said the outreach provided a way for the congregation to connect with the community further, help children and adults stay warm on a cold night—and share the reason for Christmas.

“I think it’s really important we grasp as a church and a community that Christmas is about Christ and it’s about Jesus’ birth,” she said.

“We get so far away from that in the busy-ness of Christmas. I think it’s really important to bring people back to that, to point them to God and point them to Christ at this time of year. I think that’s what this is about.”

The service ministry is part of the congregation’s involvement in Texas Hope 2010, an initiative to share the hope of Christ with every Texan by Easter 2010 and place Scripture in every home. One way Texas Baptists are doing that is through multimedia CDs like those the Lufkin church distributed during the Christmas parade.

By linking the hot chocolate with CD distribution, England said the event provided a natural, relaxed way for Christians to share the hope of Christ with others.

“I’m not one of those who is really is an evangelist in terms of going around and just really beating someone over the head with the Bible. But yet this is a great opportunity to spread God’s word by giving them a CD they can to listen to at their leisure, but also having access online to getting more than 350 languages downloaded with the New Testament,” England said.

“Evangelism in this form and fashion is not hard. You serve some people some hot chocolate, tell them, ‘Merry Christmas,’ and give them a CD and tell them they can learn about God by putting it in their car CD or just putting it in their computer at home.”

Andy Pittman walked up and down the parade route, offering people the gospel CDs. Most people expressed appreciation for the gift. One person asked for another copy to give to a friend who would like it. Only one person declined Pittman’s offer of a CD.

“I’ve gotten a great response from everyone we’ve given them out to,” he said.

For more information about Texas Hope 2010, including information about gospel CDs, visit www.texashope2010.com.