Street Art (chalk art)

Theme: Outreach and evangelism

What you need to do this project:

Messiness Index:

This is an idea that will be really a great outreach tool, but in order to be successful, you have to do a substantial amount of perfecting your technique first. I recommend using an asphalt driveway or maybe even your church parking lot for practice space. Basically the idea is to do a large scale chalk drawing in a very public space, like the parking lot of a busy store or mall. When people come to watch you work, (and they will) you take the opportunity to answer their questions, give them a card that says a few words about the love of God and which has a map to your church on the back. This is not a place for a hard sell, you simply are using your gift to the glory of God and allowing him and the uniqueness of the project to allow the Spirit to do what He will. There are a few things to remember:

Prayer: Before you begin this or any other outreach, you must be in prayer and have others praying for you and your group. Ask the Lord to give you a place to do this outreach, a design that will touch hearts and prompt questions and most importantly give him the glory. Have people praying for you as you work and pray that the Lord will give you the right words to say and the answers to your ³audienceıs² questions.

Practice: Do not omit this step. Go to a place where there is asphalt or concrete where you can get permission and practice. Learn how to work the chalk into the asphalt, how to get bold bright colors and how to transfer the design using the grid method.

Preparation: Secure a location to do the finished work. This should be a place with a fair amount of foot traffic like a shopping mall or store parking lot or a sidewalk. Be sure to get permission from the appropriate authority. Be honest, and tell the person exactly what youıre going to do. It should be fairly easy to get permission, especially because this is the kind of thing that gets peopleıs attention. Remember to be a responsible ³neighbor.² This is no time for a ³hard sell² approach, you are simply there to use your gift to serve the Lord and answer peopleıs questions. It is not a time for a tract just simply answer questions, work to His glory and let the Spirit work in His time and His power.

Once you have secured a location, measure the space that you will be using for the piece and make a few decisions, will your whole group work together on one piece or will they each do a smaller piece. Remember the key is to make a piece that you can finish in one day. Next, I recommend getting an extra space for people that come to watch so that they can try chalk art if they so desire.

Now the fun begins! Take your space measurements and create a proportional design. Be certain to work in color and add a grid so that you will be able to draw the finished piece proportionally onto the work surface. (You may want to work this up ahead of time so that you can use it to help in gaining permission to do the outreach.) In doing the design, consider the purpose of the outreach. I recommend against doing a picture of Jesus or something recognizable as Christian. The reason for this is simple. You donıt want people to look at the piece and say, ³Oh a picture of Jesus² and walk away. You want something that is going to make them ask questions and preferably a design that will open the door for you to share your faith, perhaps an image from your walk with the Lord, so that you can share your testimony, or maybe an image from the Bible, that tells a great story of faith or maybe even just a beautiful image that glorifies the Creator.

Design your card and print them out on a laser printer on card stock. If this is something you plan to do often you may even want to go the expense of having cards professionally printed. Remember this is also not a hard sell piece, just something that helps you to share Godıs love and get the people to your church or ministry if they are interested.

Presentation: Once you have your location, date, design and cards, you will be ready to begin your presentation. I recommend that you rope off the space so that people donıt walk on the drawing. You may also want to put up a small sign that simply says something like chalk art by (fill in your groupıs name here). If you can obtain one, a pop up canopy could attract even more attention and give you shelter from the bright sunlight. Then just get to work, create and pray. It may even be advisable to have a person that will hand out the cards so that the artists can keep working, though it is important that one of the artists actually answers the questions. You may even want to consider offering free refreshments to the people as they stand and watch (get permission before doing this). Please note: This is an evangelistic outreach, not a fund raiser. If you do hand out refreshments, be certain they are free. Do not accept donations on site. Allow photos to be taken. In doing this you are multiplying the ministry as people pass these pictures around and tell about what they saw.

When the piece is complete, it will remain for a while and then the rain will wash it away, or you can go one step better and offer to wash it away yourself. Remember being a good neighbor will help you get permission to do this over and over again.