When I go out to speak at Servant Evangelism conferences (something I do almost every weekend) I purposely hold my tongue until I feel like I have developed a rapport with the group before I share my all-time favorite project. It is my favorite project because it consistently gets the best reaction from not-yet Christians. It's a literal jaw dropper when it's offered. But it's a little radical for most Christ followers.
Here's how it works: I walk in with my team (no more than three; always have at least one woman  an all men's team is too scary  it looks like we are casing the joint to come back later to break in). I walk up to the manager of the place (gas station, restaurant, other public establishment) and simply say, "Hi, we're here to clean your toilets for free!" I then hand him or her a connection card with information about the church.
I get the strangest reactions from people. Some are overwhelmed at the offer and immediately say ‘no' out of hand without even thinking about it. Others just laugh and say, "I could have sworn you just said you'd like to clean our toilets for free …" A number of times I've been asked, "Did you just get out of jail or something?"
More often than not, the managers say ‘yes' to our offer. Often they follow us over to the toilets and watch us (I wonder if they think we are going to steal the toilet paper!).
Then come the questions. "What kind of Christians are you guys?" "What do you believe about the Bible?" "What Bible do you use?" (I always say, "Big black ones." They don't know enough about translations to understand a technical answer so I have a little fun with them.) And most importantly they ask, "How long do your services last?" I have found that if you say they last more than an hour you are pushing up against their limits.
Recently, I went into a nail salon with a team of college students. The owner accepted our offer to clean her toilets with an enthusiastic "Yes! Yes! Yes!" As we finished up our job (and we did a good job  we cleaned the outside of the toilet as well as the inside  that's the difference between a good job and a mediocre job) the lady called us aside. She teared up immediately. She said her husband used to clean the toilets at her salon, but he had recently died. She said the only thing she thinks about is how much she misses him. She cried some more.
Then she asked me a peculiar question. "I'm a Catholic. I believe my husband is in Purgatory. Could you pray that he gets out of Purgatory quickly?"
I said, "Well I don't exactly believe like that. But I will pray with you that God will come and relieve your loneliness. How does that sound?" She said that would be wonderful.
As we prayed we invited the Holy Spirit to touch this lady named Mary and she immediately began to weep. Her nose ran. It was a spectacle in her little shop. Everyone in the shop was looking to see what was going on. She was deeply stirred by the Spirit of God and mourned at a level that I suspect she hadn't done in the process of the loss of her husband.
After three to four minutes of her ventilating emotionally Mary quieted down and just hugged the three of us very firmly. She thanked us profusely for coming in and said that we had deeply touched her and given her much to think about.
Without saying much about the actual gospel message we had seen the Holy Spirit start a deep work in the emotional life of a hurting small business owner. We had planted a huge seed in Mary's life through an act of service.
I have been back to see Mary a number of times since then  each time planting more seeds of the gospel message. She is wide open. Each time I come in she asks, "Why do you care so much about little ‘ol me?" I just say, "Because you're a lot more than little ‘ol you!"
I have experimented with a number of projects over the past 20 years as I have tried to serve my way into the hearts of people. These experiments in action have been documented in 101 Ways to Reach Your Community (NavPress) and other books. They are a mini-encyclopedias of ideas for reaching out to your city with practical ideas that work with various sizes of groups, various types of weather, various amounts of time you have to spend, etc. It's a great resource for small groups or those getting started in practical outreach to their city.
Steve Sjogren is the founding pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati and author of numerous books on evangelism. Sjogren now speaks at conferences and consults with churches interested in the sort of outreach anyone can do. Contact Sjogren at stevesjogren@mac.com.
