‘equip the saints for works of service’

Also known as - Giving Something Away for Free is Still a Transaction!

You know the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free meal”? Well, a lot of people believe this is true, so if you want to give something away, whether it’s chocolate on the High Street or a cupcake to your neighbour, they need to know what transaction is going on.

People are suspicious. They fear being given something, seemly for free, and then finding they are indebted to the giver. Even if nothing is asked of them there and then, there’s a sense that they are somehow in your debt for future requests.

The worry is that you’ll give them a cupcake and, as soon as they take a bite, you’ll ask them to do something they don’t want to do because they owe you.

This can make giving something away really difficult because people are predisposed to say no.

A way around this is to help people understand what transaction is going on. This way they understand what they’re getting and what they’re giving in return.

This can be easily done by explaining Joyfest and helping them understand that by accepting the free gift they’re helping you with your task.

So you could say something like this: “Hi, I’m part of an initiative the churches in Exeter are doing, called Joyfest. It’s to try and make the city a happier place. So we’re doing random acts of kindness and I wondered if I could pay for your coffee?”

Saying something like this helps people understand the transaction. 

You’re buying them their coffee and they’re helping you with your initiative – it couldn’t happen without them and any obligation is discharged by saying yes. They’re actually helping you out!

Lots of people in church simply can’t imagine interacting with someone else about their faith. This is the sort of thing that evangelists, church leaders and the-people-God-really-loves do, not ordinary people.

Often the difficulty isn’t interacting with someone, having the desire or thinking what to do, it’s just how to start the conversation with someone, whether it’s a stranger or a friend.

It can be incredibly helpful just to model this initial connection with examples. When people hear how to do it they often end up thinking, “I could do that”.

Getting people to a point where they can imagine themselves doing something is really powerful step to equipping them to actually do it. 

A good opening line can also smooth out potential awkwardness or wariness on the part of the person receiving the Act of Joy.

Some good and simple examples of an opening line are, “Hi, this is a bit weird, but…” or, “Excuse me, I know this is unusual, but…”

By acknowledging it’s weird or unusual signals to the other person that you know you’re breaking normal social conventions. Normal people don’t go around doing random good deeds for free - it’s good to indicate you also realise this!

It can also be helpful to explaining what Joyfest is in a way people might understand. So, perhaps something like this:

“Hi, this is a bit weird, but I’m part of this thing the churches in Exeter are doing called Joyfest, we’re spending a week trying to make the city a happier place, and so I wondered if I could pay for your coffee?”

“I’ve made you a cake. It’s for this thing I’m involved in called Joyfest – it’s the churches in Exeter working to brighten up the city by doing nice things for people.”

Doing an Act of Joy is not easy. It requires an expenditure of emotional energy - it’s far easier not to bother. So it’s really good to have people prepare for the week by planning and being intentional about what they will do.

It’s helpful to talk about Joyfest in terms of our personal growth; about being brave and stepping out in faith. We all pray more when we do something difficult and it’s a great faith-builder to take a risk and see God come through.

So we can be encouraging people to use Joyfest as a personal challenge to take a step out of their comfort zone. Everyone is different and find different things easy. For some people it might be doing six acts instead of four over the week. For someone else it might be doing something at work or for their neighbours. For others it might be doing an Act of Joy for a stranger. 

Planning is also helpful to make sure people are ready to do Acts of Joy. If we think we’ll just be spontaneous often the opportunity passes us by and our good intentions turn to nothing. You can’t give someone a box of chocolates unless you’ve already bought the chocolates… we need to be prepared.

Finally, as with any area of our life, we’re more likely to do something difficult if we share our plans with other people who will ask us how it went.  So  small groups are an excellent place for people to make and share plans.

It often can seem that the Church’s approach to outreach is all about saving souls. When people come back from an evangelistic activity and no one has fallen to their knees and repented it can feel like a failure (no matter how much we subsequently talk about planting seeds).

For Joyfest we want to make the bar really low – everyone can take part – and the celebration really high.

The ‘win’ is simply to make someone smile and brighten their day.

If this happens, and they know it’s because of the church, then it’s mission accomplished and we should celebrate! Celebrating each win is a great way to motivate and build momentum. 

When we do something slightly scary and it goes well, often our first response is to want to tell someone about it. This is when having some sort of in-church communication network for Joyfest is not only good for the celebration, but also adds snowballing energy and inspiration to others.

There’s lots of opportunity for collaboration and working together, so it’s great to encourage this.

It’s also really helpful for anyone a bit nervous about doing an Act of Joy to do it supported by other people.

Working together means you can be more ambitious – a pop-up cream tea stand, giving away ice creams at the school pick up or a free car wash – and do an Act of Joy for a large number of people in one go.

Joyfest can be a great opportunity to get some of your church’s small groups or other community groups to work together on an Act of Joy.

In the past colleagues and neighbours – who sometimes didn’t realise they worked or lived so close to Christians from other churches – have worked together to bring in cakes or organise an after work social drinks, all for the cause of spreading joy.