Garage Sale Evangelism

For the past several years (with the exception of 2020) I have had garage sales at my home. I actually revel in it even as an introvert. For some reason I receive a great deal of satisfaction talking with people, joking around, and just being my goofy self. Last year a friend pulled a metal gas can out of the garbage and challenged me to sell it. I actually sold it for $5.00 and got a picture with the guy I sold it to. This led to a few conversations about the gospel and things that I do.

Freebees and giveaways

Every year though, I try to give things away. Tracts are very hard to give out at a garage sale, at least for me. I had some ESV give-away New Testaments left over from last year; but thanks to Pastor Kevin Wilson of Calvary Chapel Ames, this year I had two cases of free books to give away called, What Time Is Purple, by Tom Hammond. It is a fascinating very short read that uses humor, the Bible, and science to get through the post-modern mindset. I have given these to college students, Doctors, and even a man with a PhD in Marine Biology. I encourage everyone to check it out and at least download a copy of it from their website.

I had a few conversations and gave away at least 80 to 100 books (I don’t keep track because I’m not a numbers guy). But one conversation was with an older gal who is a Christian and was looking for books to give to her grandkids and children about Jesus. Well, she came to the right place. About an hour later she had a box of books, new tracts to give away, and about 12 copies of What Time Is Purple. It’s important to encourage believers to share the gospel because they can reach people I cannot. There has only been a handful of exceptions where I can share Christ with children. But this grandmother can, and in greater numbers.

Changes for next year

As the weekend went on, and the amount of people dwindled, I mused over what I could have done differently. Not in a self-condemning way, but to make next year better.

I really liked the free purple booklets, so I would like to do that again. I think they were a hit with most of the crowd, and very few people rejected them. I think most were intrigued by the title and back cover. Some who did reject them at first came back and received one later wishing they would have taken one in the first place.

Next year I will order a large amount of business cards with my eBay store and a short gospel message with something about myself. I will probably use the store logo, so it will be fairly easy. Another thing I would have done differently is to decorate my driveway with sidewalk chalk; maybe with a gospel message or link to the 180movie.com website to share the movie about the evils of abortion. I like those word clouds similar to this one from Blue Letter Bible graphics, and that could be a possible idea as well.