All weekend – that is Thursday through Sunday – a Christian group sat near the train tracks on 5th avenue with signs and megaphones attempting to reach the attendees and others near Comic-Con. (See this link - but note that it is to a gallery and the photo may move). By Sunday, they were joined both by other sign holders and preachers with stronger messages, and by Comic-Con attendees holding up humorous counter-signs.
Early on, I realized the best this outreach could accomplish was to gain a few souls for Christ, and drive an equal but small number further away – and once it reached the level it was on Sunday (one person with a megaphone was all but actively condemning the activities of everyone at Comic-Con as I was boarding the trolley to head home) it was actively driving people away, including the few seekers who might have been saved by the earlier effort. But, I also came up with something that would probably be orders of magnitude more effective at reaching attendees of Comic-Con for Christ.
Instead of holding signs with provocative words and linked bible verses, the sigs should simply say “Free Water,” or perhaps “Free Water, no strings attached.” And, instead of boxes full of tracts, the group should have coolers full of water bottles, with a label that says something along the lines of “Courtesy of [name of church/congregation],” and nothing more – except the existing label on the bottle. They should have someone standing by in case someone wants to talk more, but beyond that, this should simply be an outreach to meet a need (the body thirst of people outside in the San Diego summer weather).
