DAVID WATERS Evangelism applies for the sinners and the saints

Here's an interesting approach to evangelism.
Members of a Texas church take pictures of cars in the parking lot of a nearby adult video store. Then they send the owner of each car a postcard that includes a picture of the car and this message:
"Observed you in the neighborhood. Didn't know if you were aware there is a church in the area. Please stop by next time. We'd love to have you visit."
Jim Norwood, pastor of the Oakcrest Family Church in Kennedale, Texas, doesn't expect to see many postcard recipients show up for Sunday service. He does hope enough of them will be sufficiently embarrassed to take their business elsewhere.
His goal is to drive the S.O.B.'s (sexually oriented businesses) out of town.
"I want these people to know someone is noticing them," Norwood told the Los Angeles Times.
Some might take exception to Norwood's methods.
Another idea
Will Campbell, that old, cantankerous Christian preacher and writer, once wrote about a church that took someone to court for opening a topless bar on its block.
"It seems to me if a place is sinful, we would want it just as close to the church door as possible," Campbell wrote in "Soul Among Lions." "That way we could get to know the sinners, perhaps become friends with them, maybe even love them, and have a better chance of converting them."
Campbell has always been an optimist.
Personally, I hope Norwood's approach works. Then, maybe other congregations will start noticing the negative influences in their own neighborhoods: Adult video stores and adult bookstores. Strip clubs. Hourly motels. Crack houses. Hand gun dealers. Alcohol distributors posing as gas stations and food markets.
How else to explain that the local gas-mart has one refrigerated section for milk, one for juice, and a dozen for beer?
Noticing cars in the parking lot of an adult video store is one thing.
Maybe it's time for the church to notice cars in the parking lot of a chain store that pays poverty wages.
Or cars in the parking lot of a manufacturer of cop-killer bullets.
Or cars parked outside the office of a slumlord.
Or cars parked outside the homes of the owners of adult video stores and strip clubs and bullet makers.
Or cars parked outside the homes of people who own stock in companies that manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
Out of hand
Of course, I guess that sort of thing could get out of hand.
Some of the cars in some of those parking lots might end up belonging to some of the members of those congregations. Some of the cars might even belong to some of the pastors.
Then, before you know it, some of the people in some of those neighborhoods might start noticing some of the cars parked in church parking lots.
Cars that cost $30,000, $40,000, and even $50,000. Cars that cost more than the dilapidated homes in some of those neighborhoods. Cars that cost more than some of the people in those neighborhoods make in two or three years.
Someone might get the idea to stick little notes under the windshield wipers of some of those cars in the church parking lots.
"Observed you driving through the neighborhood on your way to church. Didn't know if you were aware there are children living in poverty in this area. Please stop by next time. We'd love to have you visit."
Now that would be an interesting approach to evangelism.
XDavid Waters writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.