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An Ohio church plans to give away $1000 this Easter. Lindenwald Baptist Church in Hamilton will draw two names, a member and a guest. Each person will win $500. The money is given away in order to draw in more visitors. And it works. Last year the church gave away $1000 in the hopes of bringing in 1000  people and over 1100 showed.

Now I’m all for unique ideas about getting people into church but I think this is a little weird. The purpose of the Church is to bring people into a relationship with Christ. I understand the concept of marketing the church. I’m not offended when churches do events and promotions to attract people. After all, how is the church going to tell people about Jesus Christ if you can’t even get them to come?

But money? Cold hard cash? Then again, my church has less than 100 on an average Sunday. This Easter I will probably see 125. Lindenwald will see over 1,000. For the cost of less than $1 a person, Lindenwald will share the Easter story with new faces. And they’ll likely get that money right back by through all the visitor and member donations. Now that I think about it, it seems like a pretty cost effective strategy.

So what do you think? Has Lindenwald Baptist found a radical new way to draw people in to experience the Easter story? Or are they just padding the attendance for one day out of the year and calling that a success? I’d like to know how many people come the Sunday before Easter and after.

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