153 HOUSE CHURCHES NETWORK
Free-For-All Yard Sales



Free-For-All Yard Sales are held throughout the year in the neighborhoods surrounding 153 HCN churches around the US.

153 HCN church members collect items of excellent quality from their own households and those of friends and bring them to the scheduled house church location.

Flyers are passed out throughout the neighborhoods surrounding that 153 HCN house church location announcing the yard sale but not explaining what "Free-For-All" means.

On the day of the sale, church members gather and display the items in the front yard of that location, with no prices posted on any item or any mention of a "church" at all.

When the sale begins, people who approach a church member asking about the price of a particular item are in turn asked something like "Is this the item that you really wanted?"  They are then informed, upon expressing interest in that item, that they may take it for free.

There is usually a limit (a certain number of items person or family, for instance) to what each person or family may receive.  Ther are very few attempts to abuse the yard sale by neighbors.  If a decision needs to be made in a particular circumstance, each member can make that decision as led by God's Spirit, or the group can identify as "go-to person" in advance to make such decisions, once again as led by God's Spirit.

Even if people offer to pay for the items (and many of them will attempt to do so), all offers are politely and lovingly refused.

When church members are asked why they are doing this, they respond in a personal manner as to their own reasons for be involved with the Free-For-All yard sale, (including references to their faith in Christ, etc.) but do not identify the yard sale as a "church outreach", which it is not.

What Free-For-All Yard Sales are is a group of friends coming together to give to the people in their neighborhood, giving to others because they themselves have received so much from Christ Jesus.

The result of these forward expressions of love called Free-For-All Yard Sales are a potent evangelistic opportunity to neighborhoods surrounding the house churches and a bond with the people that live there that is deep and lasting.