Indeed! I just took my student down the street to a convalescent hospital to do some singing. We were asked several times where we were from, and go to tell them we were just up the street.
Although, we weren't very good, so it could have been anti-marketing.

Tis a great marketing tool indeed. Last we I went caroling with my church, we sang and handed out a free christmas cd (produced by church musicians) with an invitation to a concert at the church the following week.

I'm trying to trick my church into doing evangelism by caroling my neighborhood on Christmas Eve- thanks for spoiling it!

We did this with one of the churches we work with one the east coast...big hit. They were a little mixed on whether or not it was going to be tacky and surprised that I endorsed it since I'm so against the cheesiness of most church outreach.

The fact that neighborhood communities are no longer about community, the fact that nobody is caroling anymore makes this a great idea!

when it comes to "sucking"...do you think it's cool to hand a postcard to folks who answer their door and it's got the service times for christmas week on it? it was suggested, by some staff, that i do that tomorrow night when i take teenagers caroling. what do you think?

Sayward- I say have a postcard ready if someone asks, otherwise I wouldn't pass them out. It could be just as effective to end your time saying, "Merry Christmas from all of us at XYZ Church."

I get really annoyed with postcards in the mail inviting me to Christmas services, etc.

How impersonal is that? Oh boy! I got direct mail piece from a business that just happens to be a church trying to get me to accept their "services" (which in this case happen to be church services).

Churches are not businesses. They are a body of people who are SUPPOSED to care about each other. Not a far-off distance place of people who don't even know your name they just know your address because it is listed in the white pages, just trying to get you in the door so they can feel better about themselves.