Treasure Hunt: A Seek and Find Outreach Tool

There are many ways to reach out to people with the love of God and share the Good News about Jesus. Treasure Hunts are one tool, one way to do this.

Before we jump into how to Treasure Hunt we need to go over two core topics of the Christian life:

1. Hearing God’s Voice - Do you think we can hear from God?
2. Evangelism - Why do we share Jesus with others?

Can We Hear from God?

As a follower of Jesus, you can hear God’s voice. This might be a totally new concept for you or maybe you’ve been doing this for years. And it’s not just that you might be able to hear from God; as a child of God, hearing God’s voice is not a privilege but your right.

There was a separation between God and us because of sin, but when Jesus died on the cross and resurrected, He not only paid for our sins but also made a way for reconciliation with God. Now we have access to come before God.

God is good and He communicates. He speaks to those who are willing to hear. When we pray, we are coming before Him to have a conversation. And a conversation requires two people.

In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets and the people He chose. In the New Testament Jesus spoke to the disciples, then to Paul, and He promised that the Holy Spirit would bring guidance, reminding us of the things He taught us.

But are we listening to Him? Can we recognize His voice?

In John 10:27-28, Jesus says that He is our shepherd who speaks to us and we follow. He is still communicating, He is still speaking to us and we are able to hear Him.

Why do We Evangelize?

To answer this we need to understand the urgency of reaching out beyond our churches, youth groups, and communities. There are people outside of these communities who might have never heard the name of Jesus or the Good News of the gospel.

If we look to our non-Christian friends and believe what the Bible says, we will find that people are not just captive to sin (Proverbs 5, John 8:34, Romans 5:12-16, Ephesians 2:1-3), but most of the time they are without hope for their lives and eternity (Ephesians 2:11-12). But God is calling these people to come and rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-20).

Jesus portrayed how God is on the move and looking for lost people through parables (stories). These 3 stories are examples that show us God’s heart for His creation (Luke 15). In these 3 parables, Jesus always portrays God as someone looking for someone who was lost - and that’s the heart and passion of a Father: to find one lost sheep, to search for a lost coin, and to wait at the door for his lost son. And to make this possible, God is using us as His hands and feet to go and bring them back to Him.

Knowing that God’s heart is loving and longs to reach and save his lost children, we’ll go into Treasure Hunts with the same heart. Let’s go out, seek, and reach out with what God is speaking.

What is a Treasure Hunt?

There are many ways to reach out to people with the love of God and share the Good News about Jesus. Treasure Hunts are one tool, one way to do this.

To Treasure Hunt, we’ll ask God for specific hints to find people He wants us to speak with. These could be characteristics about the people we will encounter and also about situations in these people’s lives we should speak with them about or ways we can pray for them. You could Treasure Hunt alone, but it’s a lot of fun to do with a friend too!

1. Pray: Ask God to give you hints to describe the places and people you will encounter.
2. Take Note: Write down all the things God is revealing to you on paper and take this note with you.
3. Pray Again: Ask God if there is something else He wants to speak to you about the people or to the people.
4. Get Ready and Go!

What are we looking for?

There is no perfect formula for Treasure Hunts. There isn’t one way to do it, but there are some categories that can be helpful when you are asking God for hints:

• Place: Where does God want you to go?
• Name: Is there a name of a person God is sharing with you?
• Clothing: Is there an item or color God is highlighting to you?
• Specific Prayer: This could be about a sickness or a personal/work/family situation the person is in.
• Something Random: Be open to hearing anything from God. It might seem like a strange hint but it could be just the right thing to lead you to a person God wants to speak to.

Take note of all the things and characteristics that come to your mind, even when they may seem weird or don’t make sense to you. This could be God speaking to you. You never know if that weird, random characteristic is something God is telling you to pay attention to.

Okay, I found a hint. What's next?

Now that we have our hints, how do we approach the people who match one or more of our hints?

There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but here are a couple of options:

1. Be direct and tell them that earlier you asked God for hints and He told you the characteristic the person has. Show them the paper, so they can see that you are not making it up. “Hey, I know this probably sounds weird, but we’re on a Treasure Hunt and I think you’re on our list…”
2. Point out something that the person has (their outfit, hairstyle, any characteristic that is catching your attention). Start a conversation there, introduce yourself, and then tell them about the hints. “Hey, your x-shirt-x is so x-cool-x.” “My name is x-x and I’m actually on a Treasure Hunt and your x-x is on our list.”

As your conversation continues let the person know that God has highlighted them to you and it’s His desire to bless them. Keep an ear open to God and be open to Him leading you in the conversation.

Ask the person if you can pray for them. If they say no, share some encouraging words and bless them as you part ways. If they say yes, you can ask if there is something they would want prayer for (a situation, pain/illness, their family, etc.), and pray for that while keeping an ear open to God to pray out as He leads.

By this point in your conversation, you’ll probably know if they are Christian or not. You can ask the person if they would like to get to know Jesus personally. If yes, pray with them to ask Jesus into their life.

Before parting ways be sure to connect them to a local church or believer! The Christian life is not a one-time experience but discipleship a life of following Jesus together with other believers. 

After this conversation have a look at your hints again and go on to find your next Treasure.

*You probably won’t find all of the people or characteristics you took note of, but keep the paper with you after the Treasure Hunt to keep you motivated to reach out to more people in the future.