Tree Huggers, Church Decorations, and Evangelism

We have a department (or "ministry" for church people) of our church called "Environmental Worship".  It sure sounds a lot like the people who love and worship the environment. We love clean water, the rain forests, and everything green.  Algae is green too, but we really don't love that.
I actually started and named this "ministry" a few years ago.  We didn't have this group and after attending a conference in Colorado, I was convinced we needed it.  The part you need to know is it has nothing to do with rain forests and the earth's environment.  It has everything to do with the environment of the church.  Allow me to explain a bit.

At this conference in Colorado, we saw videos of church services in an old warehouse.  People have church in the most unsuspecting places.  People also feel like church should look like a church and not like a warehouse.  So we decorate.  But like anything else secular in church, a decorating committee doesn't sound very church-like.  So we come up with the Christian version of a decorating committee and we call it environmental worship.
This committee gets together to discuss what the environment will look like, smell like, even feel like.  Incense, flowers, styrofoam blocks. These are our tools.  Shopping carts.  Yes, even shopping carts.
Our church is having a food drive. People bring in cans of food and put them on the floor of the lobby. Some scattered around, some in plastic bags, and even some in nice environment-friendly bags.  It was a mess. Food scattered on the floor of the lobby doesn't look inviting. It doesn't look like an organized event or that we need any more.  Enter the Environmental Worship team. Time to make it look nicer. What should we do?
If anyone knows how to decorate food displays it would be the grocery store. So I looked at a few and sure enough, we needed a shopping cart for our lobby to put the food in.  I know a parishioner who works for Publix.  In fact, she has worked there for more than 30 years.  I called my friend and asked her if we could borrow one for a while. I told her if they said no I was going to have to steal one for our use so she should keep me honest.  I don't think I would have actually stolen one, but lucky for us she came through.
I went to the store and I am not sure what fanfare I expected, but they simply told me "Just take any one you want. They are over there." Nobody walked me out. Nobody watched to see if I selected only one. They really didn't seem to care if I took one or not.
As I loaded the shopping cart into an SUV with my assistant, an older woman was putting groceries into her car. She casually glanced at us as we stuffed the shopping cart in and closed the hatch. As I looked at her she quickly looked away as if to say she didn't want any trouble.  She didn't know. She didn't know we had permission. She didn't know we worked for a church. She didn't know we were using it for a food drive decoration. I didn't tell her. And that's it, isn't it?
People say sharing the truth of the Gospel with a stranger is hard. I say sharing any kind of truth with a stranger is hard.  I was hoping the older lady in the parking lot would ask what we were doing. Then I could explain easily. If she started the conversation, I could talk all day. How easy to explain what we are doing.  In the same way, I wanted the Publix manager to ask what we were doing.  I wanted people to notice we were taking the cart so I could tell them about our church. But it's not how evangelism works. We go and tell people. Tree huggers are great evangelists for the environment.  They tell people what they believe.  People don't come into our churches asking what we are doing. We have to go and tell them. The great commission.  Go tell someone about your church and what you believe this week, then comment below to tell others how you did it.