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Evangelism Taking Jesus to the Streets (of Denton)! Part 3, Street Preaching Examples
Evangelism
Taking Jesus to the Streets (of Denton)! Part 3
Street Preaching Examples
Virtually every Saturday evening you can find me and others on the Denton Square openly proclaiming the gospel. Without fail, every week we have people come up to us who are shocked that we are in the public square speaking about Jesus. Sadly, this astonishment is not just from those professing to be atheists and agnostics, but even Christians. As we engage in conversation with any and all naysayers, it seems that they all have the same argument, “You should be doing this in a church, not out here for the general public to hear.”
Hmm. Are they right? Are we right? Should evangelism be reserved only for buildings with the word “Church” on them? Well, even though “open-air” or “street preaching” has become rare, it is nothing new. In fact, it has been around for thousands of years.
We see many examples of it in both the Old and New Testament Scriptures. It has been prevalent throughout church history, and it is through the open-air proclamation of the gospel that great awakenings and revivals have occurred.
Examples from the Old Testament
- Peter calls Noah a “herald of righteousness” referring to his call for people to repent before the flood of Genesis (2 Peter 2:5).
- Solomon “with a loud voice” addressed the entire nation of Israel (1 Kings 8:54-56).
- In the “open square” Ezra called the people of Israel to repentance (Ezra 10:9-14).
- While standing before the people of Israel, Ezra openly read and explained the law of God (Nehemiah 8:1-8).
- Jeremiah stood at the gate of the Lord’s House and “proclaimed” the words of God (Jeremiah 7:1-3).
- Jonah openly preached repentance to the Ninevites (Jonah 3:1-5).
- The Old Testament prophets heralded the word of God at the city gates (Isaiah 5:29; Amos 5:10).
Examples from the New Testament
- John the Baptist was the first street preacher to herald the good news in the open-air (Matt. 3:1-2; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3).
- Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount in the open-air (Matt. 5-7).
- Jesus’s disciples went about preaching on the streets in many villages (Luke 9:5-7).
- Peter preached to all the Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40).
- After healing the lame beggar, Peter preached in the open-air at Solomon’s Portico (Acts 3:11-26).
- Philip openly preached the gospel to large crowds in the city of Samaria (Acts 8:6-8).
- Peter and John preached the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans on their way back to Jerusalem (Acts 8:25)
- Paul openly preached the gospel to the entire city of Antioch (Acts 13:44-52).
- Paul stood atop Mars Hill and preached to the men of Athens in the open-air (Acts 17:22-34).
- Apollos publicly proclaimed Christ Jesus and boldly refuted the Jews in Achaia (Acts 18:27-28).
Examples in Church history
“It would be very easy to prove that revivals of religion have usually been accompanied, if not caused, by a considerable amount of preaching out of doors, or in unusual places.”
“No sort of defense is needed for preaching out of doors, but it would need very potent arguments to prove that a man had done his duty who has never preached beyond the walls of his meeting-house. A defense is required for services within buildings than for worship outside of them.”
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Evangelism: Taking Jesus to the Streets (of Denton), Part 2: A Biblical Premise
Evangelism:
Taking Jesus to the Streets (of Denton), Part 2:
A Biblical Premise
Should Christians evangelize in public places?
Is it Biblical?
The power of God.
Faith comes by hearing, which means somebody has to do the speaking!
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?And how are they to hear without someone preaching?4
Jesus also commands us to go and to shine.
Final thoughts:
Footnotes:
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Evangelism Taking Jesus to the Streets (of Denton)! — Part 1
Evangelism
Taking Jesus to the Streets (of Denton)! — Part 1
My name is Jeff Patton, and for the last four years, I have been involved in public/open-air evangelism. I have the tremendous privilege of being a part of a group of believers, who faithfully go into the public square of Denton, Texas to share the gospel of Jesus Christ every week. We have made a habit of being on the same corner, on the same day, at the same time, every week, for years now. Though the seasons change and the audience varies greatly, we strive to maintain a steady evangelistic voice on the Denton Square. We believe that Jesus gives us the mandate to go and make disciples. In doing so, preaching the gospel is the means by which people hear, believe, repent, and are brought into the kingdom of God.
This outreach that began with only a couple of men, has grown into quite a team. Men, women, and young people from my home church, The Church At Pecan Creek, and other like-minded churches, who come together every Saturday evening to do what we can to share the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
A Typical Evening of Evangelism:
A typical evening will consist of evangelism, usually consisting of: open-air preaching, open mic dialogue, scripture reading, an occasional song, passing out gospel tracts, and striking up spiritual conversations. Opportunities often arise to pray for people and to offer comfort and encouragement to hurting souls. We have seen many people affected by our efforts. Some have come to know Christ as their Savior and some other Christian passersby’s have been greatly encouraged toward personal evangelism as well.
However, evangelism is not all roses. As we know from the Apostle Paul, the same gospel that saves some is the same gospel that caused others to want to imprison, stone, beat, and whip him. Though it usually does not get quite that hostile, we do bear the brunt of many people who hate God and those who represent Him.
“Keep your message in your church walls!”
A misguided, yet widely held belief, is that preaching is only for church and that people should keep their beliefs to themselves. Believe it or not, many of those who hold such a view profess to be Christians. It seems that many Christians and non-Christians have believed the old saying that, “Two things never to be talked about in polite company are politics and religion”. However that is not a verse in the Bible.
Questions and objections that often arise to our evangelistic efforts:
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- Is street evangelism effective?
- Have your efforts brought forth any success?
- Are there not better ways to engage the lost?
- People are offended. Instead of winning people to Christ, are you not turning them away from Him?
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These all can be legitimate concerns. However, our conclusions to such questions must not rely on human reasoning, pragmatism, the opinions of others, or our own personal feelings and preferences.
Instead, we should be asking:
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- What does the Bible say about gospel proclamation?
- Are there any examples of public evangelism taking place in Scripture?
- Did Jesus and the Apostles only evangelize in private?
- If open-air evangelism was practiced in Biblical times, then why would Christians believe that it should not be done today?
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The purpose in future articles is to provide sound answers to these questions based on God’s word.
Earlier in my Christian life, I, like many, disagreed with public evangelism. But the more I studied the Word, the more my position was challenged. We must remember that the church is the body of Christ and made up of believers. Those who attend church on Sunday, supposedly, are already saved and are there to worship Jesus together with other believers. But what about those who are lost?
How will those outside the walls of church buildings get to hear the gospel if it is only proclaimed within the walls of a church building?
As God’s people, we are ambassadors for Christ. God makes His appeal to the lost world through us as we implore people on behalf of Christ to “be reconciled to God”(2 Cor. 5:20).
Even though God has grown our evangelistic outreach by sending other believers to help, we, like Jesus, clearly see that “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2). Please join us in prayer for our evangelistic efforts, and pray that you would see the harvest and the need to proclaim the gospel to those who are around you as well.
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