Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Is street preaching effective in our modern culture?

Saw this video on youtube, and wondered about it. Who is it glorifying, edifying, helping and changing to use these kinds of antics to get people to hear the "gospel"?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGbsiu52CxI

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Watched another video in which the same group is posting their results from their street preaching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVtffWYc5y8

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

I think it is effective in that helps to ensure that no one can say they never had the chance.

I don't think it is an effective way in actually reaching people though as most people are not in the mindset to receive the Gospel when they're out having worldly "fun".

The Gospel is not "fun".

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Do you think screaming at people through a loudspeaker will cause one walking past to really take the person screaming at them seriously?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

At work last night I was witnessing to a 19 year old girl. It just so happened a young man came into the picture and said "I see you preaching up on North 27". He went on to say he had parked at the Burger King parking lot and listened to me preach before. I was really amazed and blessed.

I personally was very much impressed by street ministry I encountered as a young person. When I first saw "Jesus Freaks" witnessing and passing out free food in Athens Ohio it stuck with me.

The best I can tell the street ministry has allowed me to at the least present the name of Jesus and the need for salvation to thousands of people. It requires death to self and gives one a sense of being obedient to the great commission.

I highly recommend it for anyone who finds the Christian Faith "boring".

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Any street preaching is effective if it's accompanied by signs and wonders. That's what grew the early church.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

I agree that some street preaching can be effective.

However, did you watch the Catholic mass street preaching video link I posted above? Do you think this kind of street preaching is effective? Showing up at public establishments, and annoying and disturbing the peace of people gathering?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

That is an awesome testimony Bro. MTD! Praise God for that!

How exactly do you go about street preaching?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Nope.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Jesus and Paul were street preachers.

The bible does mention Jesus sometimes screaming his message.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Yes, of course, Jesus must have had to raise his voice, and Paul too... if you are speaking to a crowd of 5000+ people, it is hard to imagine how all of them could have heard him, if he didn't.

But, it is not so much the decibel level of the voice, I guess... as what is being said.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Where?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Ask all of the apostles Jesus and the prophets all practiced street preaching.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Yes, there is no doubt that Jesus and the apostles preached as they walked through villages, towns, and cities.

However.... do you really think that setting up a megaphone outside public businesses, and disturbing the public peace (as in the video I posted), is one that is going to garner souls being saved to the kingdom?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

In Brazil it is custom to have street service but in the American culture I cannot see it working in most places...

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Relationship is the best way to introduce salvation to a soul. Very few will first attempt to walk into a church building or home meeting without having first been invited by a friend, or someone who they've become acquainted with, and who they know.

I think you'd have far better success reaching a lost soul while sitting in a coffee shop, and even buying a cup of coffee for someone, and striking up a conversation with them, rather then setting up outside the coffee shop with a megaphone, blasting the ears off people, telling them to "repent"....

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

I think that we should witness to our friends and family but Jesus did not tell the disciples to go make friends then be a witness rather He commanded them to go out and preach repentance. Is there one illustration in the Bible where someone first befriended a person then witnessed to them? (not knocking the method just questioning it Biblically)

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

God bless you and your efforts.
I'm a firm believer that God uses many different ways to reach the hearts of his creation.
For example, I was raised by parents who were both atheists and grew up in a small village in New England (the least religious area of America) and remember going down to Vinyl Square to get groceries and cigs for my Mom and sometimes hearing the one church bell ring at the top of the hour and one time thinking "is God calling people thru that bell?"
It wasn't until I was saved 15 years later when I was 22 that God reminded me of that thought and brought me back to that walk by the church that winter day in my mind's eye while in prayer just a few days after I received the Holy Ghost letting me know He was in fact not just calling people He was calling me that day. I broke down weeping realizing how much God loved me when I was just a 7 year old sinner boy that knew nothing about God but He cared enough to deal with me using that church bell.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Acts 18:25-27
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; 26 and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace,

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Isn't it wonderful to know how far reaching, loving, and compassionate our Lord is! What a great testimony of how the Lord was reaching for you in spite of your circumstances!

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

This shows a saved man learning more not an unsaved man being led to repentance. Again I am not against relational evangelism just pointing out that from a biblical standpoint street is much easier to defend and find examples of. Both can be effective.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power, as Paul wrote.

There are a lot of puffed up street preachers who can storm and rage through a fiery sermon, and yeah, they've got guts. I will give them that. But what else do they have to show for it?

But the logos of God is manifested through preaching, too. God's creative outlet and power to make things that are not into things that are. If this kind of preaching is not happening, street level or otherwise, it's not really the kind of preaching that manifests the logos of God.

I think it was Assisi who said preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.

Street ministry can be highly effective, but it has to be done correctly. An example from my own life:

When I was in college, I had some friends who were part of of the International Student Association. They planned a bus trip to Chicago and I tagged along.

I was friends with a girl named Sam, originally from China. I witnessed to her on the ride down. We hung out in the city for awhile, but somehow we were separated.

I ended up all by myself right in the heart of downtown Chicago. It was mid to late December, and was pretty cold. Not being able to re-connect with the group, I took a stroll around the area. Saw several homeless people. One guy was sitting on the cold sidewalk on the corner by a book store. He and I talked for awhile.

He told me "God's the only one I've got out here". I went into the bookstore, bought him a Bible and gave him my gloves. As I was doing so, a passerby made a crude comment to me for daring to minister to the homeless.

On that street, there were several other homeless and impoverished. I chatted with a few others, and bought some fast food for one or two. In a doorway, a dying man had a sign up that he had liver failure and was hungry.

I bought him some food and we talked. He confessed to me that he had lived a hard life of drinking and this was the end result. I asked him if God were to heal him and give him a second chance, would he give his life to Lord. He said yes, and so, we prayed together. I laid hands on him.

After that, it was like God just started sending people to me. On a different block, a lady with an badly injured and infected eye came up to me out of nowhere and asked if I would buy here some groceries. I could tell she was living on Mean Street. I agreed, and she took me to a local convenience store. I didn't have any money, so I used my credit card.

I said to her: Do you know who's buying you these groceries?
She replied: Jesus

Sometime later, I was able to meet up with everyone and got on the bus and went home. But it was a life changing time of ministry.

We are called to love, not only in word, but also in truth and in deed. This is the type of street preaching I affirm works. It's not brash, abrasive, or in your face. It doesn't annoy or interrupt. It serves where the need is.

It's the Gospel without "words".

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Here's an article I shared some time back. A few of you might remember it...

OPEN-AIR PREACHING
A SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY AND REMARKS THEREON
By Charles H. Spurgeon

http://www.apostolicfriendsforum.com...63&postcount=1

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Some of the "house church" believers that I know have done quite a bit of street preaching. They will preach, proclaim, and share Jesus almost anywhere and everywhere.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Luke 8:8 ..And when he had said these things, he cried,
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

John 7:28-29 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying,
Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am:
and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true,
whom ye know not. But I know him: for I am from him,
and he hath sent me.

John 7:37-38 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water

John 12:44 Jesus cried and said,
He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.

and some other places.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

I agree that both street and relational witnessing/preaching are effective, but a lot depends on the attitude of the one doing the preaching. The street preaching method of just screaming "repent' etc., to crowds of people to me seems completely ineffective. There are many ways to do the right thing, but if you have a wrong attitude, your attitude cancels out all the good you are trying to do.

Are they really trying to help people, or are they arrogantly out there just screaming at folks, and videotaping it, so that they can later pat themselves on the back, and feel that they are being used of God?

In our culture, anyone standing on a street corner, with a megaphone, screaming words into the air, is more than likely considered a nut, and most, if not all, passersby would not take that kind of message seriously.

From the post that Votive Soul wrote, I would have to say his method of witnessing on the street would be far more effective, than preaching a sermon to those same people with a megaphone.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

I love how you put this, the gospel preached "without words". Awesome testimony!

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Good articles that you posted in this thread. Thanks for sharing again. Obviously street preaching, or open-air meeting preaching can be very effective. I suppose the bottom line is whether God has sent you or not, and that goes for whatever anyone tries to do for the kingdom of God.

You mentioned in the thread quoted above that you planned on doing some street preaching. How did that work for you?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

One thing I learned from experience, street preaching will definitely kill your flesh.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Another tale from my college days:

Some different groups would come on campus with giant signs.

One would tell everyone their sins and condemn them to hell (without any message of Good News or salvation behind or in addition to it). They were highly confrontational.

The other group remained silent. But their signs were giant, graphic pics of aborted fetuses. They caused a stir, too.

Neither group seemed overly effective at doing anything but making people mad and revolting people away from Christianity.

The message wasn't redemption through the Cross.

I for one can't stand this kind of street "preaching".

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

I can stand any kind of preaching, for as Paul said
"to the Jews I became like a jew"
"to the Gentile I became like a gentile"

that by all means I might save some.

I welcome every kind of preaching, the more kinds, the better.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Not me, YOU evidently haven't heard some of the bozos that I've heard. :heeheehee

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Clown Preaching! That sounds hilarious!!! They could perform the wedding and then perform for the reception. :heeheehee

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Inflammatory words, actions, and deeds may catch people's attention for a moment, but usually don't have long-lasting results.

For example, when I think of billboards, megaphones, and people screaming, the Westboro church comes to mind.

This is a hindrance and shame to the gospel, rather then advancing the kingdom of the Lord.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

But you gotta do what God tells ya to do. Right?

Right?

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Please note my quotes around the word "preaching", indicating that what some call preaching is nothing of the sort.

All sound Biblical preaching, done in whatever Biblical form, is good and needed.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

Remember, no man comes to Christ unless the Father draws them. It's our job to preach the Gospel (outer call). It's God's job to convict and draw the elect to Himself.

Re: Street Preaching... Is it effective?
 

:highfive

so true...