This is a street preacher.
This video was shot in downtown Des Moines on September 4th, 2010.
Is this a good idea or a bad idea? Is this helpful or hurtful?
What is the primary motivator in this scene? Is it a desire for people to know Jesus or an individual’s need to feel and be perceived as faithful?
What do you suppose people who are walking by are thinking about this man? About God? About the Bible? Jesus?
You decide.
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sigh.
You’ve seen them to, yes?
This guy has always bothered me and he’s there every Sat. I just can’t wrap my head around the line of thinking that this makes anyone think about investigating a relationship with God. In fact I think it does the exact opposite. Our small group actually had a discussion about this type of “outreach” recently and the discussed the idea of actually approaching him as a brother in Christ and gently asking him why he approaches evangelism in this way and if he really had conviction that this was the best way. What really challenged us was the thought that he could respond “If you feel there are better methods to reach unbelievers, what are YOU doing to reach them.” That proverbial question still sticks with me.
Your humility is commendable, Mipo. Who’s to say that your life, lived with Christ in you, is not an effective method of evangelism? I think that word has a lot of baggage to it. Sometimes the best evangelism we can do is smiling at someone. Or enjoying our family. Or having a milkshake.
Mike this is the prescribed way of preaching, street preaching, OPEN air preaching! the disciples did it, Paul did it and John the Baptist did, and MOST of all Jesus Vhrist did it and then fed the multitude. Churches were not a thing then. It was mostly synogogues. So, street preaching was the way! Beside Romansd 10:17 says faith cometh by hearing!! You hear the preaching on the street and it does something for you! YOU must be a part of what you hear or forever be lost in your confusion! TRY it and prove it out my friend! I thought the people were nuts when i first heard thi type of preaching! Beside Jesus said to go out, and into all the world and preach! Very few actually go to church now, so getting the nasse on the street to hear the good news! That is good news!!!
I can not picture the great rabbi standing above the people, using polarizing hand gestures and language to call hurting souls into relationship with a loving father. It’s hard to love from a soapbox.
Breathe. That’s some good stuff right there. Quotable!
When I first saw Rob Bell’s Nooma, “Bullhorn,” I wasn’t sure if he had crossed a line. “We’re *supposed* to evangelize, right?” But it’s guys like this that seal the argument in Bell’s favor.
It’s hurtful… to me, at least.
Me too, bro.
I’m a Christian, and sometimes when I see these guys it makes me not want to have any part of it. Some soapbox preacher could never turn me away from the faith, but if that’s what it makes me thing I can only imagine what somebody who thinks that the gospel is foolishness would be thinking.
On the other hand, I know a guy who came to faith because of a soapbox preacher on his campus. The soapbox guy didn’t lead him to Christ, but it was a conversation starter with a friend who happened to be a Christian… God is big.
If having a milkshake is evangelism, consider me the next Billy Graham!
We keep trying to convert people by words (head) instead of by relationship (heart). The gospel is relational first (God to us, us to others) and yet we think its all head (choice then follow). Sad.
Looks like he could be more impactful playing basketball than preaching. Does his buddy speak too? Or does he always stand defensively with his Bible?
On a serious note, I believe the best way to reach people is relationally as opposed to soapboxes.
The message is perceived wrong even though the content may be good. I’ve participated in this type of evangelism and saw it as ineffective. Unless the audience can understand you, you are not communicating.
A few weeks ago a group of people from the Gospel Hall (my church) were preaching on the streets in Toronto. The neighbors thought they were there to drive gay people from the neighborhood. They were actually preaching the gospel, much like the man in the video. A woman in her house thought they said things like “blood in the streets” “purgatory” “God hates you”. As a result the neighbors got all defensive and physically confronted them, driving them from the street. Another neighbor captured the end of the argument on his camera and put it on youtube. Bloggers then assumed this must have been a “hate speech” event in the style of “god hates fags” etc.
What started out as an evangelism event to reach the neighborhood exploded into a name-calling event. Nobody in the neighborhood heard what the church people had to say. They just were annoyed by them.
I say, get the people’s attention first (their permission) and then open the scriptures to let them hear the exact same message, but with their full attention. Mow their lawn, take them to the doctor, offer them free pizza at your house, buy them a free book, give them a gift etc. and then you might have their ear.