Everyone should be able to give a short 45 second gospel presentation if the occasion arises. Perhaps the person is disinterested in what you have to say and you need to say it quickly.
Or a person is in a hurry and can only spare a moment.
Or you may be on a stagecoach and the two wagon masters are busy driving their team….
Fun for the whole family! Kick the Chinese New Year off right in downtown L.A. This will be the evangelism team’s fourth visit to this parade that over 100,000 spectators attend. Wanna come? We’d love to have ya! (See details after the video.)
And about this video…. I post this every year as a reminder to know your crowd before you preach to them. They always show this at the Way of the Master Ambassadors’ Academy to humble me.
Meet at Hope Chapel at 9:30am to carpool OR meet at the Metro Rail Lincoln Heights Gold Line Station (370 W. Ave. 26, L. A.) at about 10:45am. We meet there because parking is free and it only costs $1.25 each way to the Chinatown station. Parade starts at 1:00pm.
On this day in 1964 this godly Rwandan reverend was taken to a bridge by force. As he walked, he sang this hymn:
There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar:
For the Father waits over the way,
To prepare us a dwelling place there.
His hymn was cut short by a rifle shot.
The Hutu soldiers then picked up this Tutsi pastor and threw him into the river.
His diary reached his wife. She read these words written on the day he died: “We are going to Heaven.”
—Excerpted from The One Year Book of Christian History.
I want to try and answer your questions, O unbelieving readers of this blog. I will try to answer as honestly and sincerely as I can the answers you submit to me. The only qualifications would be to try and ask broad-based questions based on subjects that you are truly confused about, stymied by, or can’t quite understand regarding evangelism or Christianity in general.
I hope to answer them in future posts. So, let them roll!
I have posted 2,464 articles since this blog’s inception. As a regular feature at the beginning of the week, I will re-post “Classic” Stone the Preacher articles so you can catch up. I can almost guarantee that you’ve never read any of these. This one was originally written before I started this blog, in August of 2005.
Just one word. Maybe two. A whole sentence with the word “Jesus” in it. Friendly reminders. Tell the whole gospel: How one has sinned. Christ died, was buried and rose again. God will use what you say…
“Hi Yolanda! Guess what?” I asked perkily.
With feigned excitement the Rite-Aid clerk answered, “Jesus loves me.”
“And why’s that?”
In staccato, she replied with great bemusement, “Because he died for all of us.” I could almost see her eyes role.
Every time I see Yolanda I tell her the same thing; it’s almost a game. She expects it. I speak, she mocks. The truth ignored, still she hears. Someday though, someday…
Drip.
Glenn bugged me. Greasy long hair, large-framed glasses and a big black Bible that he’d thump while I worked at Vons on the frozen foods aisle in ’78 or ’79, the tail-end of the Jesus Movement. He insisted that I turn my life over to Christ. I mocked. Undeterred, he persisted.
Drip. Read the rest of this entry »
A Lyons man was killed Saturday afternoon when high winds caused a tree branch to fly through the windshield of his car as he drove up North Foothills Highway, impaling him. Read the rest here.
Some groups are more difficult to reach than others with the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. If I were to stand in the midst of this “Black and gay and here to stay” crowd and preach the good news of how they can be saved from Hell by trusting in Christ and repenting of their sins, I’d probably be shouted down. Most Christians do not show God’s love to this community very often so they don’t trust us.
But, if I can get gospel tracts into the hands of these people for whom Christ died for, and they read the message and believe, they may repent and turn from death to life.
Of course, we used this tract (which everyone loved—until they read it):
Look how easy it is to “invade a parade” with this one minute video!
Read all my articles on how to
reach the Gay community by clicking here.
We will be going local this Saturday. Meet us at Hope Chapel at noon to go down to the Hermosa Beach Pier. We may even do some evangelistic bar hopping! Here’s an excerpt:
Unashamed, I stood in line outside Patrick Malloy’s, a party bar popular with the college crowd, and waited for my I.D. to be checked. I hadn’t done this in probably fifteen years, so I felt a bit awkward; but it was Happy Hour and I was ready to PARTEEE! The bouncer looked at my driver’s license and asked if I wanted the one-dollar beer cup before he waved me through. I declined, and then walked into the den of iniquity, my conscience drowned out by the multitudes joking and carrying on at the crowded tables… Click here to read the rest.
This clown was so offended that he wouldn’t even allow me to clarify. Read below on why he was so perturbed.
It was at the Martin Luther King Jr. parade where this clown was queried. Why was he so offended? Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s an idea when you see bumper to bumper traffic. When the cars aren’t moving at all and the drivers are waiting, waiting… why not take advantage of the gridlock by giving the Gospel?
A Ukraine dumpling-eating contest to find the person who could eat 10 of the dough balls most quickly went horribly wrong when the 77-year-old champion keeled over and died.
The winner had just won his prize, a one-liter jar of sour cream, when he began to feel ill.
“The old man got sick and fell to the ground,” an unnamed witness told Interfax news agency. Click to read the rest.
The holidays forced me to wait until now to show the last evangelism class grads of last year, and what a class it was! I think out of the 13 who made it to the end (remember that darned 50% rule!), five or six will be faithful evangelists, that is, they will be incorporating witnessing as a regular part of their day.
Here is one of the students (not pictured) handing out his first tracts at a parade. How hard is that?
And click here to see my ten-year-old and another student mastering this technique with joy!
I HAVE A DREAM… that multitudes of Christians would gather to share their faith at the two parades we will be attending, and that multitudes would be saved as a result of the Gospel being preached.
This Saturday we will be going to the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade in Long Beach for the the 2nd time. If you’d like to join us for this friendly event, meet us at Hope Chapel at 8am to carpool.
And Monday will be the 5th year in a row that we visit the Kingdom Day Parade in Los Angeles! To carpool, meet at Hope Chapel at 7:30am.
Last year, I had the opportunity to preach to Hare Krishnas as they twirled and whirled, and also to the gay contingent who actually called my Gospel tracts evil.
To top it all off, I ruined my witness by getting mustard all over my hallowed preaching shirt while eating a street hot dog. Read all these 2011 adventures by clicking here.
In 2010, I was caught on-camera by ABC television while running into the parade to give out my Gospel money tracts (see below from 1:06 to 1:16). We were then rained out. Read all about it here.
Here’s a different perspective of the same incident:
In 2009, I was castigated by my Christian brethren for wearing a special
event appropriate T-shirt. (I won’t be wearing it again, but will be bringing thousands of thousands of special event-appropriate Gospel tracts.) Nevertheless, I had a very good Biblical reason for donning this garb even though I had no intention of voting this way. Tony Miano joined us in this year and wore an entirely different shirt. Read this series, and the controversy by clicking here.
But when this all started in 2008, I never dreamed we would encounter such a great and friendly neighborhood as the one in the Crenshaw district. We even gave the dad of “Good Times” (remember that ’70s show?), a million dollar bill Gospel tract! Dy-noooo-miiiiite! (Read that account here.)
The American Spectator reported on some wonderful news: According to the International Bulletin of Missionary Research there are 80,000 new Christians every day! But there’s even better news. Keep reading.
Because of God’s Spirit working in the lives of unbelievers as they hear the Gospel preached, Christianity is still thriving, with “one third of the world professing 
Christianity, virtually unchanged as a global percentage since 100 years ago. Christians today are estimated to number about 2.3 billion. About 1.5 billion are estimated to attend church regularly at over 5 million congregations, up from 400,000 100 years ago.”
But the best news of all? According to this report there are 300 less atheists in the world every day! At this rate, in a few thousand years (or more) there will be no more atheists! Hallelujah!!!
Maybe a lot of these “backslidden” atheists were a lot like prominent existentialist thinker
Albert Camus. He, too, wrestled with many of the issues that unbelievers today struggle with: the meaning of life, a foundation for morality, and the problem of suffering and evil. We wrote about his convictions that God does not exist and that the world is without meaning in such major novels as The Stranger (1942), The Plague (1947), and The Fall (1956).
His main frustrations, as written about in The One Year Book of Christian History, “came from the issues of suffering and evil. Seeing pain and suffering all around him, he could not believe that a God who was good and all-powerful would watch such events and do nothing to alleviate them. Such a God, he felt was not worth believing.”
Hmmm. Sounds like some of the atheists I’ve encountered. Read the rest of this entry »
May I exhort you to continue to share your faith in the face of discouragement, nay saying, attacks and negativity because eternity is at stake?
When it comes to attacks from unbelievers at my YouTube account, posted to this blog, or sent via email, I take it with a grain of salt and continue to do what God has called all born again believers to do: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2)
Still, a comment like this one posted to my personal profile at YouTube can sting a little:
“You better hope we never meet, because its the self centered, arrogant yet ignorant slobs like you that are ruining our country. Your types murders people of opposing views, you oppress minorities, you are low down dirty belligerent scum. And your punishment will be realizing thats theres no life after death, trust me you’re getting up there in years and you don’t have much left, and you wasted your whole life being a delusional jackass. You’re pathetic” —From thepowerofganja
So please don’t give up. Press on. Persevere! Preach!
To help you in your commitment to evangelize regularly may I encourage you to join The Everyday Club 2012? This is where you make an evangelistic goal to share your faith everyday. The minimum commitment is to hand out one tract a day. Click here for details.
And now, a 7 second word from my daughter D.D.
January 8, 2012 (WELLINGTON, New Zealand) — A hot air balloon carrying 11 people turned into a tower of “sheer flame” Saturday after hitting power lines in a rural area of New Zealand, killing everyone aboard and horrifying residents.
“It’s a tragedy as bad as tragedies get,” local police commander Brent Register said.
It was New Zealand’s deadliest air accident in nearly 50 years. Two of those killed jumped out of the basket in desperation before the fiery balloon hit the ground with a loud bang. It crashed into farmland near the township of Carterton, a region well known for its hot air ballooning. Read the rest of the AP report here.
I received a private comment from a concerned reader of this blog who supports street preaching. Here it is:
Steve, I found a comment on latimes.com about the street evangelism during the Rose Parade. (Read article here.) Just wanted to make you aware of it. Not sure if the poster is talking about your group. If it was another group, like Ruben Israel’s, I can see why someone might get upset. The sign guys are a little too brash.
Here’s a video of a three minute message I gave to the crowds at the Rose Parade. Judge for yourself if I’m too brash. Also, make sure you notice the audience’s response after I finished and determine if they thought I was too belligerent. After the video, read the L. A. Times comment and then my commentary.
Here’s the comment that my reader referred to:
I find it to be really lousy, slanted journalism that the LA Times is making an extra effort to point to the Occupy float as some kind of incident or controversy at the parade while at the same time you don’t mention AT ALL that there was a large group of right wing evangelical extremists marching up and down the parade route for HOURS before the parade harassing the crowd with hateful, threatening “Jesus is gonna get you” messages. They also reappeared immediately after the official Rose Parade (and before any Occupy people were seen were I was standing near the grandstands). Despite complaints, the police would not check to see if they had a permit to hold their own pre-parade and they were much more of a nuisance and of a controversy than the Occupy folks. Shame on you for ignoring this.
Here’s my response:
The Tournament of Roses Parade brings out every type of evangelist, quite literally, the good, the bad and the ugly. The photos to the left and right are great examples of the latter two descriptions. Not only do these types of people bring an imbalanced view of who God is, they promote false doctrine and ONLY ONE WAY. Of course, their one way is only through their organization. See for yourself at the 800HowTrue website. I reported on them in an article from 2009.
My reader mentioned Ruben Israel. The photo below (from his website), shows the type of message he and his group display.
I dialogued with Ruben a little over a year ago on Facebook discussing his style of evangelism with mine, then posted it to my blog with his permission. To see the marked difference between our methods, read my post called “Perspectives: Inside the Mind of a Radical Sign Guy.”
I suppose our group could be considered obnoxious though we try very hard to be winsome and appealing. We approach our task with good humor and a positive attitude. We also know that not everyone shares our views on eternity, so we attempt to be gracious. Very gracious.
So how should Christians respond to those who are not so nice in their evangelistic methods, or are out there with bad intentions and ulterior motives? It’s best to respond the way the apostle Paul did, when he heard about the foolishness that was being preached in Christ’s name while he was under arrest.
“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” (Phillipians 1: 15-18)
More parades are in store for this month. These are the best occasions for evangelism. My report on what happened at the Rose Parade will be tomorrow. (Believe it or not some new techniques and a possible World Record was established.
Here’s what we are doing this month. Please join us if you are in the area! We are starting something new on Thursdays. See the schedule to find out what it is.
January 7: Redondo Beach Pier. Meet at Hope Chapel at noon to carpool.
January 14: Long Beach Martin Luther King Jr. Parade. Meet at Hope Chapel at 8am to carpool.
Monday, January 16: MLK JR. Parade in L.A. Meet at Hope Chapel at 7:30am to carpool. Read the rest of this entry »
An assistant to one of the top atheist “scholars” in the world who works at Oxford smuggled out this bit of classified information and tried to sell it to WikiLeaks, but, of course, they’re out of business. Instead he sent this to me with one condition: that I send him a Bible with Ray Comfort’s autograph. Apparently, these resolutions go out in the annual Christmas edition of the newsletter, World Atheists United.
After reading these resolutions I now understand why nearly all the atheists I have encountered have similar ideas. (Are those sheep I hear in the background?)
AS A DEVOUT ATHEIST,
FOR THE YEAR 2012,
I RESOLVE TO…
10. Discover new and exciting ways to tell people that it’s wrong to tell people that they’re wrong about things.
9. Affirm absolutely that there are no such thing as absolutes!
8. Design intelligent arguments that prove Intelligent Design doesn’t exist.
7. Stick my head in a microwave until I can develop a “beneficial mutation” and prove those Christians wrong, once and for all!
6. Be offended by the very idea of a God who judges His Creation; yet I will enthusiastically support and encourage the American government in their practice of punishing criminals and people who have done me wrong.
5. Assert that the Bible was written by man and, therefore, cannot be taken seriously. However, I will blindly trust every single thing EVER written and/or said by Richard Dawkins, Thunderfoot, Eugenie Scott, the Amazing Atheist, or any other yahoo out there who hates Christianity as much as I do.
4. Allow my willing ignorance and suppression of the truth to anger Christians to the point that they become unfruitful and waste their time trying to prove to me intellectually that God exists. And if they do prove it, then my faith will stand in the Wisdom of men and not in the” power of God.” (win/win)
3. Take hypocritical offense at perceived wrongs while denying the existence of moral standards.
2. Make sure not to read the Bible again this year for fear that it may actually begin to make some sort of sense.
And my #1 resolution for the year 2012 is… Read the rest of this entry »
On January 1, 2004, I made a commitment to share my faith every day. (Read about that here.) Making this commitment has taught me to be a more gracious Christian in the face of opposition, a more faithful evangelist in the presence of the unsaved, and a more thankful disciple of Christ. Thankful because I once was lost but now am found.
I am wiping the slate clean this year. That is, all who have signed up for this Club the past three years will be erased from my email list. Why? Well over a hundred people have joined but only about twenty five continue to report in. I don’t want my monthly email reminders to be reported as SPAM.
Here are the details and what will be required of you. (Turn up volume for video, please.):
This is an evangelistic Club where you make a goal to share your faith everyday through tracts, personal witnessing or open air preaching. You make your own personal goal and report it at the monthly Everyday Club post I write on the
first of each month. The minimum goal would be to hand out one tract a day, but you can make whatever goal you want.
The Club’s purpose is to allow you an opportunity to set an evangelistic goal and monitor your progress and faithfulness to that goal. This is not a legalistic prescription or a vow; it’s simply a personal goal. Sometimes you will fall short, other times you’ll hit it.
My own personal goal is to hand out 10 tracts a day or have at least one personal witnessing encounter, and to open air preach when the opportunity arises. Because of my commitment to The Everyday Club I don’t want to miss a single day—and believe me, there are some days that I just plain didn’t want to share my faith.(Read about evangelist D. L. Moody’s (1837 – 1899) everyday commitment by clicking here.)
Remember, it’s not a vow, it’s a goal! You may fall short of that goal, but at least you’ll have one. Don’t be afraid. Have faith.
Too many times we wait for an “open door” or “that special person” to come along who God wants us to witness to. The early disciples didn’t wait, they moved! It’s my understanding that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, which gives us carte blanche to speak anytime, anywhere.
As an extra bonus when you join, you may also enroll in the Bezeugen Tract Club, an organization that will send you 30 free high-quality business card-type tracts a month! (Click here to sign up for your 30 free tracts.)
What more can I say to convince you? Please sign up with your goal in the comments section below! (Please share this article on Facebook by LIKING it and Tweeting it.)
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Stories of Mini Mr. T getting a tract can be found here. Stevie Wonder getting a tract can be found here.
