Archive for 2007

What is your New Year’s evangelism goal?

Monday, December 31st, 2007

Four years ago, after hearing a New Year’s message at my church where one of the points in the sermon was: ”This coming year Christians should evangelize more” (or something like that), I made a commitment to share my faith everyday. I didn’t know how to do it; I didn’t know what to say; I don’t even know why I made that commitment, but I did, and that has been my goal ever since: to share my faith everyday with at least one person. I have since amended it to sharing my faith everyday with at least one person or handing out ten Gospel tracts.

I am recommiting for yet another year, and hope to make this my goal for the rest of my life. This is a goal and sometimes I fall short of that goal, but I have kept it up for the last four years and am amazed at what God continues to do.

Do you have an evangelistic goal of your own? What is your commitment in sharing the good news? If you don’t set a goal, you will reach it everytime. I will be encouraged to hear what you share…

Happy New Year Tract!

Monday, December 31st, 2007

This is the latest adaptation of the “Will your good outweigh your bad?” tract that we are presenting to our congregation. (To see the originals, what the inside of the tract says, and how we adapted them for various events, and how to download your own click here.)

null

We made 15,000 and have the whole month of January to get rid of them. On the back of the tract it reads:

“2008 years ago, Jesus Christ was born.
2008 A.D. means “Anno Domini—In the year of our Lord.”
That’s why we say “Happy New Year!”

If you’d like to adapt your own tract, here’s the link to get it. With a little work from someone skilled in graphics/computer stuff, you will be able to adapt it for your own uses.

Daddy’s Dollar Dare

Friday, December 28th, 2007

(This is Part 2 of The Golden Compass tract adventure. To read Part 1, click here.)

We had 50,000 of The Golden Compass Gospel tracts to hand out before that awful bomb of a movie disappeared completely. What could I do? I had no choice but to bring out the secret weapons: my 6 and 8-year-old daughters. “I’ll give you each a dollar for every hundred tracts you hand out,” I said to bribe encourage them.

You will not believe what happened next…

We hit the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica with a vengeance, getting our best results in the indoor mall. We devised the perfect plan: my 6-year-old Laurel and 8-year-old D.D. would stand at the top of an escalator.
null Who could resist these two sweet little girls wishing shoppers “Merry Christmas!” while placing Gospel tracts that held the words of eternal life into their hands?

They would wait patiently for their “prey.”
null

Then whip a tract right into the unsuspecting mall-zombie’s hand.
null

One right after the other.
null Every now and then a Security guard would walk by and I’d say “Stop!” The girls would stop. “Okay. Good job. All clear.” They would start back up again.

100… 200… 300… 400… tracts they handed out! It was unbelievable how hard these girls worked!
nullnullnullnull

Every tract given was a potential soul saved, that was the motivation behind using my secret weapons nick-named, The Little Badger (D.D.) and Little Beaver (Laurel Ann).

One lady huffily ran up to me and handed a tract back. “You should be ashamed of yourself, having your little girls doing this!” She turned on her heels and stalked away before I could ask her what she meant.

A man shoved his tract back at me and said, “Jesus would not be proud of this. It is an abomination to the Lord.” When I asked him what he meant, he scowled saying, “I don’t want to get into it. This is an abomination to the Lord.” I tried asking him again what he meant only to get the same reply: “I don’t want to get into it.”

null I’m positive they read the message on the back that declares that if they have broken one of God’s 10 Commandments, if they have ever lied or stolen, or used His name in vain—even once— then they would be found guilty of being lying thieves and blasphemers, and on Judgment Day would end up in Hell. I’ll bet they never bothered to read the rest of the tract that speaks of God’s love for them, a sacrificial love that cost Jesus His life. If only they would repent and put their trust in Him, they could be forgiven.

My daughters are learning the importance of sharing the Gospel using Gospel tracts: to save souls from Hell! Oh that more children would learn the importance of sharing their precious faith. But how can they when their parent’s are too afraid—or too distracted, or too ashamed to do it?

R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) said this:
null “Any person can do it. We cannot all preach; we cannot all conduct meetings; but we can all select useful tracts and then hand them out to others. Of course some of us can do it better than others. Even a blind man or a dumb man can do tract work. It is a line of work in which every man, woman and child can engage.”

null They each earned $6.00 that day by handing out over 1,000 Gospel tracts. Sure, their motivation was primarily to earn a little extra cash; but it is my hope that in the future they will do it for the love of God and people.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.—Proverbs 22:6

The Tortoise, the Hare, & the Golden Compass Tracts

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

When I heard that Living Waters Publications was offering The Golden Compass Gospel tracts for a penny a pack due to the movie of the same name bombing, I was so excited that I told my “connection” to get me $5.00 worth, or 5,000 tracts.

null I called my faithful foot-soldier friend, “Righteous Richard” Chavarria, and asked him to drive on down to Ray Comfort’s headquarters in Bellflower and pick them up.

He dutifully did.

The workers at Living Waters Publications scratched their heads in wonder as they loaded 13 cases of tracts in the back of Richard’s truck.
null “Can he really get rid of so many?” they asked.

It was Friday evening when we unpacked the 5,000 tracts. Richard and I steeled ourselves against the cold Southern California night air. It was the Hour of Power and we were prepared to hit the mall three days before Christmas. How would people respond to The Golden Compass tract, I wondered. And can we really get rid of 5,000 tracts before the movie completely fades away into oblivion?

We parked and scanned the lot for Security. None. “Richard, you take a hundred; I”ll take a hundred. Let’s see who can get rid of the Compass tracts the quickest.
null
FOR THE LORD AND FOR LIVING WATERS!!! we shouted. 

It was 5:03PM.

At most events we focus on sharing our faith one-to-one, or by open air preaching, but there are times when thousands of people are gathered at a venue; on these occasions we try to hand out as many tracts as possible, broadcasting the Seed as wide as possible. That was the plan this evening.

At 5:17 we were all out. I beat Richard by 30 seconds. I’m boasting in the Lord. Really.

We went back to the car to grab 200 more each. These tracts are as easy as the million dollar bills, I thought. We had about 30 minutes left.

null
“FOR THE LORD AND FOR LIVING WATERS!!!”

Time: 5:27PM

We were off. Still no Security guards in sight. In and out of the stores we went, up the stairs, down the elevators, stopping just long enough to give an elevator sermon or two. Then it happened in Macy’s. I wasn’t expecting it. A salesgirl behind the counter wanted to talk!!! Didn’t she know I was in a race? A race to beat “Righteous Richard”?

I stopped. I witnessed to her. 7 minutes worth of witnessing. I mentally conceded the tract challenge. This was more important. It was 6 minutes into the conversation that I discovered that this woman—this tool of Satan—was a Christian, diabolically planted there to get me off my main goal of whupping Richard’s butt. “Richard!” I shouted desperately, oblivious to the Christmas shoppers milling around beside and behind me. “Where are you?”

“Here I am!” he answered.

“How many tracts do you have left?” I asked.

“About 50. How about you?”

“Over 100.”

I was off into the shoe store, record stores, outside the elevators, inside the food courts, the video stores… For the Lord and for Living Waters; For the Lord and for Living Waters… I never glanced back, I kept my head down and worked, worked… each tract a soul, each tract a soul…

5… 4… 3… 2… 1! Done! None left. All gone.
null ZERO!

Time: 5:57PM

I wondered if Richard was all out of tracts yet. 

Wiping sweat from my brow I glanced up to see Richard’s smiling, gloating face. He was holding his hand high in the air, like Ali, like Woods, victorious and proud, like, like… wait. What was that in his hand? Is that…? It was! A Golden Compass tract! I raised my hands high for Richard to see clearly that I had… no tracts left… zero!

After the crushing defeat, Richard confessed that he thought he had the game in the bag when he saw me witnessing to the counter lady. He took it slow. He took it easy. He lost his edge.

We both ageed that getting rid of 5,000 Golden Compass tracts would be a breeze. Thousands of people would have an opportunity to read the Gospel on these tracts; some might even get saved.

And indeed 5,000 tracts would be easy to get rid of, if indeed we had 5,000. I called Richard the next day; something was bothering me. “Richard, how many boxes of tracts did you get from Living Waters?”

“Thirteen.”

“And how many are in each box?”

“Let me go to my truck and check.” A few moments later he returned with the shocking news: “3800 tracts to a box. And they threw in a few extra packs on top.”

“Richard… we don’t have 5,000 tracts…
null …we have 50,000 tracts!”

The challenge had just begun…

(Part 2 on Friday)

Hollywood Blvd. and Rose Parade Adventure!

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

Join us for 2 Southern California adventures:

This Saturday we will head on up to Hollywood Blvd. in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and evangelize. This is a great place to hand out tracts, share 1-2-1, and open air preach. Last time we were there for an evangelistic event, I had the chance to witness to Freddy Krueger (click here to see it), an effeminate guy standing in an audition line (see it here)…
nullnull

…a whole gang of people (see it here), the KIIS wannabe guy (see it here)…
nullnull

…and a couple of anarchists, one of whom shook a bone in my face (see it here)!
null 
Meet us at Hope Chapel at noon. Hooray for Hollywood!

On New Year’s Day, we will head to the Rose Parade via the MetroRail.
null
Meet at the MetroRail station in Redondo Beach (2406 Marine Av., 5301 Marine Av.) at 6AM; we will leave promptly at 6:15 AM. The DayPass is only $5.00. Bring a backpack, water, an empty bladder (there are no restrooms on the rail), and warm clothes for the morning. We will eat lunch in Pasadena, returning between 3-4PM. Fun for the entire family.

Read about last year’s adventure (with photos) by clicking here!

Go tell it on the mountain…

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

…that Jesus Christ is born!!!

And go tell it in malls, bars, ballgames, street fairs, amusement parks, court rooms, jail houses, high schools…

Let’s keep the carols going with Ray Comfort’s revised version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”:

Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
What will happen when you die?
Will you go to Heaven or Hell?
Jesus knows! “Emmanuel.”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
(Click here to sing the rest of the song)

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM STEVE

Monday, December 24th, 2007

This is a new tradition: Repeating this post at Christmas time.

Sufferin’ for the Savior with Santa in SoCal ain’t easy, but someone has to do it! I gave ole St. Nick a tip that he will never forget (I think he works for minimum wage and never gets Christmas off, poor guy). I just hope that he reads and believes the Gospel message on the back of the bill. As good a person as this jolly fellow is, all his good works toward all the children in the world still won’t save him. WOE! WOE! WOE!
null
Below, please find two videos that your family and friends will enjoy for the holidays. The first is the Christmas linebacker; you will absolutely crack up when you watch this. The second is a fun little interview I had with “Gene Simmons,” formerly of the rock band KISS. The video is called “Kiss, Off! because as you will see the guy is a little off…

I’ll be taking a few days off from blogging, but will return on Thursday. So grab a mug of eggnog or hot chocolate, gather around the computer screen and rejoice while watching the following  two videos with those you love.

THE CHRISTMAS LINEBACKER
null Watch this hilarious video featuring a hard-hitting linebacker who “punishes” all those who take the Christ out of Christmas. Click here to watch the video from SermonSpice.

KISS, OFF!
A strange conversation with a confused man…

My Boring Christmas Letter

Monday, December 24th, 2007

‘Tis the season to send out a Christmas letter.

To read mine just click! (more…)

“Will your good outweigh your bad?” Tract

Friday, December 21st, 2007

The Will your good outweigh your bad? tract is the greatest free tract download ever and they are available from Living Waters Publications!

Click here to get them. (This link will download a zipped copy of both sides. Just save it onto your computer, unzip, and you’ll end up with the pdf version.) 

People love them! Why?

The cover is compelling and draws people in to see if they are good enough to get to Heaven.
null

After they open the tract, there is a “test” with 8 questions…
null …which draws them in further because it looks like they can actually be good enough to make it in. In addition to asking if they have kept the various Commandments, there are also questions like: “Have you given money to charity?” “Have you gone to church regularly?”

Then they open the tract to grade themselves; they have to read the inside to see how well they’ve done.
null
Wouldn’t you want to know?

The presentation of the bad news and the good news is in-depth and very clear. If people throw it away before they are done reading the tract, that’s okay; because the 10 Commandments will awaken their consciences, driving them to Christ eventually.

But the really cool thing about these tracts is that they are adaptable to any occasion—especially various holidays, (see below or click here)—if you are a little handy with the computer. (I’m not. But I do have access to a great graphics guy).

We adapted this tract for the Department of Motor Vehicles, where four open air preachers give the Gospel regularly:
null

For the USC football games, we changed the colors of the tract to the team colors of cardinal and gold:
null Fans snatched them up thinking they were receiving important info for game time.

And on the back of the tract, we place our church information.
null

The best thing about these tracts is that after you hand an icebreaker to someone like the million dollar bill, you can say, “This comes with it, too,” while handing them this fuller Gospelled tract. It also makes for a great piece of information to give out to someone after you’ve shared your faith verbally.

R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) said: “Use a tract to close a conversation. As a rule when you have finished talking with some one, you should not leave him without something definite to take home to read. If the person has accepted Christ, put some tract in his hands that will show him how to succeed in the Christian life. If the person has not accepted Christ, some other tract that is especially adapted to his need should be left with him.”

Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892) said: “When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract read… Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching Gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”

See how we modified it for Christmas here.

See how we modified it for New Years here.

(This is another tract designed by the talented Anna (Banana) Jackson)

The 12 Tracts of Christmas

Friday, December 21st, 2007

At the beginning of December I made a proposal to my Senior Pastor and boss, Zac, that went something like this: “I have a special tract that the whole congregation can pass out; it’s easier to give away than the million dollar bill; and we can motivate the whole church to do it by calling this program The 12 Tracts of Christmas. 

On the outside the tract will say ‘Happy Holidays!’ so as not to offend anyone. 
null “All we have to do is greet strangers and friends with a cheerful ’Happy Holidays!’ and hand them one. I think we can print 10,000 of these easily with the whole church getting involved in handing them out. We will just convert the “Will your good outweigh your bad?” tract.

“On the back of the tract we will print, ‘Indeed, have a happy holiday, but the reason for the season is Jesus Christ! So… MERRY CHRISTMAS!’ And of course on the inside people will measure their “good” compared to the standard of God’s 10 Commandments. That will be the offense.”

We rolled out the program and what were the results? We ran out of tracts before the fourth service congregation left the building. We printed 10,000 more the next weekend. Gone.

We’re now preparing our “Happy New Year 2008 A.D.” tracts for January.
null 20,000 of them!

“Golden Compass” Tracts: 100 for 1 Cent!

Friday, December 21st, 2007

The Golden Compass movie flopped. That’s good and bad news. It’s good news because it’s a bad movie, but it’s bad news for Living Waters Publications because they have 160,000 copies of the tract left.
null

They wrote this in their Newsletter:

“We know that they will eventually sell, but we would rather let you have them at no charge while the movie is still topical. So, if you cover shipping costs, you can have them at a penny a pack (we have to charge a penny for our system to work). Get them now while stocks last.”

I’ve sent “Righteous Richard” Chavarria on a mission to go on down to Bellflower Friday morning to pick up $5.00 worth.

Town Theatened W/Lawsuit Over Nativity

Friday, December 21st, 2007

An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund says a small Georgia town is being targeted by a liberal group that is trying to intimidate city officials into removing a nativity scene.

Representatives of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) are offering to defend officials in Dallas, Georgia, against a threatened lawsuit from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Senior legal counsel for ADF, Mike Johnson, says the liberal group is trying to bully small towns into banning Christmas. (Read the rest here.)

Merry Christmas or Whatever

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

This is a re-post of an article I wrote a couple of years ago…

What attitude do you think would be demonstrated at a New Age-liberal, all-natural-cotton-pants-wearing organic food store toward Christmas? Uh, just what you’d expect…
null Kerry wore his Whole Foods name badge proudly; perhaps that is why he had a picture of a lion on it. As he scanned my order I pointed to his badge and asked a friendly question, “Is that Aslan?”

“No,” he said too firmly. “It’s a lion.”

“Do you know who Aslan is?”

“From the Narnia movie?”

“Yes,” I said. There was a pause as Kerry scanned another item. I then asked very graciously, “Are you allowed to wish people a Merry Christmas?”

“You mean isolate out a particular religious group?”

“Y-yes,” I stammered.

“I don’t know.”

“There’s no official policy against it?”

“Not that I know of. I’d have to ask management…”

Oh to hear those lovely words reminding me of my Savior’s birth: “Merry Christmas.” A gentle joyous whisper, reflections of the nativity and the babe in the manger, all conjured by a simple seasonal saying. O Holy Night. I could even hear the faint drumbeat of long ago…Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum.

“Can you wish me a Merry Christmas, then?” I inquired hopefully.

“No!” he stated flatly, as if I had just asked him to eat a piece of meat, or a cookie with gluten. He picked up a store phone and called someone. “Can you get Joshua to help me?” I chuckled to myself about this irony.

My order was finished and I handed him some cash. “Merry Christmas!” I said with a smile.

Looking me straight in the eye he returned my friendly goodbye with a sarcastic glare, “Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!” Kerry turned away to ring up the next customer’s goat milk and tofu.

Bah Humbug!

Under Pressure, City Renames Christmas Tree

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund are offering free legal assistance to officials in a small Arizona community who were threatened with a lawsuit over the town’s Christmas tree.

City leaders in Queen Creek have replaced the name “Christmas” with “holiday” on the community tree after a liberal legal group threatened a lawsuit over the use of “Christmas.”
(Click here to read the rest!)

The Muslim and Me at the DMV

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

By “Righteous Richard” Chavarria

I had an interesting conversation with a Muslim man after preaching at the Hawthorne Department of Motor Vehicles; he wanted to ask me some questions about my faith.
null

He said that he didn’t believe the Bible was accurate because in Europe the Bible has 72 books. Also, he explained, the preface of the King James Bible has errors in the interpretation. He also claimed that Jesus is not God, but, a prophet of God; that Jesus did not die on the cross, instead he was taken into Heaven by God; and finally, he did not believe that God can be three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

I pointed him to the 10 Commandments and said, “Unless you repent, you too will perish.”

He wished me God’s Blessing and said that he “was envious of me preaching like this.” I wished him God’s blessing, too; we hugged each other and then said good-bye.

Richard preaches most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Hawthorne DMV. See how how it all started here.

Agree/Disagree?

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

Do you agree or disagree with this South African Pastor’s statement?

“For many years I thought Jesus wanted me to save souls. And then I discovered Jesus wanted me to save people. There’s a whole lot more than getting them to pray a little prayer.”
—John Thomas, pastor of Fish Hoek Baptist Church in Cape Town, South Africa

Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas!

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

We had a singer at our church whose uncle wrote the original Christmas standard, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” He got saved in 1977, then wrote a Christian adaptation of the song which is very good, except for one major theological flaw. Can you guess what it is? I’ll post the answer in the “comments” later if no one guesses correctly. 

Have yourself a blessed little Christmas
Christ the King is born
Let your voices ring upon this happy morn

Have yourself a blessed little Christmas
Serenade the earth
Tell the world we celebrate the Savior’s birth

Let us gather to sing to Him and to bring to Him our praise
Son of God and Friend of all
To the end of all our days
(more…)

Man Sues Over Right to Display Evangelistic Message

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

A businessman cited for displaying a gospel message on his own property is suing the town of Gouverneur, New York, accusing it of violating the U.S. Constitution’s protection of free speech and private property rights.

Daniel Burritt placed the evangelistic message on a trailer located on his commercial property adjacent to U.S. Route 11, and was issued a criminal citation for violating a local ordinance that allegedly requires a permit to display such a message.
(Read the rest here from OneNewsNow)

A Splendid Christmas

Monday, December 17th, 2007

null
This is a great site because it provides a subtle Christmas witness.

Send a family member to it and they will find Christmas carols with free Christmas song sheets, the story of the First Christmas, Christmas cookie recipes, crafts and Christmas music. Then there is a link for a gospel presentation, but it’s not called a Gospel presentation.
null
Click here, take a look, and send the link to the one you love.

This is another wonderfully creative web effort from my friend Anna (Banana) Jackson, who with her husband Dale, run a great evangelistic side business called Evangelism Stuff!

Merry Tossmas!

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Tired of all the holiday greetings that leave Christ out?

Watch this short, humorous video and take action!

Yule cheer when you see it!