Stone the Preacher

How are you doing on your monthly commitment? Fill in your report in the comments section below. Want to join? Scroll to the bottom of the article.

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I almost didn’t fulfill my commitment the other night, but God used dental floss to make me do it.

I was ready for bed one late Sunday evening after a movie night at home with my family when suddenly I realized that I had not handed out a single tract all day. My goal is to hand out ten Gospel tracts a day or personally witness to at least one person, but I was just two darned tired and didn’t want to do it. I resigned myself to failure that evening until I realized that my daughter had used up all the dental floss. Well, not all of it; she left about a six inch piece that I wrapped around my chubby fingers and used quite gingerly to pry out stray popcorn kernel pieces out of my teeth.

I was doing quite well, too, until the last molar—that’s when the floss snapped, lodging between my number 17 and 18 molars.! (more…)

Every one of the people below received a Gospel tract because someone was faithful to hand them out. Since starting this Everyday Club at the beginning of 2009 nearly 150 people have signed up (including the 2010 Club) yet as of June less than 25 still report in. That, to me, is sad.

Will you remain faithful?

Please post your report for July in the “comments” section below.

The Everyday Club is an opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (Minimum commitment: Hand out one tract a day.) I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) Wanna join? You can sign up by clicking here.

Okay Seed Sowers, here’s your chance to report on how well you did in fulfilling your daily evangelistic goals. Did you have an opportunity to hand out a tract to any scary looking people like this guy? Did you meet any unreasonable atheists?

Hey, even scary guys need to read a Gospel tract—or actually hear the Good News from your lips—so they might be saved! I’m glad that you have made a commitment to be faithful. (Welcome to the twelve new Everyday Clubbers who signed up in June!)

The Everyday Club is an opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (Minimum commitment: Hand out one tract a day.) I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) Wanna join? You can sign up by clicking here.

Please read about John Wesley’s temptation to not share his faith—and what he discovered by clicking here.

Mark this down on your hand or iPhone: In the course of sharing my faith for the last 6 1/2 years I have discovered this: It is easier not to share your faith everyday. It’s a struggle, a burden and a cross. If I stopped evangelizing for two days, three, or more, I would probably convince myself that I didn’t need to do it at all. In fact, I’d  be a lot more respectable in my community, in Christendom and beyond.

Heresy you say? I’m just echoing the sentiments of John Wesley who felt the same way. As an experiment he chose to not talk about the things of God for two days unless he felt like it. He learned 3 things:

1. “That I spoke to none at all for [eighty] miles together; no not even to him who traveled with me in the [carriage, except for a few words as we started out];

2. “That I had no cross to bear or to take up, and commonly, in an hour or two, fell fast asleep;

3. “That I had much respect shown me wherever I came, everyone behaving to me as to a civil, good-natured gentleman.”

My conclusion? I will not quit The Everyday Club. How about you?

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The Everyday Club is an opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (Minimum commitment: Hand out one tract a day.) I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) Wanna join? You can sign up by clicking here

How did you do this month? Did you keep your commitment? You never know who will get the Gospel when you share your faith everyday.

The man pictured with his daughter is Aaron Gryder, the jockey who rode the winner in the world’s richest horse race, The 2009 Dubai World Cup, with a purse of 6 million bucks. I gave him a million dollar Gospel tract when the evangelism team was down at the Del Mar Racetrack sharing their faith  with the thousands workers who live on the track. Visiting SoCal race tracks will now be a regular part of our evangelistic adventures. (See April’s schedule for further details.)

You really just never know who you’ll influence for eternity when you share your faith daily.

*****

The Everyday Club is an opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) Wanna join? You can sign up by clicking here.

Here’s another remedy for those who say that they can’t get out of the house to witness everyday: Send a funny email!

Ugly Pictures of Jesus gives you the top 10 ugliest portraits of all time of our Savior, with Scripture, and a Gospel message to boot.

Whether someone is a lapsed Catholic, back-slidden Protestant, New Age dolphin worshipper, or a too-smart Evolutionist, this image display is near-guaranteed to get even an atheist to smile (though he’ll say that he’s laughing at you).

Simply type something like this: Hey! I thought you’d like to see the top 10 ugliest pictures of Jesus ever. Then send it! If you wanna really get creative, add one of those ridiculous “threat” post scripts; something like: If you really love the Lord, you’ll forward this to 100 others.

Now you will never have another excuse to NOT share your faith, especially when SPAMgelism is right at your fingertips.

Click to go UglyPicturesofJesus.com right now! (And don’t forget to post your totals for February in the comments section below.)

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This is the opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) You can sign up by clicking here.

The #1 reason I get from people who are reluctant to join The Everyday Club is this: “I just can’t get out the house (or office) everyday.”

Fair enough.

What if I gave you three ways that you could share your faith even if you’re a housebound mom or CEO? Would you be more willing to take a leap of faith and join the Club? Here they are:

#1: Take those credit card applications that inundate your mailbox and use the postage paid envelope to send a tract. Read more about this idea here.

#2: Next time one of those pesky telemarketers call during dinner time, give them the Gospel. I’ll bet they will never call back again. Read the strategy for this technique here.

#3: Break out your phonebook and randomly pick someone to share your faith with. They won’t know who you are, and you will be giving them the best news ever.

Okay. no more excuses. Sign up today!

*****

This is the opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) You can sign up by clicking here.

What is the Everyday Club? It’s an evangelistic Club where you make it your goal to share your faith everyday through tracts, personal witnessing or open air preaching. You make your own personal goal and report it here every month.

The minimum goal would be to hand out one tract a day, but you can make whatever goal you want. So far, nearly 100 people have made a daily evangelistic commitment. (Read more about the Club and see who joined last year by clicking here.)

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. (Please read some safeguards against pride written by my friend, Tony Miano, here.)

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 that 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.

Am I wrong here?

Join the club.

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This is the opportunity for you to make an evangelistic commitment and report on it twelve times a year. (I post each report at the beginning of each month and send you an email reminder.) You can sign up here if you’d like to join by simply leaving a comment about what your daily goal will be. 

How did you do during the holidays? Post your totals in the comments section below.

If you’d like to join the Club,  see above, or click here!

If you are part of The Everyday Club, a small cadre of dedicated evangelists who share their faith everyday, then now is the time to post your totals for November.

One person needed the help of her canine to help carry a load of Gospel tracts. And can you believe it? Some people don’t even believe there is a dog.

(Maybe you would like to make a goal, recommit to your original goal or create a new one. The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic commitment you have set for yourself, providing that it’s everyday. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the nearly 90 others who have already signed up by clicking here!)

Have you joined The Everyday Club yet? What is your reason for not doing so?

I’m posting this mid-month reminder so that new (and old) readers of this blog have a chance to enter. The details for joining are below; but for now, read a few testimonies of those who have benefited from this evangelistic accountability group:

Jenny says:

After attending the Ambassadors’ Academy in April 2009, one of the best things I did was join this club. I walk out of the house each day with the Lord and the great commission on my mind.

Waynedawg says:

OK, Steve – I’m in.

I’ll be honest with you (and everyone that reads this now) I didn’t sign up to commit to this when you first posted it. I thought, “I give out more than a dozen tracts a week on any given week. Yes, most of them are on the weekend, but that averages out to more than at ‘least one a day’.”

But your recent post “A Fully Consecrated Man?” convicted me to take up the challenge.

There are many times I drive straight home after work (and seeing dozens of people on the way) and walked into my house drained from work and settled into a comfy chair.

I could have stopped on the way home, jumped out of the truck and handed folks some tracts and engaged them in eternal conversations. Why do I need to wait until the weekend to witness when there are plenty of people going to hell during the week?

Jeff Reiman was so encouraged he started his own blog called, you guessed it, The Everyday Club!

Joy Gray says: (more…)

Are you in? Out? Indifferent? Even if you aren’t able to post your totals here every month I sure hope you remain faithful to your everyday commitment. You don’t even have to calculate exactly how many tracts you’ve handed out; it’s not about the numbers, it’s about faithfulness. (See the video below from The Word Street Journal.) 

Feel free to post something like this: “My goal was to hand out one tract a day and I only missed three days!”

May God bless your evangelistic endeavors in November!

(Maybe you would like to make a goal, recommit to your original goal or create a new one. The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic commitment you have set for yourself, providing that it’s everyday. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the nearly 90 others who have already signed up by clicking here!) 

You never know who you will meet when you fulfill your commitment to The Everyday Club. The guy I handed out my tract to below really made my hair stand on end…

Did you read about evangelist D.L. Moody’s commitment to share his faith everyday? It was said at the end of his life that he preached the Gospel to no less than 100 million people. Think it might have to do with his goal to reach at least one person a day? (Read about his commitment here.)

Now’s the time to post your totals for the month of September. You can either post your estimated amounts (Example: you handed out 308 tracts, and talked to 4 people, and only missed a day), or you can just say how faithful you were in your commitment. (For instance, you met your goal 25 days last month) It’s up to you!

Welcome to the fifteen new evangelists who signed up since August: Josh, Misty, Beth, Jeremy, Humir, Doug, Thomas, Angel, Robert, Mark, Gerry, Dale, Ed, Waynedawg and Darryl! Stay faithful!

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(Maybe you would like to make a goal, recommit to your original goal or make a new one. The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic commitment you have set for yourself, providing that it’s everyday. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the nearly 90 others who have already signed up by clicking here!) 

I’ve been mulling over this statement by Henry Varley spoken to a very young D. L. Moody in the early part of the 19th century: “It remains to be seen what God will do with… the man who is fully consecrated to Him.”

Moody thought to himself, He said a man; he did not say a great man, nor a learned man, nor a smart man, but simply a man. I am a man, and it lies with the man himself whether he will or will not make that entire and full consecration. I will try my utmost to be that man.

It is estimated that no less than a 100 million people heard the Gospel from D. L. Moody’s lips.

I laid on my bed late Sunday night reading Ray Comfort’s book on the great preacher called Moody Gold and pondered the word ”consecrated.” What does that mean? What does it mean to be fully consecrated to God?  Thinking this through I suddenly remembered that I had not met my daily evangelistic goal; I had completely forgotten about it! Oh well. Too late. I’m in bed. I read a few pages more on Moody as recounted by his best friend, R. A. Torrey:

“…God used D. L. Moody… because of his consuming passion for the salvation of the lost. Mr. Moody made the resolution, shortly after he himself was saved, that he would never let twenty-four hours pass over his head without speaking to at least one person about his soul. His was a very busy life, and sometimes he would forget his resolution until the last hour, and sometimes he would get out of bed, dress, go out and talk to someone about his soul in order that he might not let one day pass without having definitely told at least one of his fellow-mortals about his need and the Savior who could meet it.”

Moody had his own personal Everyday Club! I was amazed at his commitment! Still, I was pretty tired, though, just having finished an eleven hour day at my church. 

I snuggled in and read further through droopy eyes:

“Another night, Mr. Moody got home and had gone to bed before it occurred to him that he had not spoken to a soul that day about accepting Christ. “Well,” he said to himself, “it is no good getting up now; there will be nobody on the street at this hour of the night.” But he got up, dressed and went to the front door. It was pouring rain. “Oh,” he said, “there will be no one out in this pouring rain.” Just then he heard the patter of a man’s feet as he came down the street, holding an umbrella over his head. Then Mr. Moody darted out and rushed up to the man and said: “May I share the shelter of your umbrella?” “Certainly,” the man replied. Then Mr. Moody said: “Have you any shelter in the time of storm?” and preached Jesus to him.”

A still, small voice spoke to my heart, “You can go downtown where the bars are. There, you can fulfill your commitment.”

But my wife! I protested back from the coldness of my own black heart. What will she think if I suddenly leave the house at 11PM? That doesn’t seem practical. I laid there and thought and struggled and prayed and wrestled. I could get up now. God would want me to get up now. He’ll probably even meet me where I’m at and provide the perfect person for me to speak with about his soul….

I turned out the light, rolled over, and closed my eyes.

The next morning, I realized what it meant to be fully consecrated: sacrifice and inconvenience.

I renewed my commitment to share my faith everyday, no matter how impractical, and got my wife’s permission to leave the house late at night.

Alone.

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(Maybe you would like to recommit to your original goal or make a new one. The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic goal that you have set for yourself, providing that it’s an everyday goal. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the 80+ others who have already signed up by clicking here!)  If you’d like to post your totals for August, click here.

Wow! Another month has passed… so how did you do in achieving your evangelistic goal? Are you still in the Club? I hope so. Out of the eighty or so who have signed up since this accountability group started, less than twenty-five are still tallying their totals.

I’m saddened by that fact.

Most of us are familiar with Bill Bright’s quote, he being the late founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, that only 2% of Christians share their faith. I think he may be exaggerating. I like his other quote in referring to the Modern Church: “We need a bombshell dropped on the Laodicean church of today.”

Has your fire gone out? Have you inadvertantly let your commitment to share your faith everyday lapse? Start afresh today. Leave your totals (or excuses) in the comments section below.

As an extra bonus, The Way of the Master will send a free Season 3 Video series to the person who gets the most rejections between now and September 10. Just count the tracts you give out, keep a count of the rejections, and then work out the percentage of rejections. Send your statistics along with your name and address to: rejectioncollection@livingwaters.com

The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic goal that you have set for yourself, providing that it’s an everyday goal. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the 80+ others who have already signed up by clicking here!) 

The Everyday Club is in its 8th month now but out of approximately 80 people who signed up initially, less than 20 are currently reporting in (just evidence the abysmal reporting for July here). What happened to the other 60? It’s too easy for American Christians to get distracted and make a heartfelt commitment in haste without first counting the cost. Also, life gets in the way and our most sincere efforts to evangelize daily fall by the wayside due to busyness, entertainment, or the tyranny of the urgent.

Sometimes a little friendly competition is in order.

Many of you know about “Righteous Richard,” my partner in Gospel crime on the streets of L.A. (If you haven’t read any of my posts featuring him, just type in his name in the search bar.) He told me that he missed one day in July and he wasn’t going to miss another one. Ever.

That sounded like a challenge.

We both have the same daily goal: Hand out at least 10 tracts a day, or share our faith with at least one person, and preach in the open air whenever we can. I, too, missed one day last month, and hope to not miss another one; ahorrible eternity is at stake for those who are lost. The cross before me, the world—distractions, laziness, apathy—behind me. 

I’m redoubling my efforts… and hopefully, I will be able to keep up with zealous ”Righteous Richard.” 

Now… how about you?

The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic goal that you have set for yourself, providing that it’s an everyday goal. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the 70+ others who have already signed up by clicking here!) 

It’s hard to keep commitments, but it’s character-building to do so. I sometimes don’t want to fulfill my goal of handing out ten tracts a day or witnessing to at least one person a day, yet I must trudge on. For example:

I was leaving work very late one evening, about 10 PM, and hadn’t shared my faith all day, so I was just going to just shine it on, blow it off. Fuhgetaboutit. Tomorrow’s a new day, I’ll just chalk up a zero for Wednesday, I thought.

Then came another thought: What if the ten Gospel tracts I hand out at this late hour causes all of them to repent and put their trust in Jesus ? Then another thought: What if those ten people were the only people in my entire evangelistic experience that end up in Heaven?

I pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and made my goal.

Hey—just a thought…

The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic goal that you have set for yourself, providing that it’s an everyday goal. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the 70+ others who have already signed up by clicking here!) 

Please welcome and pray for the 12
new members that just joined up!!!

I can’t tell you how important it is to make a daily goal. I have found that the majority of Christians stop sharing their faith on a regular basis because they have not made evangelism a daily priority. It can be as little as handing out one tract a day! My favorite Spurgeon quote is: “Do something! Do something! Do something!”

Whatever you do is a lot more than the average Christian will do.

Have you ever heard this excuse? I can’t do it on a daily basis because sometimes I don’t leave the house. I understand. I sometimes am faced with the same dilemma. But what if we all chose to leave the house for God? I know it may be a bit inconvenient at times, but what if that was our daily living sacrifice? Just a suggestion.

The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic goal that you have set for yourself, providing that it’s an everyday goal. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the 60+ others who have already signed up by clicking here!)

We started with over 50 enthusiastic, on-fire evangelists with a goal of handing out at least one tract a day, but I think the economy has gotten the better of them. What do I mean by that? Well, less than 20 are reporting in… and I understand.

It’s hard to stay committed these days to reaching the lost: We have great cable shows on TV, the summer blockbusters are here, the Lakers are in the finals (and the whole world is excited about that!), and there’s life. Life. Marriage, kids, friends, family—all good things, of course, but if they get us distracted from the important things, well, then, our priorities are out of order.

Here’s an opportunity to regroup (and if necessary, revise your personal evangelistic goal), and get on board again. Go ahead and post your totals for May in the comments section and state what your original goal was. You can either report that you made (or fell short of) your goal, or post the total number of tracts you gave out, personal witnessing encounters you had, or open air sessions you participated in. 

Remember, if we don’t make goals, we’ll reach them every time!

The Everyday Club gives you the opportunity to hold yourself accountable to whatever evangelistic goal that you have set for yourself, providing that it’s an everyday goal. Your goal can be to hand out one tract a day, or a thousand; it’s up to you! (You can join the 50+ others who have already signed up by clicking here!)