“Righteous” Richard Chavarria celebrated three years of preaching at the DMV last week. (He started on February 28, 2007.) During that time he has spoken to 11,051 hearers and has handed out 14, 947 Gospel tracts. You can print off and memorize his message by typing “Open Air Preaching Speech” in the search bar. Now, watch him in action:
You never know what God has in store for you. After Richard retired from the City of L.A. he decided he was going to serve the Lord—by working in the parking ministry of Hope Chapel. He wondered if that was all God had for him, after all, he had been a Christian now for 18 years.
Well Lo! and Behold! he ended up taking the very first evangelism class that I taught in 2006. (more…)
Watch what happens when “Righteous Richard” Chavarria and myself preach to the thousands waiting in the grandstands for the parade to start at the 2010 Tournament of Roses. 
When Richard preached the good news that Jesus Christ died for their sins and that they could be forgiven by repenting and trusting in Him, an irate lady stood by his side and hollared in his ear.
needed to have faces set like flints, and so indeed they had. John Furz says: “As soon as I began to preach, a man came straight forward, and presented a gun at my face; swearing that he would blow my brains out, if I spake another word. However, I continued speaking, and he continued swearing, sometimes putting the muzzle of the gun to my mouth, sometimes against my ear. While we were singing the last hymn, he got behind me, fired the gun, and burned off part of my hair.
looked closer at the Sign Guy, I recognized that he was one of the good ones. We served together at Way of the Master’s evangelism boot camp, 
Imagine that you are a pastor of a 
And how would you feel, as the pastor of a small church in the ‘burbs of Sacramento, when, after the evangelism training the next day, while handing out Gospel tracts outside a shopping mall, you see that very same instructor, the one who was escorted off state property the day before, now being surrounded by vicious mall security and being told to leave the premises, though once again, he was doing nothing wrong or illegal.
Now, imagine that it’s evening and you are the pastor of that small church in the ‘burbs of Sacramento, and you’re now in the old downtown district of the city, and you see something that the instructor warned you about. You try not to panic. The instructor tries not to panic.
I read that the L.A. Live theater complex in downtown L.A. was offering advance tickets to the documentary, “Michael Jackson’s This is It!” in the L.A. Times Thursday morning. And here’s the cool part:
Thousands in line! Thousands who need to hear the Gospel.
Here’s the wall from where I was pushed while preaching to the shuttle bus line last weekend. No, you can’t see the guy shoving me (
There’s a little joke on our evangelism team that whenever something bad happens, it happens to me. Whether it’s 
John Wesley (1703-1791), in recounting a preaching session gone bad, wrote this in his journal: “When we came pretty near the town, both men and women saluted us, first with bad words and then with dirt and stones. My horses soon left them behind, but not till they had broken one of the windows [of the carriage], the glass of which came pouring in upon me, but did me no further hurt.” 
The naysayer says it’s a waste of time to preach to people on street corners because no one is listening. The store owner says he’s bad for business. The timid Christian is embarrassed by what he says. Nevertheless, we do it.
Read what Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892), wrote:
Now I’m certainly proud of both my daughters; in fact, they are the best little girls a dad could ever want and are both little evangelists in their own right; but two Saturdays ago I was pretty amazed with my eldest.
Though this ministry does its share of witnessing to the homeless through one-on-one conversations and by handing out tracts, the evangelism team explored the possibilities of preaching to those in line not only in our location, but in other areas of Skid Row as well.
R.A. Torrey, 
much every class.
Want a real adrenaline rush? Get your preaching stool, set it up in front of a Beer Garden in the heat of the afternoon… and watch what happens!
We handed out nearly all our commemorative “Memorial” Gospel tracts, and man, people were pleased to get them. Over and over again, fans would run back to us asking for more! “May I have one for my kid?” “May I have one for my uncle?”"Can I have one for my Uncle’s kid?” We were more than willing to oblige. No one suspected that these ”commemoratives” contained a message:
God, who the Bible says is “rich in mercy,” sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for guilty sinners. We broke God’s Law, but Jesus paid our fine. That means He can legally dismiss our case. He can commute our death sentence: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
We also got an interview with the man himself (sort of)! He actually ran away from my interview and disappeared into the crowd!
But we forgot about the downside: What Idol fans could see and hear more clearly, so could Security. They nabbed Richard, and sent him packing.
Then a man with a cell phone told me to stop. I ignored him because I thought he was just a regular
guy, and continued to preach the good news. He asked me again to stop, but since he was an ordinary guy, I just preached away. That’s when he dialed up a number and called who-knows-who? Ghostbusters? Holy Ghostbusters? I preached on.
“Worship the [clinical name]!” C’mon everybody! Worship the [clinical name]!” Then her boyfriend (poor sap), dragged her inside the theater. Okay. I admit that my style was cramped a little after that one.
handing out Gospel tracts. That’s when Mr. Hard-Look-Red-Jacket-man told us to leave.
Why was this man on his cell phone reporting my activities?
stool, stood upon it, cleared my throat, ahem, and—preached! Yessiree, I preached my little heart out—and no one stopped me. In fact, after I was done 
“Righteous Richard” preached again, as did Ed, then me. Then Richard, Ed, myself… Where were those Security guards anyway? Why were we allowed to preach the forbidden Gospel among all these “IDOLaters” with nary a hoot or boot?
We weren’t mean. We weren’t angry. We spoke pleasantly, but with authority. We were called on the carpet to preach the Good News that no one had to go to Hell, that there was a choice. If only they would repent—turn away from their sins–and put their trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ, then they could be forgiven, the old would become new, they would become… born again, no longer enemies of God, but friends.
