Evangelism Tips from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade

We tried something new at our local St. Patrick’s Day parade—and it was highly effective: Hand out tracts and preach to the people who will be marching in the parade before it starts! At most small town parades people don’t arrive until about 15 minutes beforehand. So, you may as well do something constructive with your evangelism team while you wait…

…like preach to the beer ad marchers. That’s what “Mad Mike” Stockwell did (at my urging).

As you can see they were held in rapt attention, barely able to stand upright before dropping to their knees in repentance.

You can also climb aboard the ubiquitous double-decker bus that is in every parade—and hand out tracts to the riders (like “Mad Mike” Stockwell did—on his own initiative.

You can also do more creative things, like these…

Give Gospel tracts to funny looking guys with green hair!

…even hand a tract to Bud Man!

Ridiculous you say? Is the hope of a happy eternity foolishness? All these people have to do is read about their desperate condition before God. (It doesn’t matter if they believe the good news at the time you deliver it. Remember, you are there to plant seeds and water seeds; it’s God’s job to save.) They may eventually repent of their sin and put their hope in Jesus Christ.

At the very least, they may just put your tract on their parade vehicle—for others to read and believe!

R. A. Torrey (1856-1928)wrote this a hundred or so years ago in his excellent article “The Use of Tracts” : A tract will often succeed in winning a man to Christ where a sermon or a personal conversation has failed. There are a great many people who, if you try to talk with them, will put you off; but if you put a tract in their hands and ask God to bless it, after they go away and are alone they will read the tract and God will carry it home to their hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost.

One of our students wrote me in great joy of how he had at last succeeded in winning a whole family for Christ. He had been working for that family for a long time but could not touch them. One day he left a tract with them,and God used that tract for the conversion of four or five members of the family.

Another student held a cottage meeting at a home, and by mistake left his Bible there. There was a tract in the Bible. When he had gone, the woman of the house saw the Bible, picked it up, opened it, saw the tract and read it. The Spirit of God carried it home to her heart, and when he went back after the Bible she told him she wanted to find the Lord Jesus Christ. The tract had done what he could not do in personal work.

I once received a letter from a man saying, “There is a man in this place whom I tried for a long time to reach but could not. One day I handed him a tract, and I think it was to the salvation of his whole family.

Read my article
“The 12 Step Program for Parade Preaching”
to get more tips on how to effectively
evangelize your local parade by clicking here!

Comments (8)

Glenn Parker
March 19, 2011
Mad Mike’s the man! A true inspiration. Sold his business and started evangelizing all over the country. Kind of makes me feel wimpy!
StevieD
March 20, 2011
Thank you Steve for what you do.
Thomas Moore
March 20, 2011
Praise God and yes Mad Mike is the man! He always makes me think of the apostle Paul on his missionary journey’s! Also like the pic with the DeLorean and the giant hundred dollar bills on the windshield! That is my favorite car ever. God bless Pastor Mike keep on keeping on in the Lord!!!
P.S.—I was plaining on going to a St. Pat’s Parade but the one I was going to got cancelled due to lighting and rain. Maybe next year!
Vagon
March 20, 2011
Please pray that there would be a Great Awakening as a result of this lightning storm. Zeus does not want you worshipping false idols.
Thomas Moore
March 22, 2011
The picture with Mad Mike preaching in the background (the first picture) with those whom he is preaching to just going about their business is a perfect picture of where America is spiritually. The western world as a whole is locked in apathy towards the gospel. Though I do believe that the “age of apathy” is about to come to an end. When that happens then persecution is going to take place on the church like what is seen in the book of Revelation. There will be a building up to this persecution but it is coming. For my brothers and sisters in Christ my prayer is for strength in the Holy Spirit and to be bold in the face of opposition. In His power and only by His power! God bless!
Robert Moss
March 22, 2011
I was able to witness to a guy that was drunk. The more he talked with me the more he told about himself. He said he was a missionary with World Vision. He became abrasive when I reminded him of scripture of how as a minister of God’s Word we are not to partake of alcoholic beverages, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
He walked away from me as I kept calling out, Be not filled with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Each time I said the phrase, he shook his finger at me and shouted “NO, NO, NO!” He said I saved 300 kids through World Vision. I kept calling back…”Be filled with the Holy Spirit and not wine.”
Vagon
March 22, 2011
Thomas I have a question for you. How will you tell between persecution and honest criticism?
Thomas Moore
March 23, 2011
Good question Vagon! Here is what Jesus said about persecution:
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”—Matthew 5:11-12 (ESV)
This is of course just one piece of Scripture that speaks on persecution. We see here that Jesus equates words with persecution. Throughout the entire Bible there is a lot of physical persecution that comes into play alongside the verbal.
This does not mean however that persecution is a final indicator that what a person is doing is right. But it is clear from what Jesus taught that a disciple of His would be persecuted for preaching the biblical gospel in love. The disciple does not go out looking for persecution but realizes that persecution is a reality for the disciple of Jesus Christ.
In my opinion honest criticism would be criticism that is done in love (because persecution is not an act done in love). Honesty and love really go hand in hand. If one person is giving another person honest criticism they are not so much as trying to stop the person but to help them to be more effective in what it is they are trying to do. This is just one example.
God bless!