American Idol Finals 2011: What Didn’t Happen
Lots of stuff can happen when we preach the Gospel to Organic Congregations…. You can always expect a boisterous SHAADAAP! and a One Finger Salute or two. I’ve had liquid thrown at me while preaching at a beer garden, a glass shatter on a pole in front of me as a customer missed his target (me); loudspeakers have been thrown down or unplugged; I’ve been pushed off a wall from behind and pulled down from a structure in front… and I’ve even been slapped!
What’s amazing is when nothing happens. And that’s what happened when we preached to the thousands in line at the 2011 American Idols Finals, the Sing-Off. Nothing happened as a mostly white and female crowd patiently endured our short Gospel messages, preached up and down the line for about 3 1/2 hours. (Don’t worry. We didn’t harangue the crowd, but they did hear the message at least twice.)
Here’s a 2 minute overview of what happened while we shared our faith followed by some tag team preaching by myself and “Righteous” Richard Chavarria.
Now see the actual message we preached…
is no need to get arrested while preaching the Gospel in America. That’s right. At this current time there is no need for anyone to go to jail for evangelizing. The time will come when that may have to happen, just not now.
Tough Crowd at the Fiesta Hermosa
The crowds that hovered around the Hope Chapel evangelism booth at our local street fair called the Fiesta Hermosa, which attracts 150,000 visitors over the Labor Day weekend, were happy and enthusiastic as they took our Intelligence Tests. (Print your own here, see the video of an atheist taking the test here.) After failing the test (nobody passes), they received a coupon for a free Chick Fillet sandwich and Coke, a stuffed animal, a trillion dollar bill and our church bulletin. The other booths around us were astonished at how many people gathered around our humble little Christian booth (the only Christian representation in the fair).
The Tough Crowd revealed itself only when I decided to start preaching in the open air to those waiting to be taken back to their cars in the shuttle bus line. See for yourself, then read my explanation below.
It does not surprise me when people are hostile to my open air message. From a purely pragmatic, earthly perspective, it can be grating to hear a guy shouting a message that most people do not want to hear. I totally understand that. Still…
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