preaching - Stone The Preacher

Arresting Truth

Mar 10, 2017Steve SanchezEvangelism Gone Wrong, Open Air, PERSECUTED!bible, evangelizing, gospel, michael overd, mike stockwell, open air preaching, preaching, truth, witnessing

A FRIEND OF MINE WAS ARRESTED IN ENGLAND AND FOUND GUILTY for a heinous crime. Was it robbery? Assault? Murder? Nope. None of those. Mike Stockwell got busted, along with his compatriot Michael Overd, for speaking the truth!

I met Mike Stockwell back in 2008 when I was leading a team for The Ambassador’s Academy, an evangelism ministry started by Ray Comfort that teaches normal Christians how to share their faith simply and biblically by handing out Gospel tracts, having personal conversations and by street preaching.

I didn’t know it then, but Stockwell would continue to preach the gospel in streets around the country and the world as a calling and vocation for the next nine years. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news”—and he obeyed!

Now he’s paying the price.

No Longer a Stranger in a Strange Land

Jul 17, 2016Steve SanchezABOUT ME, MY BLOG, MY CHURCH, Community Church of the Hillschurch plant, community church of the hills, johnson city texas, pastor, preaching, texas

I preached my first sermon at Community Church of the Hills one year ago last Sunday, July 10, 2015.

Never, in a million years did I ever expect to be pastoring a church in the middle of Texas, especially since I’m a native born—ahem—guy from the west coast, from the second largest city in America. (Is that vague enough?)

Oh, but what a wonderful change!

I didn’t move to Texas like other Californians because of huge profits from the sale of their homes and getting double—triple—the value in the Lone Star State. I didn’t move as some sort of left-wing conspiracy to change the political climate of this Red State (I’m a conservative). I didn’t even move here as a protest against the Golden State and its strange brew of crazy, nonsensical, burdensome, ridiculous tax and social laws.

No, I came for one reason and one reason only: God called me.

I didn’t hear any voices, no angel trumpeted from Heaven nor did a lightning bolt strike a special place in my Bible. A series of circumstances aligned themselves together to cause me to pray about uprooting my family, leaving a church where I had been an associate pastor for fifteen years, abandoning a pension that I would receive in just five years, and, of course, saying goodbye to everything familiar, including family and friends.

The Most Famous Sermon Ever Preached

Jul 8, 2016Steve Sanchez1 CommentHIStorygospel, heaven, hell, jonathan edwards, preaching, sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God

On this day in 1741, the future president of Princeton College preached the most famous American sermon ever in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Many listeners responded in this way: “What shall I do to be saved? Oh, I am going to Hell.” Some crowded toward the pulpit begging the preacher to stop. At one point in the

The 12 Step Program for Parades

Dec 6, 2015Steve Sanchez18 CommentsParadeschristian, Christmas parades, evangelism, gospel, preaching, way of the master, witness

Here is a 12-step primer on how to evangelize at any parade. Try them all! Step 1: Find a parade. Don’t laugh. Many have tried preaching to a line of elderly people on a walking tour, or to school kids getting off a bus thinking they had found a parade; those are organic congregations, not

Evangelism Gone Wrong, Part 1: Mistakes Were Made

Feb 15, 2011Steve Sanchez55 CommentsAtheist Tuesday, Ev Tips/Tools, Evangelism Gone Wrong, PERSECUTED!atheists, evangelism, gospel, living waters, open air preaching, preaching, ray comfort, sharing faith, unbelievers, way of the master, witness, witnessing

Those unbelievers out there can be so darn difficult.

They don’t understand the Gospel message—or don’t care; they’ll try to get the evangelist off his game by ridicule, loud shouts of disapproval or verbal abuse; they’ll mock you and the God who made them, sometimes even blaspheming his name. And it’s possible they may even try to get you to stop preaching that message of eternal life by using force.

What’s a Christian to do? We’re called to be gracious, gentle, respectful, loving, kind, helpful and prayerful, especially to our enemies. But what happens when things go wrong—desperately wrong—and the witness for Christ is totally blown? And what about those other guys; you know, those who call themselves brothers but don’t represent Christ at all in action and attitude when witnessing about him? What should you do? What about Gospel tracts that don’t tell the full story of the Gospel, are imbalanced, giving a skewed picture of the Savior?

This is the first part of a series that will offer some perspective when evangelism goes wrong. I’ll be sharing a few missteps on my part in a moment, but first let’s read about what happened to Ray Comfort long ago:

He tells the story about a woman who was heckling him so badly, using filthy language and caustic comments, that he blew it. She asked him a question that went something like this: “I’m a lady, but I don’t agree at all with you about what you are saying about women.”

Ray flippantly responded with, “You may be a woman, Ma’am, but you certainly are no lady…”

He then explained how the “lady” proceeded to beat him up.