This is worth the read...I promise. Yesterday, I did something completely out of my comfort zone: street preaching. Historically, Ive been very against the idea of it because I thought that its just a perfect way to create a fight, spark an emotional philosophical debate that could get nasty or that the one on the corner is diluting, destroying or creating confusion about what the gospel actually says on a larger scale. Truth is, whether the person was legit or not, Ive really always just been scared of the idea and didnt want to hold myself to the standard that the Apostles did in the book of Acts because, yes, I do often care about what others think of me. This kind of discipleship was for that time when people were out doing stuff like that in the streets, not times like today, and it wasnt really that affective anyways, right? The thought of going all week made me nervous. The one thing that cooled me down was that I would never see these Czech people again (most likely), and 60% of them dont understand much English anyways. I got a Cherry Coke right before just to calm me down a little bit. My mouth was dry. When it was time. I picked up the microphone, and nervousness completely left me. In fact, I was more comfortable on that street corner than meeting a new person at a friends Christmas party. I spoke for about 15 minutes, and to my surprise, there were easily about 20 people stopped and gathered around to listen to the spiel. I made some uncomfortably bold statements about the power of God and guaranteed that whoever stepped out would be touched. When the opportunity came for me to step away and pray for anyone, thats when Barbara walked up and immediately started crying. Why am I crying right now? I feel so soft inside. Thats the power of the Holy Spirit. Youre meeting Jesus right now. The knot in my gut...the stress...its all gone. You didnt do anything. (In fact, I hadnt even touched her except to shake her hand). Barbara immediately understood her role as a new Christian: to share her experience and tell others about Jesus. A friend that was coming to meet her right at that corner was being ministered to within 5 minutes by this young woman. They had some reading for homework and were taught to fill up through prayer and worship and pour out what they were filled up with throughout the day. This took all-in-all about 40 minutes between the time with the microphone and the ministry time with Barbara. In the meantime, there was another lady who asked the famous If God is so good, then why is there so much bad in the world. She gave her life to Christ as well. All of this to say: I have spent 27 years telling myself how ineffective this type of ministry is and how scary if would be. I didnt feel any different than I would have in a church building talking to a bunch of sold-out believers. In fact, I felt nothing but excitement for Barbara, because Jesus was just who she needed...its who everyone needs. There is definitely a way to successfully approach this type of ministry so you dont get yourself into a sticky situation, and Jess and I learned how to duplicate it well. A homeless man listened to me for about 3 seconds and yelled out bull shit! as he continued to not listen to the fundamentals and walk away. People laughed at the crazy guy on the side of the road (yours truly) and yelled out different obscenities in the Czech language. I believe God does give a grace during this time, because for once, I really didnt care. Im thankful we stepped out. It was much better than keeping our cleaning company.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 08:47:14 +0000
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