CONFRONTATIONAL EVANGELISM: STREET PREACHERS, SANTA CLAUS AND THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.

Confrontational Evangelism does not, nor ever will work, contrary to what some preacher or other suggests otherwise. The fact is, if the message is coated in aggression, hostility, anger, defamation or ridicule, that message has been tainted and is not of Christ, but is in fact another gospel which will serve no one but only the self righteous.

Recently, someone (a preacher/pastor on Facebook) video taped himself going into a mall and verbally assaulted CHILDREN as they stood in line to see Santa Claus. (source) The video has now went viral, even making the rounds in the national media and online social networks, whereby one could see as well as hear this man verbally assault, ridicule and castigate those children for wanting to see Santa, but not just kids did this man attack, but also the parents, all because one man deemed himself as the sole representative for the entire Christian faith, and by doing so proved that not only has commonsense is no more common, stupidity has now replaced social graces and common decency in an effort to project a more hateful form of Christianity.

In other words, this man has done nothing to portray Christ in a meaningful and loving way which would draw men TO CHRIST, instead, presented another form of so called aggressive Christianity that attacks even children in the most vile and reproachable form to draw men AWAY from Christ.

In yet another video of someone who is a street preacher, the young man (preacher) goes into an area that is well known to be home to violence and aggressive behavior, within 15 minutes of his name calling of the lost, a man slashes the young man’s hand, sending him to the hospital. Again, all in the name of Confrontational Evangelism.

Romans 14:16 says this as it regards the conduct and character of the Christian and his or her walk in a secular world, “Do not allow what you consider good, then, to be spoken of as evil.” Here’s the real truth in this as it comes to the recent rise of Confrontational Evangelism that has now become more open in many branches of the faith by those who believe that by name calling, personal character attacks and an all out brutality toward anyone who is lost should be made to feel socially unloved and unwanted is, it does not work!

We live in a very hostile (as well as aggressive) world where words matter, and in some respects, those same words bring forth deadly consequences. From road rage, fights in shopping malls throughout America, there has been an increase of violence in all sorts of situations, and it has now reached into the church as well. When Christians, especially preachers of the gospel adopt methods from the world, when our actions and attitudes toward the lost is similar to those who are blinded to the truth, then our message will never resonate with the hearts of the people, but instead, it will cause those who need to hear about the good news of Jesus Christ, to actually resist that call, and in some cases, resort to physical violence in return.

When we examine the life of Christ, we see one common theme when it came to his outreach to the lost (not the religious) but the true broken, the weak, the poor, the sinner itself, his behavior toward the least was one of great compassion, not condemnation (John 3:17). Christ used words which revealed the disparity of the sinner, yet gave hope for their salvation. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, his was not one of confrontation, nor did he resort to name calling. His was one of compassion, of love, of hope to this particular woman who even his own disciples, when seeing him speaking to her, questioned his actions. The truth is, Christ drew people to him because his message was one which offered hope, it did not degrade, ridicule or reject the sinner. His was a message of grace, of hope in all sincerity.

Yet today that message of hope has been unfortunately been replaced by a message of fear, of judgment, of hate. If you degrade someone, you isolate them, you control them, you call them names, you demean them. That’s a horrible existence for people. Yet that is exactly what is happening with the method of Confrontational Evangelism. Let’s ask a fair question; Do we honestly believe that by going into a shopping mall at the height of Christmas and confronting children with a style of method which they would not be able to comprehend truly serves any productive purpose other than gratifying one man’s feeble attempt for 15 minutes of fame?

When a street preacher name calls, uses words or terms such as whore, slut, pansy, or confronts in an aggressive tone or demeanor, are they truly desiring a genuine response to the gospel? The answer is no, they aren’t. Here is the more shocking truth to what is happening in these situations, they have no true desire to see men repent, but reject God even further because they themselves have no genuine love for them to repent in the first place. Jesus said that we would know if we love God genuinely by when we loved one another. If we truly followed Christ, we would love people as he loved us when we were unlovable. The simple truth is, I’ve never known one person ever to come to Christ out of ridicule or public shaming – ever.

Is it wrong to warn the sinner of their fate if they don’t repent? Absolutely not. But how we go about it can be. We draw or push away people by how we treat people, that is simply how it works when we relate to people. We demonstrate the love of Christ to the lost by giving them hope, not fear, not demeaning them, and certainly not condemning them. The truth is, they stand condemned already! It’s the same idea of going onto death row and telling a man condemned to be executed in a few hours that he’s going to die, when the fact is he already knows that. What he is hoping for is not the call of death, that’s his reality, instead, he’s praying for a reprieve. Sinners act and behave like sinners because that’s what sinners do! So why not give them words of life instead of words of death?

Confrontational Evangelism will never work. Those who are dedicated to undermining the gospel do so at their own peril, for God keeps a record of all we do, and when we present the gospel in such a way that brings forth a spirit of hate and self destruction, then we have not the true gospel, but a false one, a lonely one, one whose sole intention is to distance others from the cross, that in itself is antichrist. Let us instead speak peace, love and give the sinner reason to hope, even if rejected, tell them the good news, even if it brings ridicule from those who do not know, for in the end, ours is to simply preach the good news of Jesus Christ, and let God determine who will receive when they hear such love from such a high price that was paid 2,000 years ago on Calvary.

From my desk in China,

Christopher

Contact me at christopher152@gmail.com

www.chinamissions.org

WORLD MISSIONS, STREET PREACHERS AND AMERICAN EVANGELISM: WHY TRADITIONAL METHODS OFTEN USED ARE NO LONGER WORKING

“If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” (Luke 9:5)

 

 

I work with sinners, all hardcore. From bikers to hustlers, God has put me into a place where I’m surrounded by darkness. Yet never once have I ever felt to preach to them in such a way that would be considered as “in your face” evangelism. Yet they know where I stand because they know I’m both an evangelist and missionary. But lately, in unique ways God brings certain ones to me and they ask me privately about my faith, “You speak in tongues?” or “What do you think about the end of the world?”, but lately some have been seeking real answers to real problems – gut wrenching real problems.

I’ve often wondered how could I make a difference in the job I do in the secular world until I move to China to be with my wife and our work God has for us, then a week ago one of the men was talking with me and began to relay family problems – and it was gut wrenching. I realized just how Satan is destroying people today and people have no where to turn. Yet as I explained to this man the only real answer – Jesus Christ, it revealed to me just how much the world has changed in just 3 decades.

I’m convinced more and more that our methods must change to reflect a more direct way to reach the world, especially in the U.S. than how we’ve done it 25 years ago. Some might take issue with what I’m about to say, and that’s fine, but I believe that due to the darkness of the hour in which we live certain methods simply cannot work today, and it’s because not only has the church changed, but so too has the world. When I see certain methods such as street preaching (which was one of my first real ministry methods when I was 18-19) times were different then, people were different then, the hostility level was not even remote as it is today.

When I see a preacher with a bull horn standing on the street corner my first reaction is, “Is that really working?” Sure, there will always be a few who will stop – listen – and ask questions, some might even reach out and allow one to pray for them, but is it a genuine form of Christian methodology that really works today? My opinion? I don’t see it. The days of Billy Sunday are over with and for good reason, people’s attitudes toward what they perceive as “organized religion” have changed, and most simply do not want to listen. Again, the motive can be right but the method outdated. Again, simply my opinion. But yet I can go into China and witness and even preach at times on the street and people will stop – listen- and seek more. Why? Because where one place the gospel is no longer tolerated, another place is opening for the gospel.

Jesus had the same issue when he went into Nazareth, they didn’t want him, he even cursed Chorazin as well as Bethsaida (Matthew 11:21-24). This why the Lord told his disciples that if a city would not receive the gospel they were to shake the very shoes from off their feet and move on to another place. There is no question that today America is turning a deaf ear to the gospel. The fact is, the nation simply does not want the genuine sincere word of the Lord, they want something other, another gospel. This is why I believe certain evangelistic methods in this nation no longer work, because people’s hearts have been hardened, and the recent statistics from both Barna as well as Pew Research prove it. The truth is, America has become saturated with Christianity to such a degree that we’ve taken having our faith around us for granted. There is a church on every street corner in America. We have Christian television, Christian radio, Christian books, Christian merchandise and still our nation is turning away from the roots of our faith in great numbers. So why do we continue to use methods which are simply not working today compared to 25-50 years ago? I believe it’s because on some level we’ve lost our desire to go further and farther with the gospel and have not changed the way we reach the world.

It’s comfortable to stay at home. It’s comfortable to drive less than 10 miles to an inner street area and witness to a few people, but are we really making an effort to reach the world? I don’t believe so. This is why world missions are facing a significant drought in global missionaries today, because the church as a whole has lost its missionary heart. The only solution is to begin pushing outward and start thinking globally. We did it 100 years ago with great success. Men such as Lester Sumrall, Hudson Taylor, Livingston, John G Lake, and Evan Roberts all paved the way for missions and saw multitudes come to Christ. So why are we not seeing the same affect today in our own backyard? The reason is simple – outdated methodology. Even Jesus told his own disciples “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Of course there will always be a need for local and regional inner city mission work, but if we are truly going to reach the world for Christ, then we must take stock of where we are at today, what is working and what has not worked and seek the direction of the Lord. Again, some will take issue with this, but I truly believe that due to the lateness of the hour and the rise of anti-christian beliefs in America, what worked then will not and is not working today, and we need to recognize it and correct it. The 10/40 window hasn’t closed, and is still very much open, but will we go through it? The world is waiting.

Christopher

christopher152@gmail.com