It doesn’t matter how YOU were raised in a local church in relation to this concept. The spoiled cultural Christian idea of “evangelism” is bringing your non-Christian friend to your church so that someone else can do evangelism for you.
Not all local churches are even in fellowship and communion with the true Body of Christ; therefore, some don’t even properly, accurately, and reliably teach the true doctrines from Holy Scripture to begin with, let alone the pure Gospel.
The 1st century church and the first few generations of Christians didn’t even have a church buildings to go to. All they had were the house churches, local synagogues, local markets, and street corners.
So, put all your Christian religious prejudices aside and consider what the The Apostles, their Disciples, and the first few generations of Christians actually did with their faith in regards to evangelism.
what scripture reveals
First we can look at Noah. There was no church building to preach in. No temple to preach at. Just him and the world. Peter describes Noah as a preacher or Herold of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Of course the world listened and laughed maybe even felt judged and offended as he told them that God was going to judge the world due to their unrighteousness.
Next we can look at Jonah. He literally walked down the streets of the large city proclaiming that the city will be overthrown if they don’t repent (Jonah 3:1-5).
Then we can look at John The Baptist. He came out of the wilderness open air preaching in public (Matthew 3:1-2; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3).
Jesus himself preached in public on a hill (Matthew 5-7) and all over the region, not always in a Synagogue.
Apollos, a disciple of Jesus, explicitly preached in public (Acts 18:27-28).
Paul himself didn’t always preach in Synagogues or Jewish temples, guest speaker at educational institutions like the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-34) even preached in the market place (Acts 17:17).
Is Public Street Evangelism Biblical?
Jesus did it, and he can’t be in sin. Jonah was told by God to do it and God doesn’t tell people to sin. The Apostles, lead by the Spirit, did it, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t lead people TO sin. In different cultures throughout history. The type of culture or time period does not exclude street preaching.
Simply by the examples of those who were obeying God’s commands we see that public street evangelism IS BIBLICAL.
Is there a time and place to do it?
looking at the biblical accounts, the time and place is everywhere, at all times, with who ever is willing to listen!
The Kingdom of God is AT HAND, the time is NOW, the matter is urgent because the eternity of people are at stake and we do not know when God has determined our time to see him face to face and give an account of all our works in this life.
doesn’t it drive people away from god?
This is a failed excuse by those who don’t want to do it or who feel sympathetic to the sin of the world. Those who feel that people are driven away from being saved by preachers fail to understand or deny God’s absolute sovereignty. It’s a little human-narcissistic of us to assume WE are the ones who harden hearts because of OUR words and deeds. Only God can do this, not you.
Moses didn’t harden the heart of Pharaoh, God did.
A simple and quick read over of The Gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 26 through 40, is all we need to know to answer this question:
Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” 30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Now, let’s apply this amazing revelations from Christ to street evangelism.
Those who are/will be saved were already SET and SEALED (v27). Anything that is SET and SEALED by God, it’s a done deal. Who can break God’s seals? No one. Nothing.
The WORK of God is that whoever comes to faith, comes by God’s work, not yours (v28-29,32). That WORK of God that Jesus is talking about is the work where God himself GIVES people saving faith in Jesus and then GIVES to Jesus all those who he has set and sealed.
And all those who are GIVEN to Jesus, W I L L come to faith in him (v32,37-40). That is an absolute. It is not a maybe, might, could, should, hopefully… they WILL come to him. They WILL come to Jesus because God himself as set them apart to come to him and sealed them with Jesus.
And all thsoe who have/will/did come to Jesus in faith, will NEVER thirst (spiritually), “certainly NOT cast out”, and Jesus will lose “NOTHING” because all those who believe in Christ Jesus W I L L have E T E R N AL Life (27,35-40),. Something that which is eternal, doesn’t have an end, stop, or conclude. Now many things in this life can we, as people, offer other people, of our own power, that is eternal? Nothing.
Therefore, all people who are set and sealed by God the Father, are given to God the Son, and they will come to him not matter what because they won’t be lost or cast out, but have already been sealed with something that is eternal, since before the foundation of the world.
And any street evangelist can’t stop, change, or interfere with the WORK of God the Father and God the Son.
If someone who hears a street evangelist preaching the gospel in truth and grace and gets offended, that is the Holy Spirit convicting them. From there, that person either gets drawn closer or their heart is hardened further.
If their heart is hardened and they became more bitter and resentful toward the church or God, it’s because God himself did that within them, and not the street preacher. If they never come to faith and always point to the street preacher’s mean words as why they will always reject Jesus, that was actually the work of God in their heart, hardening it. But those who respond differently down the road as the gospel message festered in the mind and heart of the person who heard it and decided to come to faith later down the road, again, that also is the work of God. The RESULT of the street preaching isn’t counted against the street preacher, it’s the work of God alone. The street preacher is just being obedient to the Lord, the results of the obedience are completely up to God.
When people are confronted with the warning of sin, called to repent, and believe power of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, they do only 1 of 2 things: Their hearts are hardened like Pharaoh (Moses), or their hearts softened like the King of Nineveh (Jonah).
But no matter what, if they are sealed by God the father and given to Jesus Christ, they will absolutely, no matter what, come to Jesus in faith; and there’s no one that can stop that.
is there a wrong way to do street evangelism?
YES! There is never a moment where we are not to be loving. Even during street preaching and dealing with hecklers, agitators, and aggressively profane people. But LOVE is also speaking the TRUTH. Because Jesus IS TRUTH. Using profanity and personally attacking people is not the way to go about proclaiming the truth and love of Jesus. But don’t forget, the truth of Jesus is offensive to the world. People WILL get offended. Period. Matthew 10:34-36, 15:19-20:
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;
Pointing fingers at people telling them God hates them does NOT honor or bring glory to God. The street preacher doesn’t know if God hates THEM specifically. God might have predestined THAT exact person, sealed them in Christ, and in a few years later they WILL come to Him. These are the sort of things we, as humans, even street preachers, don’t know. But, what the street preacher DOES KNOW is that GOD hates SIN and that WE ALL deserve death because of it.
Telling them, the sinner who approached the preacher, that they are lost and in need of a savior does honor God because it is absolute truth and it IS LOVING to tell them. Hating them would be remaining silent and ignoring the fact that they are a slave to sin, wicked before God, and potentially destined for an eternal Hell because of their sins without Christ.
One method focuses on sin, of which we are all sinners and sinners are going to sin, but the other method focuses on the dire NEED for Jesus and WORSHIP for HIS Work on our behalf. One hypocritically judges, while the other rightly judges. One pushes a humanistic driven condemnation while the other proclaims what God has already made known. One points down to man and their sinful works the other points up to Christ Jesus as the solution for those sinful works. It is true however that ALL those who have been given to Jesus WILL come, even if the preacher is unloving in his approach BUT the preachers themselves are still held to a standard that which is loving God and their neighbor. When street preaching, we must keep Jesus’ words in Luke 6:27-28 in mind: “27 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
Some preachers were even maliciously bashing Paul behind his back (Philippians 1:17-18). These guys were trying to belittle Paul and assert themselves as authority and maybe even his replacement. Their preaching was out of selfish ambitions. YET Paul rejoices! Why? Because no matter the motives of the preachers, Christ is still proclaimed.
Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17) and people are still hearing the gospel despite the short comings of the preachers. God is GOD despite the imperfect preachers.
Regardless of method, God has always prescribed the most simplest format: “repent and believe” with “repent” stated first and always connected to what to believe because IT provides the WHY they need to believe the Gospel.
why do people get so offended?
It is quick, easy, and ignorant to assume that the reason why people get offended is because the preacher is saying mean and hurtful things.
But, that is not always the case. Even just simply reading The Bible like the Roman Road Gospel Method will still get people upset and enraged.
19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already…”
It is a soul cutting message to tell someone that God has already judged them for all their sins that they have done in secret and all the sins they will do in the future that they haven’t even done yet. And that the judgement for all their sins is death and then an eternal Hell after this world to pay for all the sin in this world they committed. That’s a tough pill to swallow.
But it’s an equally tough message to give someone. Yet, it’s a message that only a truly loving person would tell them. The rest of the world, even some who claim to love Christ, would rather love them into Hell to avoid talking to them about sin.
They are hateful and offended because they feel judged. This is true, they and the whole world have been judged. Judged and convicted of sin as a sinner before The Holy and Righteous God Almighty. Yet, they love their sin more than God’s righteousness (God hasn’t called them yet). Thus, they hate the messengers, who are the street preachers. Nothing new. Genesis 19:9 quotes the people of Sodom rejecting Lot’s plea for them to stop their sin “they said, “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.”. That’s just like saying “don’t judge me”.
what are the benefits of street evangelism?
Aside from the obvious benefit: Glorifying God by being faithful and obedient to him and proclaiming his word to the world; there are other “benefits” as well.
Street Preaching/Evangelism is the most effective way to reach people specific people:
- Those who refuse to check out a local church.
- Those who has Christian friends and family who have failed them and not given them the gospel.
- And those who ignore their friends and family, or avoid them all together.
- Who don’t want to do the research on their own about Jesus.
- Who may be privately searching but don’t know where to start.
- This sparks public conversation and those who hear take it home with them and tell their friends what they heard and saw. Which may lead the friend to do some research.
- Edifies, emboldens, and empowers the saint who is risking all sorts of things to preach to strangers.
The results are NOT up to the eloquence of the speaker or anything about the preacher himself. The Holy Spirit is the one who works in the heart of the person who hears the message. Regardless of the results, the preacher is called to be faithful to the Lord and proclaim the Lord’s good news.
what are some things i need to do street evangelism?
This might be a “no-brainer” but, sadly, you’d be surprised – You must be Christian. You must already know and believe the Gospel and repented from your old ways, born again, spiritually alive in Christ, baptized, and seeking God’s glory.
If you don’t know the gospel, how can you believe in it and be saved? First, evaluate yourself. Give yourself the gospel. If you can’t and don’t know it or know what to say, STOP, PRAY, AND KNOW THE GOSPEL, REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST WHO DIED FOR YOUR SINS SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE PEACE WITH GOD AND HAVE ETERNAL LIFE IN HIM!
If you do know the gospel and believe it, all you need is… You and the gospel. All you really need is your voice and understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ and why He did what He did and what results. That’s it. All of that can be found on THIS site.
But if you are looking into being more prepared and more devoted and dedicated to this method of evangelism, here is a list of things you might want to consider:
- A foldable table
- A Canopy tent
- Body Camera
- Portable, wireless, loud speaker with wireless Mic
- ESV Compact Bible(s) (to buy in mass quantity)
- Obtain a PERMIT or PERMISSION from the property owner if the property is private property.
- Unless you are on a public sidewalk or in a public area that doesn’t require a permit for public use.
Let us know what you think!