Is Street Evangelism Better Than Building Relationships?
00:00:00.000 | Well, there are multiple ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
00:00:08.500 | You can open air preach to an audience, or you can just walk up to a stranger on the
00:00:13.700 | street with a tract and hope for a brief conversation.
00:00:17.840 | Or you can invest in someone's life as a friend first, eventually leading them then
00:00:22.380 | to the gospel.
00:00:24.580 | One approach does not preclude the others.
00:00:27.060 | So what do different forms of evangelism look like in the life of Pastor John himself?
00:00:32.340 | At the recent Cross Conference, Pastor John fielded audience questions, and I wanted to
00:00:36.900 | share two of them with you today.
00:00:39.060 | The first is from a young woman named Christy at the microphone.
00:00:42.340 | Here she is.
00:00:43.340 | I'm curious how, whenever you're not in settings like this, how you share the gospel with people?
00:00:49.500 | Like if you have five minutes or less, somebody you're checking out at Walmart or whatever,
00:00:54.500 | to tell someone about Christ.
00:00:56.200 | What do you tell them?
00:00:57.700 | Well, let's just use real examples.
00:01:01.260 | I'm in Minnesota, so I only do this about eight months out of the year.
00:01:06.460 | I call it jogging evangelism.
00:01:08.460 | So I'm a jogger, and I mean really slow, like 13 minute miles, okay?
00:01:16.980 | And I jog through my neighborhood.
00:01:18.360 | It's a very poor neighborhood, and I know where everything is.
00:01:20.940 | I know where the homeless people are.
00:01:22.300 | I know where the people are under the bridge.
00:01:24.300 | I know where they're getting up at 6 a.m. in the morning, and I just start running,
00:01:30.060 | and I'm praying, "God, show me somebody to do that."
00:01:34.820 | Five minutes, two minutes, whatever.
00:01:37.060 | And they're easy.
00:01:38.060 | I mean, most poor people are easy to talk to, right?
00:01:41.620 | It's rich people that think you're a jerk and get out of my life.
00:01:47.060 | And I basically start by saying, "Hi, I'm John.
00:01:51.420 | I live in the neighborhood.
00:01:52.420 | I used to say I'm a pastor," and that helped, usually.
00:01:57.060 | And I say, I jog and I pray for people.
00:01:59.860 | How can I pray for you?
00:02:00.980 | Real standard opening.
00:02:01.980 | They'll say, "Oh, I prayed for my girlfriend.
00:02:04.860 | She just left.
00:02:05.860 | You know, she ditched me last night," or, you know, "I'm praying for," whatever.
00:02:10.180 | You know, they pray.
00:02:11.180 | I say, "Okay, I will do that.
00:02:13.740 | Now may I tell you the best news in the world?"
00:02:16.620 | I just ask permission.
00:02:17.620 | "Can I tell you the best news in the world?"
00:02:20.460 | As I say, "Do you know the best news in the world?"
00:02:22.820 | And they say, "No, what do you?"
00:02:26.180 | And then I just say, "The best news in the world is that God made you for His glory.
00:02:33.660 | You and I don't love His glory.
00:02:36.420 | We should, right?
00:02:37.420 | Do you love His glory?
00:02:38.420 | No, I don't.
00:02:39.420 | Okay, you're guilty.
00:02:40.420 | I'm guilty before God.
00:02:42.340 | And God in mercy is willing to send Jesus His Son to die in our place so that His anger
00:02:51.780 | and wrath just doesn't have to fall on us.
00:02:54.660 | And if we will abandon our sin and trust in Him, He will forgive all our sins and bring
00:03:01.380 | us into His fellowship."
00:03:02.940 | I mean, that's the gospel.
00:03:04.340 | It's the 1 Corinthians 15, 3 gospel.
00:03:06.940 | Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
00:03:09.980 | And then we see where we go from there.
00:03:11.540 | That may be the end of it.
00:03:13.100 | If they look the least bit interested to talk, the more we go, but that's...
00:03:17.940 | What I just gave you up there is the gospel.
00:03:19.700 | Those four things.
00:03:20.700 | __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
00:03:21.700 | Several minutes later came then a question about campus evangelism and weighing the balance
00:03:26.340 | between impromptu tract evangelism on campus versus investing in friendship evangelism.
00:03:33.180 | Which is a better opportunity for success?
00:03:35.540 | Here's how Pastor John responded to that question.
00:03:38.860 | I don't know of any formula that can define or decide for you when you will take an urgent
00:03:48.460 | opportunity to share the gospel quickly and fully with a person versus cultivating a longer
00:03:55.220 | term relationship.
00:03:56.620 | I don't know a formula.
00:03:58.860 | Both are needed.
00:04:00.700 | And I think what we need to do is check our hearts.
00:04:04.640 | Is the reason I am cultivating, say, a half a dozen relationships in my dorm in the hopes
00:04:11.040 | that I will have more credibility and lead them to Jesus.
00:04:14.580 | Is the reason I'm doing that instead of in my first three conversations going to the
00:04:18.980 | gospel because I'm afraid?
00:04:21.700 | And if it's fear, we need to change our strategy.
00:04:25.500 | Frankly, from my experience over the last 20 or 30 years, friendship evangelism, which
00:04:33.720 | is a beautiful thing, has, I think, discouraged people from doing what I do in jogging evangelism.
00:04:44.140 | And here's the problem.
00:04:45.140 | This is my experience anyway.
00:04:47.700 | If you move into a neighborhood, say, and you've got neighbors on each side and you
00:04:53.900 | meet them, and you're just going to say, "I'm going to form a relationship and within a
00:04:59.180 | few months maybe the gospel will come up."
00:05:03.140 | And when it comes up in six months and they hear how urgent it is, they look at you funny
00:05:10.100 | and say, "Why did you wait to tell me about this?"
00:05:14.580 | In other words, the gospel itself carries in it the natural impulse to be urgent.
00:05:22.460 | So I would just encourage you, pray earnestly for discernment as to whether or not in this
00:05:29.540 | moment within the second or third conversation you have with a new friend, you say something
00:05:35.380 | like, "Can we do lunch together and share each other's philosophy of life?
00:05:43.420 | You tell me what makes you tick, I'll tell you what makes me tick.
00:05:46.260 | Just ask for permission."
00:05:48.900 | And one other thing, I think we err, I have erred in not pressing through to tell somebody,
00:05:59.580 | "I really want you to believe."
00:06:02.660 | We share the gospel de facto.
00:06:04.660 | We tell them the facts, we offer it to them, and then we stop instead of looking them in
00:06:09.420 | the eye and say, "I love you.
00:06:11.100 | I would like to spend eternity with you.
00:06:13.860 | I want you to be a sister.
00:06:15.260 | I want you to be a brother of mine.
00:06:17.220 | Would you?"
00:06:18.220 | And that would even give you tears at that moment.
00:06:20.860 | Very few people ever meet a Christian who talks that way to them.
00:06:24.740 | That's moving, the personal plea approach to friendship evangelism.
00:06:29.460 | That was Pastor John at the Cross Conference earlier in the month, fielding audience questions.
00:06:34.420 | Well, Pastor John has been on the move in January, the Cross Conference in Louisville,
00:06:39.900 | the G3 Conference in Atlanta, the BCS Pastors Conference, which concluded earlier this week.
00:06:45.100 | It's been a full January, but we get him back in the studio late next week to record new
00:06:49.220 | episodes and I will get them to you as soon as possible.
00:06:54.420 | Until then, we may have some guest episodes, we may not.
00:06:57.420 | I'm walking by faith and not by sight during these first three months of 2019 with Pastor
00:07:03.020 | John's available time.
00:07:04.300 | Not sure how the schedule will pan out, but do be looking for new episodes from Pastor
00:07:08.460 | John sometime around February 11th, I'd say.
00:07:12.220 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.
00:07:13.620 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast with longtime author and pastor, John
00:07:18.100 | Piper.
00:07:19.100 | We'll see you again shortly.
00:07:20.100 | [END]
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