So thankful for our street witnessing teams
Just finished two chapters by Spurgeon on street preaching. So few churches ever practice open air preaching these days and many churches actually openly attack and/or mock it and yet the great Charles Spurgeon says this about open air preaching, 'no sort of defence is needed for preaching out of doors; but it would need very potent arguments to prove that a man had done his duty who has never preached beyond the walls of his meeting-house'.
He goes on to say that those who practice open air preaching 'believe the New Testament which says, "Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in," and yet they (who oppose open air preaching) dislike a literal obedience to the command.'
I found myself as I read through these two chapters thanking God over and over for Cory and our GO teams and all those in whom God has kindled a heart and unconstrained passion for the bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Our mission and mandate given directly from Jesus Christ Himself is to 'GO INTO ALL THE WORLD and
proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.' (Mark 16:15).
This is the great commission - the call and command to every church and every believer. And lest you think this is a trivial issue let me remind us that Jesus goes on in verse 16 of Mark's version of the great commission to say, 'Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.' The eternal destiny of each person is at stake. This is not a side activity for the church, this is not a, 'if we can get around to it' sort of deal for the church, and this is not an, 'I don't feel like it', or 'I get scared' or 'that is just not me' sort of issue for Christians.
This is as a clear cut, can't miss, in your face command as Jesus gives anywhere in His teaching. We have no choice church if we wish to be obedient to our Lord.
So many of us excuse this away and feel it only applies to people like Pastor Cory who of course we all think finds it easy and natural to evangelize. Cory himself has shared with all of us in his recent sermons that he too gets nervous, frightened and many times doesn't feel like going and sharing and yet is compelled by the reality of heaven and hell and a rock-solid belief in the power of the gospel unto salvation.
God has entrusted to us the only hope for this world. We are ambassadors - each of us - for our king and we have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16-21).
Spurgeon makes many great points in promoting and defending open air preaching and evangelizing. He shows how this has been the practice since Old Testament times and for sure Jesus practiced this as did Paul and Peter. And so many of the great revivals of the past would not have happened had preachers and individual Christians stayed inside their church buildings.
I love his illustration from everyday life to show how we all understand this in other areas but for some reason can't make the connection to evangelism. He says, 'sportsmen must not stop at home and wait for the birds to come and be shot at, neither must fishermen throw their nets inside their boats and hope to take many fish. Traders go to the markets, they follow their customers and go out after business if it will not come to them; and so must we.'
Here on my vacation at Fair Havens Bible Conference I have had numerous times to fish. I am one of the worst fisherman known. Joe Kettlewell from Harvest (one of our Harvest worship team dummers) is a very good fisherman and he was here the week before we arrived and drew me maps of where he caught fish and left me two of his lures which worked for him. So i really have no excuse, well besides the very hot weather, and the poor fishing pole I have, and the problem I have with my back and knees when I try to fish from a canoe, and the limited times of day when I can go as I want to spend time with Cindy and attend the church services. So I guess I do have many good excuses for not catching as many fish as Joe!
However, all my excuses aside, yesterday (Friday) John Klassen (one of our Harvest elders) and I tried one last time before he was to head home today. We went out mid-day (not a good time for fishing) in a canoe and tried again. This time I tried a weedless rig with a rubber wo
rm and we tried a new spot (sorry Joe the fish in your spots didn't like me). Well, I caught a beautiful large mouth bass about 3-4 pounds! And - now honest truth here - not the fisherman's version of truth - this was the one time all week I didn't bring my camera. But I have John's testimony and he is about the most honest man you will ever find, so you ask him about my fish!
Now back to my point - sorry for getting side tracked on that one - my point is - I would not catch any fish at all - especially not that huge large mouth bass I caught - did I mention it was at least 5-6 pounds? I would not catch any fish if I did not go out fishing. They just don't come to me!
Spurgeon is so right - we must go out - go into all the world - go and compel them to come as Jesus taught in his parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:12-24).
So please join me in thanking God for Cory and our GO teams AND please join me in committing to be more actively involved ourselves in personal evangelism. For me this has been an area of constant struggle. I have some successes and then I have times when I retreat instead of advancing, I clam up rather than speak up, and I shrink back rather than being bold.
God is raising up Harvest London to be a bold witness for Jesus Christ. He is the only hope for a world that is in the act of perishing (2 Cor. 2:15) so by God's strength, through God's Spirit, and with God's Word let's be a little more courageous this week than we were last week in our witness. And the week after that let's take it up another notch.
Just imagine how many amazing testimonies we could hear over the coming years of those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ simply because one of us stepped out i
n faith, shaking, sweating, nervous and struggling and yet we presented the gospel of Jesus Christ and God saved them!
If you want to be more faithful in this area but struggle with how
HERE is Cory's 'The Cross Current' website which has tons of practical helps. Plus any Friday night you can join our GO team on the streets of London. Don't be afraid of this. No one will make you stand up and preach or say anything. You can just stand and watch. You can silently pray for them as they share. You can hand out tracts if you want but don't have to - just come out and see and hear the gospel being shared.
Also, this fall we will provide more training in the form of our Encounter 4 (E4) class which is an evening of training on how to share the gospel and Cory's, 'The Cross Current' also provides training sessions so check out the TCC website for the next class.
God is at work folks and one of the key areas at Harvest London in which He is working is in the fanning of the flames of evangelism, and we pray this won't stop until every last person has heard the gospel of Jesus Christ for it ALONE Is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).
Norm