We headed to downtown Boise Thursday, January the 13th during a steady rain. It was around 630pm and we numbered 6 brothers total. There was certainly hesitancy about continuing with plans due to the rain. We were not so much concerned about ourselves, but the amount of people who would be around. As is often the case, we are reminded by the Holy Spirit that it is not about the amount of folks, but the quality of the message. The Gospel will always do its job and we remain confident that if we go out, God will lead us to just the person He wants us to speak with whether it be amongst a crowd of a thousand or just a few passing pedestrians. Primarily, open-air preaching is about the glorification of Christ our Lord. It says in I Corinthians 10:31
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
How much more so the very proclamation of God's Gospel? So it is that if there were not one soul present, we would still preach the Gospel and take joy in God's glory! The fruit of which can and will be the salvation of souls.
After three hours of fascinating conversations and passing out tracts, we prayed in a circle together and headed home. As we walked we were approached by a man with whom I had spoken earlier along with two of his fellows. They had stated that they were from Montana, were Bible-believing, non-denominational Christians and told me of a men's weekend they were here to organize called "Tres Dias"(Three Days). I listened intently and politely exhorted them to the fellowship of the brotherhood. They mentioned the Vineyard and a couple of local pastors and despite my misgivings I was congenial and agreeable. Then when I spoke of what God was doing through us on the street they rejected it. They said that we should never purposely give anyone the "bad news" about the Gospel, but that God was love and that is what the sinner needs to hear. I pointed out that God does not love everyone the same and they seemed appalled. I stated Psalm 5:5 and Psalm 7:11. I then pointed out Romans 9 and spoke of Jacob and Esau. They became extremely agitated and said that God's hatred is based on the actions of the sinner and we should always exhort others to love. As I began to explain the Gospel, they said they had to go.
So now, here was this lone man approaching me while his buddies climbed into their ride. He immediately confronted me and proceeded to inform me that my approach to him and his friends was wrong. Immediately, I was incensed as I had laboured intently to be compassionate to them despite my visceral, gut reactions to their words during our previous conversation. I had pulled punches with them. However, he said that I had single-handedly turned away himself and two other Christian men by my statements about God. He then asked me how many people had repented and turned to God by my witnessing.
Now, I am writing about this because I responded out of anger. I handled this situation wrongly at this point. I have been in some very hostile situations witnessing on the street, but no one has ever gotten under my skin the way this man did. The best thing I said was to question him how it was that men responding to Christ was a determiner of the power of the Gospel. Please explain to me how experience trumps the Word of God? However, he "got my goat" so to speak and instead of just allowing him to rant and then expositing Scripture to him, I allowed this fellow to make me mad. The conversation became heated and at some point I had decided to just speak over him and so both of us were speaking at a higher decibel level. As he walked away, I felt justified based on my kid-glove treatment of them earlier to say a couple of things about the Vineyard and a pastor. This was extremely wrong of me in this context, no matter the validity of the crass statements I made.
God is faithful to forgive and He always guides and teaches us through every trial. I am so thankful for a Gospel-loving church and doctrinally sound leaders whom God has used to counsel me through my walk. As we step out in obedience to God, He will always be transforming us to the likeness of His Son. Please pray for us that this would happen thoroughly and deeply within our hearts and spirits.
On a more exciting note, the Snoop Dog concert was perhaps one of the biggest evangelistic opportunities of the year and we were there to preach and proclaim the Kingdom of Christ our Lord. I started off preaching atop a milk crate as they all filed inside the Knitting Factory music venue. I preached John 1 and hammered home the Word becoming flesh. I also preached the Blood of Christ shed for sinners like you and like me. After they went inside, TJ, Chisum, Jesse, and I began to witness to those who were outside.
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Snoop Dogg Evangelism
"Yes…there was a Snoop Dogg concert in Boise this last Friday. In an effort to engage many who would not otherwise step into a traditional religious context on Sunday morning, we headed down to the Knitting Factor. Jesse, Dan, Chisum, and I had the opportunity to speak to the young and old, a Hindu, some Catholics, the cultural Christians, a few Muslims, Atheist and skeptics, several LDS members, a few gang members, and several nationalities….anyway, you get the idea. I doubt Mr. Dogg had any idea he was going to be used as an evangelism tool, but that is what happened. We handed out several hundred tracts, had some very somber conversations concerning the Gospel and some not so somber ones. We had the opportunity to open air preach as many entered and left the concert. In the end, the Gospel was proclaimed to a lot of people, pray that some were provoked to obey the proclamation."
TJ O'Brien
obrien.tj@gmail.com
We were passing out sermon jams by Piper, Allsitair Begg, Paul Washer, and others all on one disc. We also had a number of discs containing reformed Christian hip-hop. These cd's were provided by Chisum and I believe they are extremely effective. We also had some great tracts from Piper and Mark Driscoll.
Many people we spoke with stated that they were Christians, but became convicted by sound Gospel-centered words.
The crowd was surprisingly docile. The local law enforcement were certainly prepared for a riot and they indeed made a few arrests. However, the general attitude was one of indifference and we experienced the protection of Christ.
When the concert began to let out TJ preached the Gospel. He got a few people gathered around him and he was engaging them with questions about their own perceived goodness. Awesome. Then I got up and preached my guts out, but my voice had begun to wane. Charles Spurgeon says to swallow a little olive oil before you go out so I think I will try that this week as we head to the BSU campus to preach and witness.
a wretch in His grace,
Dan
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