Why is the poor open air preacher so frowned upon by the church? I hear Christians all the time mocking or talking negatively about street preachers, and they give the stereotypical view that they are all wild, hariy men who stand with banners shouting 'you will all be damned'.
I am just fed up with Christians mocking street preachers. We are commanded by our great Lord to GO, and to PREACH and yet the few who do are casticated by the church for their fanaticism or for how they are putting people off!
Shame on a church which has no voice in the streets, a church who hides her light under a basket and keeps it inside of the church walls as far away from sinners as possible. Our Lord knew this and so He told us to GO to them, not to wait for then to come to us. If there is someone drowning in the ocean then those who have the lifeboat must go out to them, the obligation is on the rescuer to go to the those who need rescuing!
Is it that Christians have lost all confidence in preaching? They say 'Oh yes open air preaching worked once, in Wesley and Whitefield's day, but it isn't the way to reach our generation'. Do they know better than God? The God who has said that it has 'pleased Him by the foolishness of preaching to save some'. But today Christians don't mind Christians handing out leaflets or invites to church, they don't mind them performing a dance, drama or song (all things which i think can have their place) but as soon as they start to preach, it divides and some hate it. I thought that the preaching of the cross was meant to offend non-Christians, not Christians!
'Oh' they say, 'You are putting people off, they have not come to town to be preached at, they have come to shop', yes but while they remain lost and dead in trespasses and sins we must be present to lovingly warn them of their condition. Our Lord told the disciples to cast out their net into the deep. To me it is obvious, he told them to go where the most fish were! And for us- where are the most fish? In the town centres, on the streets, thats where all the sinners are. Jesus came for sinners, to seek and to save the lost, well that is the place where they are! Therefore it makes sense that that is where we should GO!
I think it is so sad that the people who feel called to street evangelism are attacked by the very ones who ought to be supporting them. I could weep that out of the many churches in my City there are but a handful of Christians who want to take the gospel out to the streets. And i know that if I am one of them i will be frowned upon for doing so.
I am just glad that the apostles didn't have that attitude. I am eternally grateful that they did not just stay in the upper room having wonderful times in church, but that they came down and took to the streets on fire to preach the gospel! If they hadn't I would now be living in a country where the Name of Christ was never heard, I could not believe on Him who i had never heard of and I would be surely going to hell. Praise God that they obeyed their Lord! When are we going to do the same?
And if people object that everyone has heard the gospel in our countries and rejected it, perhaps it is time then that more of us went to those far off lands where people have never heard of Christ.
Oh how sad it is that Christ's body largely are innefective, disobedient and unwilling. What good is a body who always feeds and never works? How frustrating for a person who's brain is sharp but who's body is debilitated.
I think it is Lenord Ravenhill who said 'the sadest thing is a sick church in a dying world' and i would add that even sadder is it when only a few are fighting in the war for souls, and the others who ought to be alongside them are mocking and discouraging the few that are fighting!
Oh that God would stir the Christians up to witness for their Lord on mass. May we be a people who hear AND obey the call of our Lord to go and to preach the gospel, whether we are persecuted from within or without let us endure and work for Him while it is day for surely the time is soon coming when no man can work. O help us God!
