Street Evangelism & The Ghetto?

Hi,

I'm in the process of considering doing open-air street evangelism in a very rough part of town, along with a group of people from a homeless shelter I regularly minister at. It's in a part of town where the police are even reluctant to go out to when called. I was wondering if anybody could give me some possible "street advise" for those of you who have ministered in more dangerous contexts?

Also, what do you think of practical issues like wearing a bullet proof vest and the like?

God bless.

Thanks for the video of you preaching in Detroit and your comments. It is helpful and encouraging to know you are ministering in such a rough area and haven't suffered harm. As I mentioned to somebody else recently, the worse thing that could happen is that I could get shot and wakeup in heaven.

I am going to pray and talk with the people from the shelter that are interested in going, and make sure it is something they really want to do. If so, and God is sending us out into the surrounding neighborhood, then I will build them up a bit and equip them for the work of evangelism. As it is, I won't probably be able to commit to such a thing very long term, as God has as of a couple months ago, called me to do missionary work in another part of the state, of which I plan to start doing that work within a few months.

So, at best I will train them up to be evangelists for a short season so that they can do the work of the Lord in this area when I'm no longer able to.

It’s time to change and Go too them!

As I start a New Year, I need to write down some of my thoughts. This past year has been really hard for me, I have had so much vision with so many road blocks, and brick walls that can only be removed by God. I lost almost all my remaining printing business, I lost my daughter, she left married, without my blessing, and almost lost my wife, but for her love, and the grace of God.

I have looked deep into my own heart and seen roots of sin, and self that have to be removed by a deep heart repentance. My heart is sick of sin, in my heart, and in the hearts of God’s people, it is not till we lose all the distractions of this world that we can really see how poor we really are towards God. I believe we have been sold bill of goods in the church of just pray this prayer, and your saved, but have not been dealing with the roots of sin. So the America church is selling us " the America dream" life stile, but has failed to totally change the heart.

As I have walked the streets of the City I see in this land a large gap that is just as bad or worse in the Church it is a gap between the haves and the have nots. It like the end of a Monopoly where the haves take all and the have nots lose everything, because no one cares. I am seeing it in a very graphic form on the streets of Paterson. Yes these men have messed up and fallen because of sin, but if one should want to repent and get out of the hole, all we have given them are words, and have not given them a rope strong enough to pull themselves up, it’s mostly too little to late, so they full back down the same hole again. Today there are many needy persons in the city church. Have we cut Acts 4:32 - 36 from our Bibles? Yes some in the church tithe about at an average 2% but have not seen the deep needs of the single mother, or the man I dropped off yesterday to a house with no windows or door. I have become close to some of these men and believe they can turn around, if they could get a little help now!

A few years ago I was able to bring blankets to many homeless in Jersey City, but some did not make it though the cold winter that year! If we do not do all we can, just rip the book of James out of the Bible too!

Indeed, the church is a "go" structure, not a "come" structure. Recently a local pastor I know of, who ministers at a church of about 400+ people, built a large extension onto their current church. Now they can easily sit well over 1,000 people, perhaps even more. Very nice building.

Only problem is his vision was that this church would serve truly as a preaching center, and that they would fill the place up. After an initial influx of people who came to the church out of curiosity, the church has returned to it's normal size. While I am sure the pastor was sincere in his vision, and truly wants to reach the world for Jesus, his vision seems to have been a "come" structure, instead of one that is "go."

So, unless his members become very active in their personal evangelism activity, or he becomes an even more dynamic preacher (of which he already is pretty strong), it seems their church will probably not attract a whole bunch of people.