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When it's tough to get going. What a great experience it is to stand in front of a crowd of "pagans"! And tell them about Jesus. There's a rumour amongst Christians that pagans eat anyone who dares speak about Him! Or spit or do something equally horrid. But it's not true! (Most of the time.) In the main, open air preaching has a poor press, a rotten reputation and a fringe following of frenetic fanatics. But that's all part of the rumour, supported by worst-case examples. Allow me to redress the balance. Take Ashford in Kent, for example. A typical, medium sized, English market town with a pedestrianised High Street. So no traffic noise to speak over (one rumour dispelled already). A few of us gather at 12noon outside Woolworth's. The team stands around as I paint on the sketchboard. A few passers-by stop. I turn around, put on my best smile (I do have one), greet everyone with a friendly voice and then begin to preach. "What? Preach? You can't preach at people!" Yes you can. Jesus told us to, didn't He? Preaching doesn't mean screaming some dogmatic doctrine like some brainless bigot. Preaching is talking, just loud enough to hear, about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. "Go and tell" the Bible says. People need to know the truth about God, that they're lost, the rescue plan (salvation), Heaven and Hell. Preaching is about proclaiming the Good News, presenting the facts, providing the evidence and professing the testimony of His resurrection in our lives. It's the privilege of preaching the Word and presenting Christ crucified to people in need of the Saviour. A number of people stop and listen to this sort of thing. Sometimes a large crowd, usually several folk and at other times just one or two. They'll normally stop and hear the whole message. Then the team gets to chat with them. They'll be unbelievers or maybe backsliding or troubled Christians. We listen, help and guide as best we can. We give folk New Testaments, biographies of Jesus (Mark, Luke or John) or leaflets. We keep in contact to follow up. We get some going to church and meeting Christians. Others are encouraged to join Christianity Explained groups. Seventy stopped to listen to a fifteen minute talk three weeks ago. They were riveted to the message which was "The life, death and resurrection of Jesus .... Trust Him!" The team gave out loads of leaflets. The previous week an African lady made a commitment to Christ, right there with the team. (And they say, "Oh, you'll never see any fruit in the open air.") April Fool's Day in Canterbury. I'll be a fool for Christ any day! A message for the cleverest fools in history - the atheists ("The fool says in his heart there is no God"). I paint the headline: "SCIENCE DISPROVES EVOLUTION!" Three guys, early twenties, stand there, sometimes chipping in to add to what I preached. They were agreeing with me as I revealed the untenable propositions of the theory of evolution. I thought these young men must be Christians, but no, far from it. We chatted and they confessed, like so many today, to never examining the life and claims of Christ before. They were very interested, took literature and I've met them since. Open air preaching can be tremendously worthwhile, on a number of fronts. Where else such freedom from censorship or editing? Where else such opportunity to contact hundreds of unchurched people, week by week? Open air evangelism comprising of preaching followed by conversation with team members is hard to beat. Rumours are what they are. Just rumours. The difficulty is in the getting going. But when you go, He'll be with you. © 1998 Alan Thorne, an Open Air Campaigners evangelist, based in Faversham, Kent.
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