Biblical Evangelism

Open-air preaching is the most used method for Biblical Evangelism.  Jesus was an open-air preacher (Sermon on the Mount), John the Baptist was an open-air preacher (he preached in the wilderness), Paul was an open-air preacher (Mars Hill), Stephen (Acts 7), and many more such as Peter, Jeremiah, Amos, Jotham, Jonah, Isaiah, etc. 

We believe that the Gospel is a call to forsake all known sin, and a committing of the soul and the whole being to Jesus Christ. The message that one can continue in sin while in a relationship with God pervades our culture, specially in the Bible Belt. However, this belief will send many to an eternity in Hell.

Usually beginning at around noon, with no amplification, Ellen and I approach the free speech area in the secular universities and lift up our voices as the Bible says to do in Isaiah (Is 58:1). We do not engage in inflammatory speech (for example, randomly singling out individuals and calling them names) and the content of our open-air sermons is mostly quoting from the Bible with personal applications. We do not claim to be the best at what we do, but we are willing to go and there is always room for improvement.  We also give students an opportunity to receive prayer for salvation or physical healing as we have seen many instantaneous miracles happening in the streets (See article on the "Show and Tell Evangelism").

Many of our modern methods only reach those that want to hear it, read it or tune in. Open-air preaching reaches those who would not come to a traditional evangelistic meeting otherwise.

I have tried and still practice other outreach methods. Pizza suppers, musical outreaches, door-to-door witnessing, literature distribution, book tables, one-on-one witnessing... All these have been effective in reaching different segments of the unsaved population, but open-air preaching is by far the most effective (as well as the most controversial) in reaching the casual passer-byer who just has not thought about God in a long time. This individual can be called the "careless sinner." He will shake his head at your book table, roll his eyes at Christian TV, slam the door on your face, and throw away your tract in the next trash can.  BUT he will stop and listen to the open-air preacher sometimes for 4 to 5 hours a day.

Because of the controversial nature of open-air preaching, we have posted a defense of this method to show that it's not only found in both the Old Testament and New Testament, but has been proven an effective method to bring revival throughout church history.

Next=> Open-Air Preaching: Is It Biblical?