Home Pastors Articles for Pastors Megaphones and Soap Boxes: Is Street Preaching Worth It?

Megaphones and Soap Boxes: Is Street Preaching Worth It?

Relational and Relentless

About the time I started Dare 2 Share Ministries, I also married a special girl. Debbie was everything I was not. She was sweet, quiet, intuitive and ultra-relational. She loved to ask questions and listen. I, on the other hand, was confrontational, loud and ultra-clueless. I loved to give answers and talk. When we went to the mall together I would say, “Let’s witness!” and she would say, “Let’s shop!” I loved her deeply, but secretly thought she was wimpy when it came to evangelism. She loved me deeply, but secretly thought I was obnoxious in my approach.

Then something strange began to happen. Over the years, we began to rub off on each other. She became more relentless in sharing her faith and I, ever so slowly, became more relational. Debbie is a fifth grade public school teacher and in one school year, she led 21 kids to Christ, brought five families out to our church and never got one complaint. Why? Because the conversations she had were student-initiated (they saw the light of Christ in her) and all the parents, teachers and administrators loved her.

She’s the reason I first began to consider the power of relationships when it came to evangelism. She had done more in one school year on a discipleship level (plugging five families into our church) than I had done in a lifetime of street evangelism.

Another milestone along my journey toward relational and relentless evangelism was the filming of GOSPEL Journey Maui. Dare 2 Share gathered seven complete strangers (a Mormon, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Seventh Day Adventist, New Ager, and evangelical Christian), most of whom we found through a Craig’s List ad, for eight days of spiritual conversations on Maui.

The Maui cast became my friends and they remain so to this day. Yes, one of them trusted Christ and is on the pathway of discipleship, but I remain committed to keeping in contact with each of them. We are still having spiritual conversations more than 12 months later.

During the filming, I tried hard to listen as much as I talked. This was especially hard for a rapid fire evangelist like me. I kept reminding myself of my wife. I imagined her by my side whispering,

“Don’t talk yet, honey. Listen to them. Don’t just pretend to listen, really listen. And love them no matter what. And when it’s your time to talk, you can be your relentless self. They’re more apt to listen to you because you’ve done such a good job listening to them.”

The results were amazing. The more I listened, the more they listened. Pretty soon we were in genuine conversations, not just the typical “my facts are better than yours” apologetic showdowns.

At one point, Emma, our yoga-instructing Buddhist from Boulder, said something like,

“One of the reasons that I am considering Christ is because of the love I feel emanating from you and Zane and the camera crew and production team. I sense there is something to this whole Jesus thing.”

Wow. Who would have ever thought of love being the ultimate apologetic? Oh yeah. I guess Jesus would have.

Not either/or

We live in an either/or world. But Jesus’ approach is both/and. He was both relational and relentless. Read the Gospels and see how Jesus was relational at times (washing mud-encrusted feet) and relentless at others (like when he told Peter, “Get behind me Satan…”)

Did Jesus do cold-turkey evangelism? Yes! But in a relational and relentless way. Consider how He approached a total stranger in Samaria, the woman at the well. He was relational when He broke the huge cultural taboo of a Jewish man talking to a woman. By asking her for a drink of water, He was treating her as a person, with respect, and she wanted to know why.

But soon Jesus shows His relentless side,

“Go and call your husband.” She responds, “I have no husband.” >”You are right in saying you have no husband,” Jesus replies,“you have had five husbands and the man you are with now is not your husband.”

After valuing her as a person, He pressed in. He added relentless to His relational. Like nitrogen and glycerin, the mixture was explosive. She ended up not only becoming a convert, but becoming an evangelist herself. John 4:39 tells us that,

“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony…”

In less than a few minutes, Jesus made not just a convert, but a disciple. That’s effective street evangelism.

I challenge you to read the Gospels and the book of Acts with these two seemingly opposite words, relational and relentless, in mind. You will see passage after passage drenched with both. Jesus, the disciples, and the early church were a strange, Spirit-filled mixture of both.

People tend to think of the apostle Paul as more relentless than relational. After all, he was running around Jerusalem, Judea and the uttermost wreaking holy havoc evangelizing. But look deeper and you’ll see a very relational guy who loved those he was reaching out to. Check out 1 Thessalonians 2:6-8, 11-12:

“As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us…For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”

What’s amazing is that this was after a mere 21 days of intense evangelism and discipleship. In 21 days, a church was born and deep relationships were established, deeper ones than most church members have after 21 years of ministry together.

So I don’t think the question is whether street evangelism is valid or not. The real question is whether the kind of evangelism we employ, wherever it happens, is relational AND relentless.

Too often Christians wave their get-out-of-jail free cards by claiming that they are earning the right to be heard. This often leads to never-ending relational bridge building. And once the bridge is built, it sometimes seems too awkward to cross with the precious cargo of Christ’s gospel, for fear we will be accused of bait-and-switch trickery. The relational/relentless knife cuts both ways. And, if we are honest, relational evangelism that sneaks in the back door can be just as damaging as relentless evangelism that kicks in the front door.

The great evangelist George Whitefield used to pray, “Lord give me the mixture of the lion and the lamb.” And that’s what we need, the relentless lion and the relational lamb battling it out for a holy balance in our souls as we seek to reach those around us.

4 Reflections…