Takin’ It to the Streets
Global Prayer Room.
I apologize for not posting an entry last night; I was out with the Forerunner Street Evangelism team in the Plaza section of Kansas City. This was the first time I’d done anything like this. It was pretty audacious, even for me. :) There were about ten of us who went out to simply bring the good news to folks that might never darken the door of a church. We split into teams of two, and I was paired with a young man named Nathan. He had done a lot more of this than I had (which was none), so I told him that I was just going to follow his lead.
The Plaza is a shopping disctrict of about six or so square blocks of upscale shops (Brooks Brothers, Anthropologie, etc.) and restaurants. Being Friday night, lots of people were out on the town, dressed up pretty fancy, and no one in a big hurry. Nathan and I had some tracts and some flyers for an upcoming presentation here at IHOP by a man named Bob Weis, who actually had an experience of being in Hell for 23 minutes. (I’ve heard the recording; it’s quite compelling.) We had a couple of brush-offs, but nothing like you’d experience in NYC. One woman was kind of hostile and had made up her mind that she “did not want to hear anything about Jesus.” (Ask my mom; she said the same thing to me once, only not that civilly.)
Maybe two months ago now, I had been listening to a teaching on prophetic evangelism by Hal Lindhart, who is the head of the evangelism department here. He said something that stuck with me: that we must not despise a particular method of evangelism just because we think, or have heard, that it doesn’t “work” or that it’s distasteful or cheesy. That hit me so hard and really humbled me. I think we can have a really superior attitude toward certain forms of evangelism. Come on, haven’t YOU made fun of Chick Tracts? I have. But last night I was givin’ ‘em out–and you know what, people asked us for them.
Here’s a little synopsis of some of the folks we spoke to:
- James and his wife at a bus stop. We asked if we could pray for him, and he shared that his son had just gotten jumped and was in the hospital. I had a prophetic word for him, that God knew his fatherly heart and had the same heart for his son, and was going to show it to both of them. I also felt God was wanting to pour out encouragement to James, and I told him that, and for the first time, he looked up and looked me in the eyes.
- Because all four of the folks at the bus stop were very receptive (Nathan and I became really fond of “bus stop ministry”), we actually went back and spoke to Milton, who was the toughest looking one there, but who was obviously pretty shy and insecure, and seemed to want to know more but didn’t know what questions to ask. He asked for a tract. We looked him in the eyes and told him how much Jesus loved him and was pursuing him and really wanted him. I think if we really understood how God burns with desire for us and for all people, we would really go for it. God, give us a revelation of your burning heart!
- Ben and Peter were two young guys who God pointed out really clearly to me. It became apparent that they were believers but pretty skeptical of what we were doing, but pretty quickly saw that we were not threatening and we got into maybe the best conversation of the evening. I saw that Ben had a real heart for truth and discernment, which had maybe crossed a line into cynicism or a critical spirit, but that in its good state, it was the heat God gave him. We had a lot in common musically (he was really excited about the new mewithoutyou album for which my brother-in-law Josh did the string arrangements and our producer Dan Smith produced, and I told him about Ben + Vesper). Nathan spoke to him about King David and his restoration–that even though he was a really fallen leader, he was still one “after God’s own heart” and that God used him mightily. We saw that Ben actually had a good knowledge of Scripture and the Heart behind it. Nathan asked him if he had ever received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and he said he didn’t really know what that was. So Nathan explained, and Ben said he could pray for that. Well, while Nathan prayed for that, I had a very clear vision of a white dove with its wings straight up, coming and landing on Ben. And there were bright white flames licking the dove’s wings–just going like a whirlwind around the wings. Well, as soon as Nathan stopped praying, Ben very surprisingly grabbed all four of us in a huddle and with a very new authority, prayed for us! And he told the Lord that He was his King and that he was glad that we had stopped them. It was really powerful.
- Jamie of the Green Shirt. Before we got off the shuttle, we asked God to show us if we should look for anyone, and I saw a girl in a green shirt and jeans. I passed several that fit that description, but I stopped a very fancy lady named Jamie and told her that God had told me to look for someone of that description. I asked i f I could pray for anything for her, and she asked me to pray for her 4 year old daughter, Alyssa. She seemed a little surprised but let me pray for her.
- Angela and Matt. A super artsy couple. She is the person from last night that I feel most compassion for, and I can’t shake her from my mind. I told her I was from a school of ministry and that we were asking people to tell us what the first thing was that came to mind when we said the name “Jesus”. Well, Matt refused to answer, and Angela said “the man you learn about in Sunday School”. I asked if either of them thought of Jesus much, and they said no. I asked if they ever thought about God much, and they said no. So I asked Angela what made her tick, what her greatest inspiration was, and she replied “the Arts and humanity; the was humanity is all connected.” (Later on, as I thought about this, I thought, a) Why didn’t I tell her I was an artist and ask her more about her art? and b) Why didn’t I tell her how much Jesus care about that, too?!) I asked if I could tell them about Jesus, and they said no, so I blessed them and told them to enjoy the beautiful night. I’m gonna pray for that girl. She really touched my heart.
- Rashad and Cory. Two young men that looked a bit intimidating at first, but Nathan got to talking to them while I was with Angela and Matt. When I rejoined them, I saw God’s burning love for Cory and told him so. He replied, “What do you think when you see me?” And I told him I saw that God loved him. He asked again, and Nathan said, “I see that there’s a calling on your life for music and worship.” Cory interjected, and said to me, “I know what I see when I see you.” “What’s that?” “You’re a very helpful person. You’re very nice.” So Cory and I sat down and talked for a while. He was trying to be a bit manipulative, but he could see I wasn’t having it, and decided to be a little more truthful with me. He was the kind of person you could be very forward with. All of a sudden I saw a rope connected to his heart, and God was on the other end of it reeling it in. I told Rashad that it didn’t matter if he was half a mile away; God was still reeling in that rope. I spoke to him a lot about repentance (see yesterday’s post) and a new way to look at our sins. He was receptive, thoughtful, but “not ready”–so I asked him one last question: “Do you know that you’ll wake up tomorrow?” and asked him to remember the rope.
That was the last conversation of the night. There is no high in the world like seeing Jesus reach out his rescuing hand deep into the pit. I can’t get His smile out of my mind. And those burning eyes of flame! His burning desire for us! His commitment to fallen humanity! His white-hot desire and pursuit of each one of us!
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:39 am
It makes me think of that infamous saying (which I will paraphrase): “I don’t want to live within a sound of the chapel bell – I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” I think it was C.T. Studd that said that.
Once our professor at Valley Forge, literally made us stand on top of crates (our soap boxes) in public places in Philly (parks, street corners, etc.) and preach the gospel. I was really turned off and actually weaseled my way out of the assignment. But you know what? Regardless of my opinions on the method – People got saved! Seriously! They got saved and they got plugged into churches. Sometimes we can get caught up in “methods” of evangelism. The truth is that THE MESSAGE IS SACRED and not the method. God will and does use many methods of evangelism – whether it is our choice of preference or not. His word does not return void…
I am thrilled to hear that all those people were told about Jesus. I will be praying for each one.
Noelle