A
HANDBOOK
for
STREET PREACHING
and
PUBLIC MINISTRY
By Perry Demopoulos Th.M
(Missionary to Ukraine and Former Soviet Russia since 1992)
CONTENTS
Preface, Introduction……………………………………………………………p. 3
Chapter One
WHY PREACH PUBLICLY?……….………………………………………….p. 4
Chapter Two
OVERCOMING FEAR IN PUBLIC WITNESSING……………………….....p. 12
Chapter Three
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF STEET PREACHING……………………………..p. 16
Chapter Four
THE DANGERS AND THE PUBLIC MINISTRY…………………………….p.23
Chapter Five
PLACES TO PREACH…………………………………………………………..p.35
Chapter Six
SERMON OUTLINES and STREET PREACHING…………………………..p. 39
Chapter Seven
THE INVITATION……………………………………………………………….p. 43
Chapter Eight
SOUL WINNING AND THE PUBLIC MINISTRY……………………………p. 47
Chapter Nine
ANYBODY CAN TESTIFY……………………………………………………….p. 50
Chapter Ten
OTHER PUBLIC MINSTRIES……………………………………………………p. 56
Chapter Eleven
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLIC MINISTRY………………………………p. 62
Chapter Twelve
THE BENEFITS OF PUBLIC MINISTRY……………………………………….p. 65
Chapter Thirteen
SOME LAST DETAILS…………………………………………………………….p. 69
Chapter Fourteen
THE FRUIT OF PUBLIC MINISTRY…………………………………………….p. 70
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….p. 72
Additional Material by Perry Demopoulos ………………………………………p. 74
Note: All scripture is taken from the Authorized Version of the King James Bible (1611).
Preface
The public ministry may not necessarily mean preaching on the street. Of course, there are a great many ways to publicly witness for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ other that preaching. Any kind of a witness is “preaching” per say. That is why no one in the body of Christ is excluded from the responsibility, honor and privilege of witnessing. We will discuss these matters in this handbook along with the emphasis of street preaching.
The purpose of this book is three-fold;
First,that any and all preachers that are truly called of God to preach would fulfill the ministry of the word of God by preaching, that is heralding the word of God and proclaiming the good news PUBLICLY to a lost and dying world.
Secondly,that some preacher in your church, (maybe even you) would strongly consider starting a street preaching ministry.
Thirdlythat any and all members of the local church would get involved in supporting the street-preaching ministry.
There are a great many church members who wish to work for the Lord but do not know how. This book is intended to help you understand and practice ministering publicly.
The main reason why this guide has been written is with these intentions that 2 Timothy 2:2 might be fulfilled “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
May this book be used of God that thousands may be converted to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Street preaching and the public ministry is nothing new Biblically and historically. It is as old as preaching itself. It is simply another aspect of ministering the word of God. As a matter of fact it is one of the oldest ministries in the Bible, for it was the Lord seeking out Adam and calling sinners to Himself in the garden, “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” (Gen. 3:9).His text consisted of three words. Enoch was preaching before Noah’s flood (Jd. 14) prophesying of things to come, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.”That was his text.
That is one of the main reasons why street preaching should be practiced as a part and ministry of any and every local church. As a matter of fact, the public ministry will continue throughout the Tribulation after the rapture of the Church (1 Thess. 4:16-18) and will continue into the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s take a look at the various reasons why you should be active in a public ministry.
Chapter One
WHY PREACH PUBLICLY?
There are a great many reasons why God-called preachers should support and practice a public ministry and preach on the street.
1. Old Testament Saints Were Street Preachers.
It was Charles Hadden Spurgeon that wrote the following, “Certainly, Moses and Joshua found their most convenient place for addressing vast assemblies beneath the unpillared arch of heaven. Samuel closed a sermon in the field of Gilgal amid thunder and rain, by which the Lord rebuked the people and drove them to their knees. Elijah stood on Carmel, and challenged the vacillating nation with “How long halt ye between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21).
Jonah, whose spirit was somewhat similar, lifted up his cry of warning in the streets of Nineveh, and in all her places of concourse gave forth the warning utterance, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4). To hear Ezra and Nehemiah "all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate” (Neh.8:1). Indeed, we find examples of open-air preaching everywhere around us in the records of the Old Testament.”
2. Jesus Christ was a Street Preacher.
It may suffice us, however, to go back as far as the origin of our own holy faith, and there we hear the forerunner of the Saviour crying in the wilderness and lifting up his voice from the river's bank. Our Lord Himself, who is yet more our pattern, delivered the larger portion of His sermons on the mountain's side, or by the seashore, or in the streets. Our Lord was to all intents and purposes an open-air preacher. He did not remain silent in the synagogue, but He was equally at home in the field. We have no discourse of His on record delivered in the chapel royal, but we have the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon in the Plain; so that the very earliest and most divine kind of preaching was practiced out-of-doors by Him who spake as never man spake.
Many people have the strange idea that Jesus Christ was some kind of a smooth, slick, speaker that never raised His voice, never was angered, and never rebuked anybody, and spoke only of love and is represented as some liberal communist. People have forgotten that Jesus Christ was a bold, fearless Street Preacher. He had to raise His voice for the multitudes to hear Him, without any usage of any kind of an amplifying system.
“And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him” (Luke 8:1).
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38).
3. All the Disciples and Apostles were Street Preachers.
There were gatherings of His disciples after His decease, within walls, especially that in the upper room; but the preaching was even then most frequently in the court of the Temple, or in such other open spaces as were available. The notion of holy places and consecrated meetinghouses had not occurred to them as Christians; they preached in the Temple, or in such other open spaces as were available. But with equal earnestness “in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”
If there was a verse to sum up the ministry of the apostle Paul, Acts 20:20 would be the verse, “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house.” Along with his ministry of planting churches, and dealing with people individually, the apostle Paul was a street preacher. People don’t realize that. There are thousands of books written concerning the life of the apostle Paul especially about his theology. Paul’s epistles have been hashed over and over since the first century. Books that are written about his doctrine by other authors have overlooked his practice of street preaching. Unfortunately there is a terrible problem with the “eyes” of the Laodicean period of the Church Age (Rev. 3:18). Legislation and the spirit of this age (2006) is for Christians to keep their ‘religion’ within the walls of a building. That was not the ‘theology’ or practice of the disciples or the apostles.
4. The Public Witness was the Practice of the FirstCenturyChurch.
Look at Acts 8:1-4.
“And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
¶ Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
The “they” of verse 4 includes WOMEN (see preceding verse). Although no woman is ordained to any office in the ministry (Philippians 1:1 and Acts 6:1-6), all women are called to “preach” in the sense that every Christian is a witness (see Acts 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 3:13). The redeemed of the Lord are to “say so” (Psa. 107:2) AND WOMEN like Mary Slessor and Francis Havergal are just as important in the propagation of the gospel as the apostle Paul or any other missionary such as William Carey, Adoriam Judson, Hudson Taylor, etc. However, there are no women apostles, no women bishops, no women elders, and no women deacons.
5. Street preaching is Second to no Other Ministry of the LocalChurch.
Since the public ministry was a major part of the preachers of Bible times then the public ministry should be second to no other ministry of the local church, for Christianity started outside and continued throughout the first century with the apostles.
“And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him” (Acts 21:8).
“But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5).
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:11).
6. We are to Follow the Practice of Others.
If street-preaching was the practice of the prophets of old; Enoch, Noah, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Jonah, Micah, etc., and all the apostles, Matthew, Mark, Paul, then is not that an example to follow? The greatest street preacher that ever lived was Jesus Christ. In light of the many times that the Lord dealt with people individually people overlook the fact that He also preached to the multitudes in the open air.
If we were to honestly compare the practice of the first century church and preachers with the practice of the local churches today we would have to confess that we are most certainly in the Laodicean period of the Church Age. Laodicea means “rights of the people.” In other words, the Church for the most part is more interested in what it says rather than what God says.
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
“Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me”(1Cor. 4:16).
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Co 11:1).
7. Cities and Even Countries Have Experienced Awakenings Because of Street Preaching.
Again, listen to what Spurgeon says, “What the world would have been if there had not been preaching outside of walls, and beneath a more glorious roof than these rafters of fir, I am sure I cannot guess. It was a brave day for England when Whitefield began field-preaching. When Wesley stood and preached a sermon on his father's grave, at Epworth, because the parish priest would not allow him admission within the (so-called) sacred edifice, Mr. Wesley writes: "I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father's tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit.”
“Wesley writes in his journal, "Saturday, 31 March, 1731. In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church." Such were the feelings of a man who in after life became one of the greatest open-air preachers that ever lived!”
“And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
¶ So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands
Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jonah 3:4-10).
“And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
So mighty grew the word of God and prevailed” (Acts 19:17-20).
8. Many More People Will Have a Chance to Hear the Word of God and PossiblyBe Saved.
“I can tell of instance after instance where men who have not been at church or a mission hall for years have been reached by open-air meetings. The persons I have known to be reached and converted through open- air meetings have included thieves, drunkards, gamblers, saloon-keepers, abandoned women, murderers, lawyers, doctors, theatrical people, society people, in fact pretty much every class.” (R.A Torrey, the assistant to D.L.Moody, founder of Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, ILL.)
9. God Has Committed to Us a Tremendous Responsibility.
A public witness of going into all the world and preaching the gospel is a God given method.
A. People need to be warned of their pending judgment. God has committed unto us the responsibility of witnessing to others.
Note the commission that was given to Ezekiel in chapter three to be a watchman.
“And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezek. 3:16-21).
Any person that is saved is saved not simply to just exist. He is given a tremendous responsibility to speak for the Lord. Of course Ezekiel was a prophet for a special job from the Lord concerning Israel in its backslidden condition, but that does not negate the Great Commission given to every true believer. The principle of holding Ezekiel responsible for warning the wicked during his day is also the responsibility of each and every New Testament Church Age believer.