A few weeks ago I had the privilege of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ on the street in San Francisco, near Ghiradelli Square by Fisherman’s Wharf, where one of the cable car lines ends.  (Perhaps by the time this post goes live I will have done it again.)  I had wanted to start engaging in open-air preaching for a while.  We had prayed for wisdom about where to go, and this spot by Ghiradelli Square seemed like a good one.  I had a significant audience of people who could not really go away because they were waiting for the cable car, as well as a goodly amount of foot traffic.  Also, there are fewer crazies by Ghiradelli Square then there are on the other side of the cable car line on Market Street, so people might not instinctively assume that someone who was speaking loudly was nuts or high on drugs.  My wife was distributing gospel tracts and testimony tracts while I was preaching, and we got to have a good conversation with a man and his family afterwards.  Many people got to hear the glorious truth about God’s Son and the salvation that is in Him.

I have wanted to start preaching on the street (again) for a number of reasons.  First, we now live in a city where there are good locations to do it.  It does not make sense to preach on the street if one is in a rural or suburban area where there is no foot traffic.  In a large city there are good places where open air gospel proclamation can take place.  Second, street preaching is extremely Biblical.  The Lord Jesus Christ preached in the open air, as did His Apostles, John the Baptist, and many first-century Christians.  The Old Testament is also full of open air preaching.  Third, street preaching shows love for the lost.  People who will not take a gospel tract are confronted with orally proclaimed truth.  Fourth, street preaching is good for the Christian who does it.  It helps him to trust in the Lord and do something that the world is going to strongly dislike.  It helps him to grow in humble trust in Christ and holy boldness in His cause.  It is unpleasant to the flesh but a great blessing to the spirit.  I think it is good for “preacher boys” to preach on the street.  It is good practice.  If someone is afraid to tell the truth to total strangers who 99.9% of the time are going to have no impact on one’s life other than, perhaps, some insults or disrespect, how will he have the boldness to tell unpopular truth to a congregation of people who have the ability to remove him from his spiritual office?  Has the Lord given you a strong desire (1 Timothy 3:1) to preach His gospel?  Don’t think that you can’t preach unless you have an invitation from a pulpit.  Go out into the highways and hedges and preach to the sinners there.

I recorded the message both so that I could post it online afterwards, so more people could hear the gospel, because it could encourage God’s people, and because I think that having a recording is a wise safety precaution.  You can watch how things went here:

I also have the video on Rumble and on YouTube.

Nobody bothered us except for a street musician who did not like that I was there and wanted me to stop preaching. I gave him a soft answer (Proverbs 15:1) and that was the end of that.  There were numbers of people who were paying attention to the preaching, including some who were paying attention but were trying to pretend that they were not paying attention.  Sometimes I have seen people preach on the street and just ramble on.  Some others do not actually preach the gospel but just repeat a few bullet points over and over again.  Other people seem to just want to make people angry and show no compassion, while others can sound like wimps (although usually true wimps don’t preach the gospel on the street).  While someone who is not preaching anything to anyone should be careful before finding fault with ramblers, bullet-point people, crowd-whipper-uppers, and wimpy-sounders, it looks clear to me from the examples of Christ and the apostles and prophets that it is most Biblical to actually preach a coherent message, namely, the gospel.  I addressed the listeners as “friends” because we see the repeated “men and brethren” in Acts–a respectful address to those listening.  If someone is going to be offended by the gospel I am preaching, that is fine–if the Spirit pricks their hearts or cuts them to the heart, that is something good that we want.  I want to be bold and unashamed as I proclaim my King and Father’s message as His servant and son.  However, if people are offended because I am just being rude and nasty, that does not help anything.  So that is why I sought to preach the gospel in the way that I did it.

Lord willing, we will make this a regular event. I want to preach the gospel on the street at least once a month in addition to our weekly house-to-house evangelism.  Writing it like this on the blog will help me to be encouraged to keep it up.  I would like you to also to be encouraged to start following the example of Christ and His Apostles by preaching on the street, or if you are already doing it, to keep it up!

If you are an experienced street preacher and you have any thoughts on it, feel free to share them.  I have done some street preaching in the past–it was a blast to go to large conventions of the Watchtower Society in our area which that cult holds around the country and offer Christ to thousands of members of that false religion–but it has been a while (if they have conventions in your area, and you can find a “free speech zone” or other place near where they are meeting where you can preach without getting kicked out, I would encourage you to do that).  I am much more interested in hearing comments from people who are members of Biblical Baptist churches than I am in hearing from people who are part of strange false religions that go street preaching.  One thing I already know I want to to do is get a sign with church information and a website.  There were people who were listening to the preaching but did not come by and take a tract, and I want them to know how to find out more when they are not in a situation where, because of peer pressure or for other reasons, they are not willing to come up and take gospel literature with contact information from one of the Lord’s churches.  I am thankful for those who pray for us and pray for the gospel to get out in the very needy San Francisco Bay Area.  Thank you!

–TDR