A Study On Street Preaching

In today's article we are going to see what the bible says about street preaching. I also want to include a few tips that may prove useful if you are planning on going out to street preach. 

The Bible and Preaching 

First off, we need to find out if street preaching is in fact biblical. Are there any passages from Scripture that support the idea of going out and preaching to the lost? Of course there is. The bible tells us to preach the gospel to every creature (Mar 16:15). We also see in the gospel of Matthew a parable about a king who bid guest to his son's wedding in Mat 22:1-14, and a similar passage about a certain man bidding many to a great supper in Luk 14:16-24. When you go out street preaching you are inviting the lost to the marriage supper of the lamb, which is Jesus (Rev 19:7-9). Salvation is a free gift from God (Rom 5:15), what they choose to do with that gift is completely up to them. 

So what exactly should one preach about? Well, what did Jesus and his disciples preach about? They preached the gospel (Mat 9:35, Luk 9:6). We are instructed to preach repentance and remission of sins in Jesus' name (Luk 24:47, Act 20:21, Act 26:20). That he is the only way to heaven (Joh 14:6, Act 4:12). 

I think that it is also important to incorporate scripture into your preaching (Act 8:4, Act 15:35, Tit 1:3), because it is his word that will not come back to him void (Isa 55:11). One must be born again to enter the kingdom of  God (Joh 3:3-5), we are born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God (1Pet 1:23, Eph 5:26-27). Again, I cannot overstate the importance of  keeping the Lord Jesus the main subject of your endeavor (Act 11:20, Rom 16:25), especially his death, burial, and resurrection as well as his payment for our sins on the cross (1Cor 15:1-8, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20). 

Street preaching is one of, if not the most important things that we could invest our time in. This is because the bible is clear that we are saved by grace through faith, that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and that we are sealed by the holy spirit of promise after we have believed (Rom 10:13-17, Eph 1:13, Eph 2:8-10). 

Don't get discouraged if the world doesn't appear to be very receptive to your efforts, the bible tells us that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness and that God uses the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (1Cor 1:18-21). What we do by preaching is sow the seed, how people respond to the word determines what type of ground they are, God is the one that gives the increase. (Matt 13, Luk 8, 1Cor 3:6). 

Some Tips On Preaching

1. The first tip for street preaching is find somewhere that has alot of  traffic flow of people. This one is kinda obvious, you want to make the most of your time (Eph 5:16, Col 4:5), so going to a place with a heavy concentration is the most logical.

2. The next tip is do your research concerning the local laws of where you will be preaching at as christians we must obey the laws of the land (Rom 13:1-5, 1Pet 2:13, Tit 3:1), we don't want to land any unnecessary jail time. This though will always be a possibility even if we don't do anything wrong because the bible tells us the godly will face persecution (2Tim 3:12). The ungodly may say we are practicing hate speech, even though the bible is clear that rebuke is love (Lev 19:17) and that lying to someone is hating them (Pro 26:28), e.g. telling them that they are alright with God when they are living in sin. 

3. Be Creative- The primary goal of street preaching is to get people to listen to your message aka the gospel. One way to do this is to get people's attention. Some preachers use speakers or soap boxes. Other's use canvases with pictures in order to draw up a conversation. Some preachers carry signs about repentance, and some hand out gospel tracts, can you think of some unique ways to draw a crowd?

4. Pray for a heckler- now you would think that you wouldn't want to have someone there to scoff or make fun of you etc. However hecklers can and do actually help your cause (Rom 8:28). They can help draw the attention of a crowd which you can then use to preach the gospel to even more people. They can also give you the opportunity to give a reason of the hope that is in you (1Pet 3:15). This also gives us an opportunity to obey Jesus' command to rejoice and be exceedingly glad when we are persecuted for righteousness sake (Mat 5:10-12). 

5. Speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), with sound speech that cannot be condemned (Tit 2:8), don't use corrupt communication (Eph 4:29), let thy speech be seasoned with grace (Col 4:6), don't rail (1Cor 5:11), or revile (1Cor 6:10), etc, etc, you get the point. 

Thus concludes this article on street preaching. I hope that you liked it and found this information useful.