Going Public With the Gospel

I came across this wonderful book called, Going Public With the Gospel, by Lon Allison and Mark Anderson. It describes the street witnessing ministries I served in for many years. The book, on the other hand, speaks of going public with the gospel, not in just an old school street witnessing fashion, but sharing the good news everywhere and anywhere necessary in your life. This means going public with the gospel at work, in your neighborhood, in your city outreach, recreational activities, going grocery store, etc. The means of the books is to encourage Christians to understand the wonder of public proclamation, the need for biblically-centered evangelistic preaching, and taking the gospel to the streets (i.e. public). Basically, get in your Bible and get off the couch and share the good news with others in the world.

I loved street-witnessing when I was younger in my faith. If there was a student ministry that encouraged and equipped students to share the gospel, it was SWAT at Harvest. The ministry taught me how to preach the gospel at public venues and on school campuses. Doing this enabled me to go all over the world with the Harvest Crusades evangelism outreach teams, and granted me the opportunity to pray with many people to accept Christ. Now I find myself married, ten years in my faith, and not going street witnessing per se. Have I lost my desire to share my faith? No way!

There are several reasons why I have not made it an effort to go street witnessing with the students in SWAT at Harvest, which are not excuses but realities. First, I am married. My wife is my main ministry. Once I got married, my time is focused on her and my family. Second, I bear more responsibility than I did when I was single and served the Lord faithfully in my singleness. Being married full-time, working full-time, and trying to complete school full-time is very difficult and limits availability. Third, I learned it is not just on a street witnessing night the Lord can use you to share the gospel, but you can do street witnessing in many different ways by going public with the gospel everywhere and anywhere in your life. 

Sharing the gospel at my work and at school are perfect examples. Even at a Christian school, there are people who do not know the Lord and are trying to find meaning in their lives. I found myself witnessing to people at my former jobs and got to pray with many people, and teach several devotional Bible studies with fellow Christians who needed encouragement  At school, I was able to counsel and direct several people because they did not know what to do in their lives. Several times I went to Angels baseball games and Disneyland not knowing the Lord was going to use me to bump into someone and share the gospel with them. It is amazing if you think about the gospel wherever you go and you can be use anywhere by Jesus Christ.