Witnessing at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market
17/July/2008 06:00 PM Filed in: Faith and God
Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
Bob & Jane face their fear and grow their faith. Would you like to join us?
It all started about 6 months ago when we were in Alberta and rented a car that had Sirius Satellite Radio. We heard a Christian talk show program called Way of the Master Radio. We thought it was so good I looked it up on the internet when I got home. I knew that they would likely have a pod cast and sure enough they did. You can listen live at www.wayofthemasterradio.com or just use itunes to download the free programs every day.
The Way of the Master radio turned out to be part of a larger ministry, Way of the Master and Living Waters and Living Waters Canada. I had vaguely heard of these ministries before from hearing that Kirk Cameron was a Christian ("Mike Seaver" from the old hit sitcom "Growing Pains").
In the radio Show, Todd Friel and Ray Comfort witness to people on the air at least once a day. They have a few people out on the street who approach people and ask them about their beliefs and if they would be willing to talk to the hosts live on air. One of the "Street Fishers" is a pastor's wife in Texas named Trish (see www.fishwithtrish.com for a great site about how things go after the witness encounters).
They use the Law (the Ten Commandments) to show people their utter sinfulness and hence their need for a saviour. Everyone has lied, stolen, coveted, etc, and people's own conscience convicts them. They use the Law as a schoolmaster to lead people to Christ. (Galatians 3:24 (KJV) "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.")
Many times that Jane and I have been afraid to witness, it has because we don't know what to say. We think we have to know every answer to all possible questions, and that is just not the case. But by making your final witnessing destination the heart and not the head, you will always have an ally in their conscience. You can witness the same way to an atheist, a muslim, a catholic or a homosexual, without having to know by heart the Qu’ran, the 800 page catechism of the Catholic Church, Philosophy, or what “Rosie’s Family Cruise” is.
As we listened to witness encounters again and again we were challenged by our own apathy to the spiritual state of non-believers, and our own pride and apathy towards witnessing. Our research into the ministry revealed two sermons that would change our life. These two sermons, "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion" are mind blowers if you have been a Christian for any length of time. I suspect that if you are a believer you also will be changed by what you hear. These can both be listened to for free, or downloaded and burned to CD for free here: http://www.wayofthemaster.com/audiolessons.shtml
If you do only one thing after reading this, please listen to these sermons.
So, summoning the courage, Jane and I decided to "hit the streets" with our soap box (juggling box), tracts, and faith. The most logical place we thought was St. Jacob's Farmers market because there are always lots of people on Thursdays and Saturdays. Thursdays fit our schedule best and so starting in late May we went there in faith looking to witness. As I have lots of experience in busking from my earlier days I signed in as a busker. The evangelistic “methods” we take are three-fold:
1) one on one witnessing with people we approach or strike up conversations with, usually right near where we are set up
2). Handing out tracts, which includes the unique "million dollar bill" gospel tract which totally opens the door to talk to people about faith
Ray Comfort said that a good open air preacher can reach more lost people in one day that an average church does in a year! I didn't believe this at first, it is such a radical a statement. However, I do now! This afternoon, I open air preached to about 50 people, and we witnessed one on one to another several people. And that was in just one hour! I believe a good open air preacher could therefore expose the Gospel to over 1000 people in a day. Does your church present the full and clear gospel message to that many run of the mill non-believers in a year?
I start by getting a small crowd with juggling and comedy, and the goal is to build it to about 15-40 people, although some times more or less are in the audience. I try not to spend more than 10 minutes on the show, although it sometimes goes longer. Then I say after the finale, "If I were busking today I would now put out my hat and ask for money. But today I'm reverse busking - I'm going to give out money! I then bring out the million dollar bill (tract) and say I'm going to give everyone one of these million dollar bills after I share a short message. (today I actually gave out the bills and said I was going to explain the gospel message that is on the back, after everyone had received one. Surprisingly, about three quarters of the crowd stayed to hear the message. I'll experiment with this).
Often we go to the market dragging our feet and leave skipping. It is a thrill share the gospel - to know that you can't rely on your own skills, but only the Holy Spirit to open someone's heart. It is a joy to share the gospel, without watering it down. And to realize that all we can do is plant seeds: we can't convert anyone!
We have discovered that sometimes it can be discouraging to see just how lost some people are. And to meet so many false converts. For example today Jane and I talked to this dear old white haired grandmother named Maria who, in the past, I would have probably thought to be saved without giving it a second thought. She said that she grew up in the church and knew the gospel and "all that." She said she went to the presbyterian church every now and then in Port Rowan to “make the pastor feel better," because they only have 12 people in the congregation. So after wading through a lot of self righteousness the scary truth came out. (Jane's gentle questioning revealed that the only one of the 10 commandments she thought that she had ever broken - in her WHOLE life - was lying... ) apparently in her 70 years she had never dishonoured her parents, stole anything, used the Lord's name in vain, lusted, coveted, etc). But she said that she was "ready to go" and started to tell us about her sickness recently which saw her go to the hospital. So I asked her if she died, and stood before God, why should He let her in. She replied with the heartbreaking old standard, "because I've been a good person." You will not believe how often you hear this. Pray for Maria from Port Rowan (and her husband John) if you think of it.
So since some people have expressed interest in coming out to show moral support, hand out tracks, or learn how / practice witnessing, we decided we'd better put a date and time on the next outings planned.
We work near the south entrance. Here is a map with the location marked with a pin. Click Here
Set aside some time to follow some of the above links, and download or listen to those two sermons over the next week if you can. If you are planning to join us please phone or email us - it would be great. And don’t worry, you never stop trembling!
Bob Cates
See Video Clip:
Bob & Jane face their fear and grow their faith. Would you like to join us?
It all started about 6 months ago when we were in Alberta and rented a car that had Sirius Satellite Radio. We heard a Christian talk show program called Way of the Master Radio. We thought it was so good I looked it up on the internet when I got home. I knew that they would likely have a pod cast and sure enough they did. You can listen live at www.wayofthemasterradio.com or just use itunes to download the free programs every day.
The Way of the Master radio turned out to be part of a larger ministry, Way of the Master and Living Waters and Living Waters Canada. I had vaguely heard of these ministries before from hearing that Kirk Cameron was a Christian ("Mike Seaver" from the old hit sitcom "Growing Pains").
In the radio Show, Todd Friel and Ray Comfort witness to people on the air at least once a day. They have a few people out on the street who approach people and ask them about their beliefs and if they would be willing to talk to the hosts live on air. One of the "Street Fishers" is a pastor's wife in Texas named Trish (see www.fishwithtrish.com for a great site about how things go after the witness encounters).
They use the Law (the Ten Commandments) to show people their utter sinfulness and hence their need for a saviour. Everyone has lied, stolen, coveted, etc, and people's own conscience convicts them. They use the Law as a schoolmaster to lead people to Christ. (Galatians 3:24 (KJV) "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.")
Many times that Jane and I have been afraid to witness, it has because we don't know what to say. We think we have to know every answer to all possible questions, and that is just not the case. But by making your final witnessing destination the heart and not the head, you will always have an ally in their conscience. You can witness the same way to an atheist, a muslim, a catholic or a homosexual, without having to know by heart the Qu’ran, the 800 page catechism of the Catholic Church, Philosophy, or what “Rosie’s Family Cruise” is.
As we listened to witness encounters again and again we were challenged by our own apathy to the spiritual state of non-believers, and our own pride and apathy towards witnessing. Our research into the ministry revealed two sermons that would change our life. These two sermons, "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion" are mind blowers if you have been a Christian for any length of time. I suspect that if you are a believer you also will be changed by what you hear. These can both be listened to for free, or downloaded and burned to CD for free here: http://www.wayofthemaster.com/audiolessons.shtml
If you do only one thing after reading this, please listen to these sermons.
So, summoning the courage, Jane and I decided to "hit the streets" with our soap box (juggling box), tracts, and faith. The most logical place we thought was St. Jacob's Farmers market because there are always lots of people on Thursdays and Saturdays. Thursdays fit our schedule best and so starting in late May we went there in faith looking to witness. As I have lots of experience in busking from my earlier days I signed in as a busker. The evangelistic “methods” we take are three-fold:
1) one on one witnessing with people we approach or strike up conversations with, usually right near where we are set up
2). Handing out tracts, which includes the unique "million dollar bill" gospel tract which totally opens the door to talk to people about faith
Ray Comfort said that a good open air preacher can reach more lost people in one day that an average church does in a year! I didn't believe this at first, it is such a radical a statement. However, I do now! This afternoon, I open air preached to about 50 people, and we witnessed one on one to another several people. And that was in just one hour! I believe a good open air preacher could therefore expose the Gospel to over 1000 people in a day. Does your church present the full and clear gospel message to that many run of the mill non-believers in a year?
I start by getting a small crowd with juggling and comedy, and the goal is to build it to about 15-40 people, although some times more or less are in the audience. I try not to spend more than 10 minutes on the show, although it sometimes goes longer. Then I say after the finale, "If I were busking today I would now put out my hat and ask for money. But today I'm reverse busking - I'm going to give out money! I then bring out the million dollar bill (tract) and say I'm going to give everyone one of these million dollar bills after I share a short message. (today I actually gave out the bills and said I was going to explain the gospel message that is on the back, after everyone had received one. Surprisingly, about three quarters of the crowd stayed to hear the message. I'll experiment with this).
Often we go to the market dragging our feet and leave skipping. It is a thrill share the gospel - to know that you can't rely on your own skills, but only the Holy Spirit to open someone's heart. It is a joy to share the gospel, without watering it down. And to realize that all we can do is plant seeds: we can't convert anyone!
We have discovered that sometimes it can be discouraging to see just how lost some people are. And to meet so many false converts. For example today Jane and I talked to this dear old white haired grandmother named Maria who, in the past, I would have probably thought to be saved without giving it a second thought. She said that she grew up in the church and knew the gospel and "all that." She said she went to the presbyterian church every now and then in Port Rowan to “make the pastor feel better," because they only have 12 people in the congregation. So after wading through a lot of self righteousness the scary truth came out. (Jane's gentle questioning revealed that the only one of the 10 commandments she thought that she had ever broken - in her WHOLE life - was lying... ) apparently in her 70 years she had never dishonoured her parents, stole anything, used the Lord's name in vain, lusted, coveted, etc). But she said that she was "ready to go" and started to tell us about her sickness recently which saw her go to the hospital. So I asked her if she died, and stood before God, why should He let her in. She replied with the heartbreaking old standard, "because I've been a good person." You will not believe how often you hear this. Pray for Maria from Port Rowan (and her husband John) if you think of it.
So since some people have expressed interest in coming out to show moral support, hand out tracks, or learn how / practice witnessing, we decided we'd better put a date and time on the next outings planned.
We work near the south entrance. Here is a map with the location marked with a pin. Click Here
Set aside some time to follow some of the above links, and download or listen to those two sermons over the next week if you can. If you are planning to join us please phone or email us - it would be great. And don’t worry, you never stop trembling!
Bob Cates
See Video Clip: