Evangelism in the Marketplace

For the past several weeks I have been going to a Way of the Master class at a friends church. The class was being held in preparation for the Roseville Street Market. This was my first night and little did I know how profound an affect that it would have on me.  

I have been doing one on one evangelism for the past several weeks and in the past week and a half or so a fear had overcome me. I had not shared my faith for almost a week except for just before Sunday's class. We had homework and I had to get it done.  I have been doing it because I truly have a heart for the lost but I think that some pride had crept into my thinking, which in turn became fear.  

The first few encounters of this evening seemed rather superficial to me. I have a very formulaic way of doing things. I have ADD and having a process is good for me, however I can sometimes loose sight of why I am doing something. I fall into just going through the motions. I felt like I was going into that mode this evening until Toby came to the booth. 

A group of kids came by the booth and one stepped up to take the test who professed to be a Christian. One of the friends he was with was prodded by the rest of the group to take the test and he stepped up. He was a rather big young man with long straight brown hair under a loose nit ski cap of sorts that lightly flopped over to one side.  He had a lip piercing that was a half circle with spikes on both ends.  He wore an Ozfest t-shirt with a long sleeve unbuttoned flannel shirt over it. His black skinny jeans and hightop shoes completed the ensemble.  

Our booth has a sign that asks if you think you are a good person and urges them to take the test.  I like to start the conversation with a question that turns things to the eternal rather quickly.  

"So I would like to begin by asking you what do you think happens after you die?" 

I could tell he was a little hesitant and I encouraged him to be honest and really tell me what he thought.  He replied that he really did not know.  He said that some people say you go to heaven or to hell.  

"So do you have a faith background?" I asked, because I wanted to know what was really in there. I was not prepared for his answer.  

"You will hate me if I tell you." he replied in a rather low tone.  

"I will not hate you, you won't offend me, so please tell me." I said. 

"My family and I are satanists." he replied again in a low voice. He went on to explain that he had been beaten up in the past for this and that some people had actually cut swastikas into his skin because his grandfather was a Neo Nazi. 

I then began to ask him about what the satanic view of the afterlife was.  He basically explained that it was that you were going to hell, but not the kind that others talk about.  It is whatever you believe to be the most fun and pleasurable things. I decided to not go into the ten commandments yet because I believed that the groundwork for what the true punishment of hell was like needed to be laid down first.  I spent about five minutes doing that and then proceeded with the "Good Test."

"So there are a set of standards or laws that have been set up and they are the ten commandments. God's rules if you will." I said. He had not heard of them and I told him that was all right that I would be going through a few of them and would lead him through them.  

He professed that he would be guilty and I asked if he was concerned about what the punishment of hell and he said that he hadn't really thought about it. I knew that his heart had not been fully convicted by the law and that he was not ready to have the good news shared yet. Some further preparation of the "soil" needed to be done. I explained that we are all at enmity with God and that all have fallen short and have sinned before a holy God. I put myself in the same boat with him as being deserving of eternal wrath and punishment.  I could tell that he was beginning to understand.  

He said that he had heard a lot of it before. He had a friend that "forced" him to go with her to a youth group on Wednesday nights. I then told him that it wasn't by simply stating Jesus' name as he might have heard someplace that there was something more to it.  I could see that a light had gone on and that he wanted to know more.  It was at this point that I explained repentance and faith to him. This it seemed he had not heard before.  I asked him if he would think about the things that we had talked about and he said that he would.  I gave him one of the New Testaments that we had there and the "Why Christianity" tract.

By this point all of the members of the ministry team were there talking with him and encouraging him to come back in the weeks to come if he had any questions.  I would have liked to have had a better ending because I am the kind of person that tends to be results oriented.  But what I took away from this encounter is very profound.  

Now this is going to be a strong statement, but please bear with me.  Before any of us are Christians, we are all Satanists at heart.  

[5] For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. [6] For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. [7] For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. [8] Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8 ESV)

My heart was in anguish over this young man. Then it dawned on me that all of the lost people that had come by the booth that evening were on the same path. One of my friends and ministry leaders for the Church that sponsored the booth had left and came back after we had wrapped things up with Toby. I told him that of all the encounters this was the one that I was going to take with me for the night.  I had poured out everything in this encounter and realized that all of the ones before needed just as much poured into them.

I really believe that no friendship evangelism method would have, or has been, effective in situations like this. This single encounter made it all more poignant to me that we must go out and spread the word.

[13] For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

[14] How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? [15] And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:13-15 ESV)

My prayer is that I will not come to a point of "going through the motions".  That I will have a heart to spread the word and share the gospel more and more each day.  The words that are spoke at the end of the Way of the Master Minutes is very real to me more than ever: "There goes another minute, gone forever.  Go share your faith while you still have time."