Is street preaching an effective evangelism method?

It is not for us to say when and how our brethren should carry this message to the thirsty whosoevers, but we know no better time than from 6:00 to 8:00 on a Sunday evening. At this time will be found in the crowded residential parts of the towns and villages thousands who never enter a building to hear the Word, and who would not even go to the market-place to hear it. Tired and disappointed women whose lives are a drudgery, and who have no hope for the future. We have seen them at this hour sit at their open doors or windows listening eagerly to the rest-giving message of the Saviour's care for them. And we feel sure that more can be reached in an hour in this way, than in a year by the ordinary method of indoor preaching.

Such a state of things in the Established Church left the way open for the heretics, so-called. They embraced the opportunity, stepped in, and laboured diligently to spread their doctrines among the people. Preaching in public and in private was the secret, under God, of the great success of the Waldenses and Albigenses. This was from the earliest times, and still is, the divine way of spreading the truth, and gathering souls to Jesus. The more public the preaching, the better. In all ages it has pleased God, by what the world calls "the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." Open-air preaching, visiting and teaching from house to house, public testimony within-doors and out-of-doors, are ways and means which God will always bless. And such means seem to have been diligently used by those accused of heresy in Languedoc.

Then there is the great matter of gospel work in the public arena. How urgent the need to preach to the masses who pass by without a thought of eternity. Thankfully God still uses this means of communication that He has authorised. Alas, there are too many substitutes for conscience searching gospel preaching. Open air street preaching is substituted by mime, dance and acting; anything but straightforward preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. The pseudo-evangelist thinks his novelty will draw men to Christ. But his (or even her) disobedience to the will of God betrays they are not true disciples themselves though attempting to make disciples of others! The power of evangelisation rests in the Word of God; it has nothing to do with technique. Not that the preacher is to disregard the manner of doing his work; indeed he is to seek out acceptable words, ‘even words of truth’ ( Eccl. 12:10) . He is not to throw a ragbag of pious platitudes at his hearers, without spiritual forethought and preparation, but rather he is to be wise and win souls ( Prov. 11:30). The Word he is to preach will also instruct him in his work: ‘Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual’ (1 Cor. 2:13). Our prayer is that the reader be exercised in this great service, and if called to do it to engage in it according to biblical principles. The apostolic injunction still stands: ‘preach the word’ (2 Tim 4:2; cf. Rom. 10:8; 1 Pet 1:25; etc.).

During August 1939 an Open-Air Mission was held in a certain seaport, which was attended by quite a number of men from naval vessels. Not only did many attend and listen, but some at least were truly converted to God. They heard of the Lord Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again: they believed in Him and received forgiveness in His Name. And not only this, some of them came to the sea-front when off duty and earnestly told the people what the Lord had done for them. The crowds listened as if spell-bound.

There are people who are very sceptical about these things. They do not see how a man can be saved; and if any do profess such things, they look upon it as a passing emotion, caused by the excitement of a revival service. And I freely acknowledge that there is a great deal of that kind of thing; a little of which would be too much. But this man was saved on the street on a dull, wet afternoon. There was no excitement there to make him do it; and what he did then and there has lasted, for three months after that date he wrote to me, saying, "I truly thank God you came here. … I decided to accept Christ as my personal Saviour. Tell everybody that Christ can be accepted on the street, same as I found Him. Thank God, I have the blessed assurance that Christ is mine and I am His. Praise God! I am always telling my workmates what Christ has done for me. It was a happy day when Jesus washed my sins away."

When travelling the other day with a friend on board one of the small steam-boats which ply back and forward amongst the piers on the Thames, it was our privilege publicly to preach the gospel to the many fellow passengers who thronged the deck of the vessel. The circumstances of the case did not allow much more than the reading of the precious word of God in their hearing. Our time was, of course, very limited and the people were in constant movement. I noticed that some listened, some turned away so as not to hear the sound, some derided, some criticised. The effect was different in different cases; but at the close, and just previous to our disembarking at our landing place, one man, who had listened only to criticise, asked the question “Who is God?”

Leaving the ornate cathedral service one night, an educated young man was downcast, unsatisfied and unhappy. Quite near, an aged miner preached God’s way of salvation in the market place. As he passed, the young man listened. His anxious soul drank in the message. Soon after he was at a meeting, where others, who were saved by and separated to our Lord Jesus Christ, welcomed him; and he told how the glad tidings simply preached had brought liberty, peace and joy to his soul.

Soon after this, we are told, and it is true such changes do occur, this very same preacher, though in the open air, had a congregation of two. He preached on this occasion a very different sermon, all he said was contained in five words. The effect was marvellous. Both became decided for Christ there and then. They both became most useful servants of Christ; devoted followers of Christ. A work began that day, the like of which had never been seen before on earth, and which has continued until this day; though, we should say, that after three or four years, it became deeper, and even far more blessed.

Being clergymen of the church of England, they were privileged to preach in the churches this new gospel-immediate pardon and salvation through faith in Christ, without works of human merit. But this was too simple and too scriptural to be tolerated, and in a short time almost every pulpit in England was closed against them. Thus driven outside, they were compelled to preach in the open air, and thereby inaugurated open-air preaching which has since become so common. In Moorfields, on Kennington Common, and such like places they preached in town and country to audiences numbering from ten to twenty thousand. By the grace of God these "twin apostles" of England-Wesley and Whitefield-continued faithful and devoted to the end of their career.

This is only one example, among many, of the way in which Whitefield began on barren soil, labouring with God, in patient perseverance, till the blessing came down in rich abundance through the Word. At Bristol, his open-air preaching to twenty thousand colliers, moved hearts there, and melted to tears multitudes unaccustomed to weep and mourn over sin. In other large cities and towns, he attracted immense crowds, always to pour forth the burden of his heart, which was the need of lost and ruined souls "Ye must be born again."