Where can I get a sandwich board....

This story about street preachers ran in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram (full story below). It made me think some thoughts in my thinking brain. So here they are:

• The brand of evangelicals who engage in street-preaching, door-to-door evangelism, etc. are always talking about "going on the offensive" and the like. Who are they offending? Who is it they're playing offense against? If it's Satan and his lies to poor and hurting souls they might meet on the street, then I can think of more effective ways to combat the lies.
• Having said that, I like street preachers. At least I like the ones who seem to do it as a form of self-expression. I like the guy who stands on the corner and plays the saxophone. So I like the guy who stands there and spits out what he's passionate about.
• I don't like the idea of street-preacher boot camp though.
• At first, I wanted to title this post "Crazy Christians" (yes, that's a Studio 60 reference) and decry another group of Christians embarrassing themselves in the public eye. But you know what? I'm tired of trying to police/disparage every group of fuzzy-headed evangelicals whose hearts are in the right place even if their heads aren't. So come on, street preachers. Meet me in Sundance Square and I'll listen to your rant and buy you a beer.

Preachers to 'invade' Fort Worth, Dallas

The Associated Press

DALLAS - A Texas-based ministry group plans to flood entertainment districts in Dallas and Fort Worth on Saturday with 500 street preachers trying to spread their faith, an event the group's president calls a "city invasion."

Darrel Rundus, founder and president of The Great News Network, said he hopes this first large-scale event will serve as a test run for future invasions across the country.

"Its a roll-up-your-sleeves, get-in-the-trenches, big-time battle in the street for souls," Rundus said. "We have an army of evangelists out there invading the city for Christ."
Street preaching, never entirely embraced by traditional evangelical churches, has been gaining in popularity, said David Allen, the dean of the theology school at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Most evangelicals take their biblical cue from a passage in the Book of Matthew known as The Great Commission, Allen said. In it, Jesus Christ tells followers to "make disciples of all nations ... and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded."

Evangelical Christians interpret the passage differently, and pastors from traditional churches say there are more effective and less threatening means than hitting the streets.

"The common perception people have of street preachers is someone out there who is on the kook fringe of things," Allen said. "You think of someone who wears a sandwich sign that says, 'The world will end tomorrow.' "

That confrontational style turns people away, said Jim Lemons, pastor of the River Oaks Baptist Church near Fort Worth. He does not encourage church members to conduct open-air preaching but prefers "servant-style evangelism," such as volunteering in soup kitchens or homeless shelters.

"I think there are ways to make a bigger impact, a more lasting impact than yelling for 15 or 30 seconds on a street corner," Lemons said. "If I were not a believer and I were accosted, I would say, 'I don't want anything to do with that group or with what that religion believes.'"
Rundus acknowledged the image problem but says his group teaches a non-confrontational approach.

Rundus has spent the past two years building a network he thinks will make a nationwide event possible. He has 133 local leaders around the country who organize groups of street preachers. His group has organized 16 "evangelical boot camps" that he said has attracted about 100 participants apiece from around the world.

Among the most important lessons: Preaching locales must be public property and popular. The group typically favors entertainment districts, such as the Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas or Sundance Square in Fort Worth.

At the boot camp, would-be street preachers learn to overcome fears of public speaking, to engage people in conversation and to preach in an "inoffensive and Biblical way," Rundus said.
David Bird, a veterinarian and a leader in North Carolina, came to Texas this week for the invasion. Street preaching is the "last thing in the world I ever thought I'd be doing," he said.

But Bird has been doing just that for about two years, using lessons from Rundus boot camps.

He will begin conversations by handing out a pamphlet made to look like U.S. currency. The pamphlet appears to be a $1 million bill, but it has Biblical passages on it.

If a pedestrian appears interested, Bird will ask what he calls the million-dollar question: "If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?"

The Great News Network instructs preachers to then discuss the 10 Commandments, asking listeners if they've ever lied, stolen, cursed or lusted, making them unsuitable for heaven.

"If just one persons life was changed, then it's worth it all," Bird said.

Local leaders will ultimately determine whether Rundus ministry group is able to make its city invasion work on a national level.

"Its time for Christians to stop going on retreats," Rundus said, "and start going on the advance."