Street Evangelism and Denominational Differences

Adapted from and inspired by a comment I left on a YouTube video of a street evangelist with a megaphone.

There is some confusion and controversy these days over public witnessing. I am hearing, more and more often from people that they "would never do something like that." The reasons vary from "it takes a special kind of person" to "Christians shouldn't force people to listen to them." However, like most things, it seems to be a balance. Personally, I have gone door-to-door trying to share the gospel with people. It was often a very enlightening experience for me, but not usually for those my companions and I were witnessing to. Let me explain.

I experience many different situations and became aware of three different groups of people. Most encouraging were fellow Christians. Often times, we would be invited in to visit with a brother or sister in Christ. I often found my faith strengthened greatly by these chance encounters. Interestingly, many of these other Christians were not from mainstream denominations. Seventh Day Adventists, Pentecostals, Church of Christ members, and Baptists alike, in spite of their diverse personal beliefs, often had the same spirit. This observation led me to believe that no single denomination is superior to any other. If an individual person, regardless of their affiliations, has faith in Christ to save them, that person can be properly called a believer. And, not surprisingly, all of these people had one desire; to live by the Bible and depend on Jesus for salvation.

Unfortunately, many of the people I witnessed to did not share my views of such people. Many times, my companion (a conservative baptist) would spend hours trying to convert another fellow believer, simply because the other person believed that getting baptized was part of working out your salvation or that resting on the seventh day of the week was a good thing to do. I would hardly consider these things salvation issues but, it seems, most of the people I was with believed that if a person wasn't a baptist, they weren't Christian. I walked away thinking being a Baptist is a good indicator that one may need to look again at his or her own salvation.

The second group of people I encountered were those who had their own set of beliefs, and perhaps did consider themselves Christian, but were clearly trapped by their own pride or blindness. We encountered those claiming to be Christians who showed no fruit in their lives; they were on drugs, swore copiously, or had some other character flaw that they were making no attempt to correct. Others were firmly set in religion but had no faith in Christ. Many Catholics are this way along with some Baptist or Pentecostal individuals who have no idea what it means to be a Christian except, perhaps, that they attend a church. Most of these people did not want to discuss their religion with anyone. Buddhists, Muslims, and Atheists had a similar attitude as they were often more than happy to talk about our differences, but there was no chance of them ever changing their minds.
The last group of people I encountered were the "sinners." Encounters with hopeless drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, gang leaders, and others usually left me feeling depressed. These people often already knew the truth but they were too deeply entrenched in their sin to escape, so they thought. I pray that my conversations with those people helped to rescue them from their pit, though I never witnessed it. Seeing their tears and desperation usually left me silent for the rest of the day. I am still very passionate about the message of God's power; He IS strong enough to save anyone from ANY sin.
After a year and a half, I had mixed feelings about evangelism. I wanted to help people escape from their sins, but I was disturbed by the division among those who called themselves Christians in America. Once, I watched my companion walk a woman through the gospel as she passively acknowledged that she "thought" what he said was true. At the end of it all, my companion declared, "Well, then, you are saved!" My heart dropped into my stomach. She had only demonstrated that she might have known what truth was. She never put her faith in Christ. I was sobered by the thought of how many false conversions there are int he world because of this easy-believism. As my mother used to say, many people go comfortably to Hell.
I stopped public witnessing for a time after that experience. It was difficult to watch my companion arguing with fellow Christians about trivial matters and then see him walk away gloating about how he hoped the other individual would one day see the light. I still witness to people the best way I know how, even in public places, but, as sad as it is, I cannot trust anyone to come with me. They may deviate from the Bible and chase "foolish controversies" (Titus 3:9) instead of proclaiming the gospel.
Recently I became involved in a certain street evangelist who very harshly proclaimed coming wrath for sinners. I agreed with some of what he said, but he had a lot of pride and was very rude and disrespectful to those he was trying to witness to. After thinking about it, I wrote what I believed to be a balanced Biblical reply.
I used to think that the practice of standing on a street corner and proclaiming the Bible to the lost was a commendable practice that took faith and courage. However, in the case of this man, it looked like it only took pride.
I understood that he was zealous in the preaching of Hell but we need to remember this warning: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you -- unless, of course, you fail the test?" (Corinthians 13:5). I noticed a few things in his video (seen on youtube) that I wanted him to consider and pray about. If you want to read my comment (very similar to this post) or watch the video (WARNING: bad language) you can do so here. This man needs to remember that Jesus, although verbally hard on people who claimed to be God's people (e.g. Pharisees, such as in Matthew 3:6-8), was remarkably gentle on "sinners," such as the woman at the well (John 4:17-19), the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-12), the Pharisee Nicodemus (John 3), or even those who crucified Him (Luke 23:33-35). Considering that many of Jesus' encounters with "sinners" were quiet, one-on-one encounters, perhaps we should consider adopting a similar approach instead of pushing people away like the young, Christian man who clearly wanted to talk to the evangelist on the video. Remember to "let your gentleness be evident to all" (Philippians 4:5). "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness
and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander" (1 Peter 3:15, 16). Gentleness and respect. Even "sinners" need to be given respect, according to the Bible. Perhaps the young evangelist that tried to engage the street evangelist was trying to tell him something along these lines (he was obviously displeased with the megaphone man's aggressive style). However, we also need to keep in mind that, in North American Christianity, there is a lot of confusion and deception. That older street evangelist may have missed an opportunity to clarify some things for the younger man.
I understood that the street evangelist believed that he was no longer a sinner. And as long as he follows Christ, this is true. "The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). However, the possibility to slip back into a worldly way of thinking still remains, if we aren't vigilant. As Jesus said, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). And, as always, "if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence -- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (1 John 2:1). Perhaps this man's lack of gentleness and respect for "sinners" is such a falling into sin. Thank God we do have a Righteous One who speaks on our behalf.
So, true, we WERE all sinners. However, we aren't anymore. But watch out! Or you may find that you have fallen, as seems to be the case with this street preacher.
The street evangelist was right to quote Jesus as a defence for preaching Hell (the young man in the video was under the misconception that Christ didn't preach about Hell). Jesus mentioned Hell at least a few times in his preaching. However, the young man found it difficult to listen to what the preacher said, considering his microphone was only a few inches from the young Christian's face. Remember gentleness and respect. Don't be one of those described in Psalm 17:10: "They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance." I fear the street evangelist has drifted in that direction. When someone else left a comment warning him of pride and blindness ("take the log out of your own eye" - Matthew 7:5), he replied, "Yes, I took the log out of my own eye a long time ago..." Pray for this man and people like him so that they can test themselves and repent of their arrogance. And pray that we don't fall into a similar trap, but remain humble as the world around us grows wicked.
Another point of confusion among the comments bellow the video was the issue of alcoholic beverages. To be clear on this, the Bible doesn't necessarily say that it is wrong to drink wine (beer), but it does explicitly say that getting drunk is wrong and sinful (Ephesians 5:18).
I hope this has built you up.