SWAT TEAM Witnessing - Springfield, MO - 7/07/06

Street Witnessing And Training
Taking Evangelism Across Missouri
Friday Night – 7/07/06 -- Park Central Square –
Downtown Springfield, Missouri

The gospel tracts we use can be found at Gospel Tracts: Living Waters Store.

Right away, we want to thank God for tonight. It was a very fruitful night of witnessing and getting to sow the Word of God into the lives of people.

Tonight was a very nice night. The weather was cool and a little breezy. Since it was “Art Walk” night, it was more crowded than the other Friday nights. We had a total of 17 people come out to witness with the SWAT TEAM. Here are the people that came out: GNN Seed Sowers Michael Borich, David Lohn (and his son, Nathanel) and Russ Mohrman. Also, we had Jeff Reeb, Mike Lynch, and Pastor Ron Burks from www.bethesdachristianfellowship.org along with six of his children, and two friends of his kids, myself and Richard Molina, who we met last Friday night while he was out witnessing.

We split up into smaller teams to hit the downtown area to witness for a little while before doing open-air preaching. Michael and I handed gospel tracts to Adam and Camille, who said they were Christians. Since they said they were Christians, I asked them if I could role play and show them how we witness to others. They agreed. We went through the Law (the Good Person Test) with them, then grace. They thanked us for sharing.
We always try to share with Christians the biblical way of presenting the gospel. There are a couple of reasons for this: 1) It will give them a different way to witness that is biblical and very effective that they can learn about, and 2) In case they are not Christians, it will give them a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Michael and I continued past the bus station, passing out tracts to folks, as well as the security guard who was there. I then handed the Million Dollar Bill – Secret Service Version to two young men named Duke and Daniel. Duke was wearing a bandana and had lots of colorful tattoos. I told them that the million dollar bill was a gospel tract, and asked them if they had a Christian background. They kind of said, yeah. I asked them if they considered themselves to be a good person. They said, “yeah, pretty good”. I asked if I could ask them if they wanted to take “the good person test” to see if they really are good people. They said yes. They agreed to lying. After they agreed to stealing, Duke said, “man, I’m a terrible person”.

You see, when you use the law of God, the 10 Commandments, as a mirror to show a person how that God sees them, it is very convicting. Paul said in Romans 7:7, “…I had not known sin, but by the law.” Romans 3:19 says, “Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

After all was said and done, Duke and Daniel admitted to being lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulters-at-heart. They would be guilty on the Day of Judgment and on their way to hell. It did concern them. I explained grace and that Jesus died for our sins, explaining that “we broke God’s law and Jesus paid our fine”. That they need to repent (ask forgiveness and turn from sin) and believe (trust) in Jesus Christ to be forgiven. We asked them to think seriously about what we talked about. They were appreciative that we took the time to speak with them.

We ran into Morwen again tonight. Morwen is a self-proclaimed atheist that we met last Friday night, that didn’t want anything to do with talking, wouldn’t accept a gospel tract, etc. We talked to her more tonight, about general things. She ended up being on the front row of the open-air preaching presentation and she was able to hear us go through the law and grace. She spoke to me later and actually offered me some bread that they had. I am praying for Morwen.

We did get to see Josh tonight. Josh was self-proclaimed pagan who studied Wicca for years. He recently told me that he stopped studying Wicca, stopped wearing his pentagram necklace and started going to church. I gave him a bible tonight. He said he would read it. Pray for Josh. He is having a tough time right now. He is in transition between apartments, currently living in a hotel. He needs a job.

I was able to stand up on the water fountain wall with my Anchor Mini-Vox PB-25 speaker box and do open-air preaching. Michael brought some stuffed animals to give away, and I began asking trivia questions to draw people to where we were preaching. We have out 6 or 7 animals, then I asked for a volunteer…someone who could prove to me that they are a good person. Morwen, our atheist friend, almost volunteered, then decided not to. However, her friend, Shantara, volunteered.

We went through the law and grace. She was guilty and on her way to hell and said she sometimes thinks about it. Shantara didn’t prove to me to be a good person and therefore did not deserve to get the stuffed animal. However, I asked her to come up and take the animal, that she could have it. And in the same way that is what God did for us. We didn’t deserve salvation, but God is offering it to us through Jesus Christ. We have to reach out and take it. There were a couple of mini-hecklers, people who kept speaking up and asking about this or that. I would answer their questions sometimes, but others I said we would discuss that after we are finished with the good person test. About three quarters through the presentation, a music band started playing their electric guitars and started to drown out the speaker box I had. We were still able to get the message across to folks and they could hear it.

After it was over, people came up to our team and started talking and asking us questions. I spoke for a while with Antone. He is a 17 year old young man who is very intellectual and full of questions and debates. I enjoyed speaking with him. He claimed to be a “Deist”. However, his beliefs did not necessarily line up with the beliefs of a deist. He does believe in God and Jesus, but also believes in evolution. He believes in the bible somewhat, but believes it was written by men, who put their own ideas into it. We discussed and reasoned for a while, having a great discussion. I asked to think about what we talked about. One day we will all die and stand before God. God gave you a conscience, and you know it is wrong to sin.

Michael had been speaking with a man named Andy. Andy is a Christian that was possibly interested in learning more about the Way of the Master evangelism training. There is a picture of Andy below.

Later, Michael and I went to the bus station. We handed gospel tracts to four people, Carlos, Cathy, Leslie and Kay. They named about 6 of the 10 Commandments between the four of them. Michael took them through the good person test, then shared the gospel with them. They seemed receptive. We gave the “Save Yourself Some Pain” booklets to read. Carlos didn’t take one. I originally gave him one, but the look on his face was a give away. I asked him, “Carlos, are you just going to throw that away?” He said, “yes”, so I asked for it back to give to someone else.

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The following report is from GNN Seed Sower, Russ Mohrman, from "THE JENNER BRIGADE".

During the OPEN AIR presentation By Brad St.Clair, I, along with other witnesses from various churches, began to roam about the perimeter of the crowd challenging those listening to Brad to reiterate on what they just heard. There were many intently interested.

I also helped pass out tracts like the various sized giant bills , the DiVinci tracts and Titanic tracts. I love to use the old reliable Pink & Blues to start conversations. Like when I approached five High School Students. Three Boys and two Girls sitting as group near by the stage having listened to Brads Open Air Presentation. They were impressed with the presentation and with the pink & Blue Tract.

I felt it necessary to share my motive for being there, early in the conversation. I would tell them that I was there to fulfill Christ's command to "Love the Lord my God with all my Heart Soul, Mind and Strength and to Love my neighbor as myself" and to share this Gospel was the most important thing I could do for them. I wanted them to know that I really believed in a literal solitary Eternal Hell, and that knowing this I chose to leave family for the evening and trying to persuade them radically of the impending judgment to come. Just like a person would radically do if his neighbors house was on fire at midnight, unaware, and he would have to wake them and convince them of the danger coming even at such late hour.

Of course I used the "Good Person" test. One Girl particularly was sweating profusely after the revealing the convicting mirror of the Law and Gods justice.

One of the Boys had tried to defuse the conversation by asking various questions during my Relate, Create, Convict, Reveal (RCCR) process, and I said that I would get back to him on that, and completed my RCCR. He ended up finally listening and being convicted himself, then thanked me for 'not pushing my denomination or church on Him, and he ‘really appreciated that', and shook my hand.

I then approached four Gothic styled dropouts in Black complete with nose & chin rings. One boy was saying "My life has been so G%#m(Beep) bad that I don"t care anymore" I shared with him that God still cares but he refused to hear it. Interestingly he shook my hand too with respect for the attempt.

There was also an opportunity to witness on the streets to known Believers downtown for the evening with friends. I got to role play the RCCR Way of the Master approach before them, and telling them that they could learn too,like I have boldness, HOW to share there faith without fear. That God is seeking weak knee-ed Christians empty of self and dependent on Him. That he would fill and use them (Like Joshua & Caleb). I gave them Sample tracts along with the WOTM website. They thanked me and I finished the evening discussing privately future strategy with the GNN local leadership.

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Richard, Andy and Michael

During my open air. Sorry so blurry.

Again, we thank God for tonight. It was a very blessed night of witnessing. I pray this motivates the Christians to go out and share their faith with others. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about witnessing and I will be happy to assist in any way I can.

In Christ,

Brad St. Clair
www.repentandturn.com
www.gnnlocalleader.com