1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Preaching at University

Discussion in 'Evangelism, Missions & Witnessing' started by mozier, May 11, 2004.

Top Posters
  1. mozier

    mozier New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2003
    Messages:
    425
    Likes Received:
    0
    I have often wondered about the men who come here to the universities in order to preach the gospel.

    The problem with them is that they do not preach the gospel in a clear and understandable way for the passing college student to hear. Rather, they rail and go ballistic, shouting at the students as they go by about what sinners they are and that they are going straight to hell. Naturally, this leads to them being shouted down and ridiculed in the worst way, and no one is led to Christ whatsoever. In fact, I have witnessed a scence that was too horrible to comprehend: this preacher ranted and raved about how university students are all atheists and homosexuals and whoremongers, while standing next to him was a protester wearing a diaper (and nothing else) and holding a sign that terribly blasphemed against the Lord. Of course, the crowd loved this and made the preacher look even worse than he did on his own.

    Is this a normal practice when it comes to street preaching? Or is it a certain style of preaching that they sincerely believe will lead students to Christ? If it is the latter, then I can tell you now that it is not working at all.


    mozier
     
    #1 mozier, May 11, 2004
  2. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    15,549
    Likes Received:
    15
    You have described what a religious zealot full of nonsense looks like.

    The approach works well with people who don't think and believe what anyone says.

    I don't see anywhere where anyone is scripture used such a method to reach anyone. Directness is not necessarily rudeness. We can be direct and loving at the same time.
     
    #2 gb93433, May 21, 2004
  3. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2001
    Messages:
    21,321
    Likes Received:
    0
    This is a clear example of two things:

    1 - Erupting. Erupting is when you blow out everything and anything about the Gospel as loud as you can and as fast as you can in the least amount of time. The idea is that you want to get the whole message out to as many people as possible. Many new Christians, myself included, have been guilty of this. Of course, this method is like putting a movie in a VCR and hitting the fast wardward botton with the volume out loud. Sure, it may be a 2 hour movie seen in 10 minutes, but the content is incomprehensible. Unfortunately, this often serves to drive more people away from the Gospel that it brings to the Gospel.

    2 - Prejudging. This is when you've decided that every person who passes you by are all lost. Not just lost, but so lost that they've all decided to walk away from Jesus before you ever got there. The simple truth is, you don't know who has been exposed to the Gospel before, and is weighing it, only to abandon it when encountering such a person. Some may be completely lost. Some may have had a small seed planted. Some are on the verge of accepting Christ, some might be new Christians, and some might be long time Christians. But the end result is the same as in erupting. Many of these people may well turn tail and walk further away from the Gospel by such preaching.

    No one should ever preach the message in a manner that would cause the messenger to drive a wedge between the hearer and the Gospel. This is not the Gospel. This is just grandstanding using Jesus as an excuse.
     
    #3 Johnv, May 21, 2004
  4. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2001
    Messages:
    11,852
    Likes Received:
    1,085
    Faith:
    Baptist
    This happened at the local campus a couple of years ago. Every legalist bias ever uttered on this board was spewed in the course of a few minutes. Very effective, it was.
     
    #4 rsr, May 21, 2004
  5. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    15,549
    Likes Received:
    15
    Can anyone ever think of a time in scripture when Jesus took the approach that some use at a university?

    I can only think of one man who regularly preached on campuses and was very knowledgeable and responded to questions that people had. Most of the time those people are an embarassment to those who are trying to win others to Christ. I am sure most see the person and the Jesus they portray rather than the Jesus who is.
     
    #5 gb93433, May 25, 2004
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Loading...