Williamsburg Gazette “Sermon on the Stump”: Complete (Q&A)
Just so happens, that I was that street preacher. When asked to do the interview we were originally planning on meeting in person and discussing the finer points of street evangelism. However our work schedules conflicted so I agreed to answer the questions by e-mail. I am really glad I did because I went into a lot of detail with the questions and now I have my answers to give a much greater context to the article.
So before you read my answers to the reporters questions, make sure you read the article here.
Sermon on the Stump By: Steve Vaughan.
Here is the complete unedited (even lacking spell check) questions and answers to Steve Vaughan’s questions.
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Steve,
I grew up in Church I was under this delusion as many people are that because one time in my life I said a prayer, walked down an aisle at a Christian Concert that I was truly saved. However it was not until I started listening to a program called Way of the Master Radio (now known as Wretched Radio) that I realized that I have never truly trusted in Christ for repentance. I understood the Gospel…sure, but I always applied it to other people. For example I took much comfort in knowing that everyone was a sinner that I ignored the devastating fact that I myself was one. Me personally. My lies, my stealing, my blasphemy, lust and anger had given God every reason to send me to hell for all eternity, but even though I knew that, I did not personally understand it as I never allowed the truth of it to change my Heart. Once I realized that Jesus Christ took the wrath of God that I deserved by his death on the Cross it made me incrediby aware of my sins before him and I repented and trusted in him. It wasn’t an emotional experience or even a once and a lifetime prayer. It was a continual understanding of my wretchedness and his kindness despite it. It was Jesus alone not Way of the Master, not Kirk Cameron or Ray Comfort. It was Christ that caused me to see my wickedness, but he used these programs to do it.
It’s important to start there. With an understanding of the Gospel. Man is sinful and God is holy. We deserve nothing from God but death, followed by an eternity in Hell. The Bible says that “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Isaiah 64:6 and nothing we can do will ever please him apart from the works of Christ. In a nation that believes strongly that the works of men is what saves people (Flashy Church services, correct methodology, and expensive programs) the idea that Christ Alone saves is not something everyone takes kindly to.
However I think as I answer your questions you will see how this viewpoint is critical to what we do and in bringing people to the Cross of Christ.
1. I want to make sure I get the terminology right. I’ve been calling it “street preaching.” Do practioners have another term that they prefer>
Thats pretty much what we call it. Could also go by Street Evangelism.
2. Does TransplantMinistries have a traditional “brick and mortar” church or is the ministry only street preaching and a web presence?
Transplant Ministries is nothing more than a blog. Our street evangelism consists of a team of friends, who go to different churches and denominations. Currently I attend a Reformed Presbytrian Church called ByGrace located in Newport News, VA. However some people on our team attend southern Baptist churches as well as non-denominational churches. The Gospel we preach is the same. The Christ we preach is the same. We may have a different intrest in worship styles or church government but our pastors preach the same Gospel.
3. What is the scriptural justification for street preaching?
I am really glad you asked this question, because a lot of people assume it’s absent in the Bible. Where as it is the predominate form of evangelism. This is from a book called “Evangelism in the New Testament” by Jon Speed
“By our reckoning, there are at least 89 instances of Christ and His associates doing evangelism in the four Gospels. Of these 89 instances, 77 happened in the context of confrontational evangelism.”
Examples of these would be Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which was public open air preaching also Jesus going into the temple and turning over the tables. But also in Matthew 10 we see Jesus giving instructions to his Disciples to “Shout from the rooftops”
“Matthew 10:27 – What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight. What is whispered in your ear, shout from the rooftops.”
This is a clear order from Christ to proclaim what He says in public, loudly. Look at what happened as a result.
10 out of 12 Disciples were publicly murdered. (Except for who Judas killed himself and John was imprisoned on an Island) Peter was crucified upside down, James was thrown off of a roof and stoned. It is very clear that the Disciples approach to evangelism was very, very public and hostile.
We see this in Acts where Stephen was stoned while preaching in the public square. People know that, but they don’t think about it. Imagine the scene that is. A public stoning. Those that make a claim that Street Preaching is not Biblical because its to aggressive would have to also say that Stephen brought martyrdom on himself and that he was wrong. Which the Bible in no way presents Stephen as a fool but one who was “filled with the Holy Spirit”
4. Why Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area?
See #5 
The most simple answer is, there are people there.
5. Where else do you preach?
Jesus tells people to Go into all the World and preach the Gospel, making disciples of all Nations. We go wherever there are people. In the summer we preach on the Boardwalk, in the Winter we preach at Parades, in the spring and fall we preach at local universities such as VCU and William and Mary. Our goal is to have as many people as possible hear and respond to the Gospel. So we go wherever we can. We love people, and we desire to have them hear the Gospel.
6. How long have you been doing this?
I have been doing this for about three years, since I got saved. Most people on our team have been doing it no longer then 5 years. I was working at a Radio Shack when a couple came in and gave me a Gospel Tract that I instantly recognized as Way of the Master Tract. After speaking to them for a while and after several months of fear, I finally decided to start going out and preaching with them.
7. Why did you choose street preaching over some other form of spreading the gospel?
This method of evangelism is consistent with Church History. As I stated earlier this method was all throughout the Bible. Even the Old Testament prophets. But this method was also done throughout Church History. We see great men of God and incredible evangelist such as Martin Luther, William Tyndale and John Calvin during the reformation. We see great men like John Wesley and George Whitfield (Whitfield preached at Brutons Parish in Colonial Williamsburg) during early America and we also see men like Charles Haden Spuregon and Jonathan Edwards in england all who preached the Gospel with authority in public places.
I want to be clear I don’t believe for a second that Street Preaching is more valid or biblical form of preaching then having a one on one conversation with someone at Starbucks. Neither is there a problem with sharing the gospel with homeless people or people that come to Church. As long as you share the Gospel with them. Many places disquise themselves as a “Christian” ministries and do a great job feeding the homeless, however they never tell them about their Sin, and their violations against Gods law. They never tell them about Jesus and what he did to save them. So it’s not really sharing the Gospel. It’s ecumenical humanitarian aid with a Christian title.
Before I was saved, I did use other methods of sharing the Gospel. I was a camp counselor and a youth pastor at my Church. I led many people in a sinners prayer. However I think it’s very, very important to understand that creating an atmosphere that gets people excited or emotional can do many things to get people in the mood to say a prayer or walk down an aisle. However just because someone is emotional and teary eyed does not mean that someone is saved. So it might be easy to look at the mega church around the block and say “See, look at all those people that came to the altar and prayed a prayer” but we know from scripture that “Many will say to me Lord, Lord look at all the things I have done in your name” and Jesus will say “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you” Matthew 7. So the question is if someone says a prayer out of emotion does it count? The answer is not if God was not making them emotional. God has to be the one that transforms someones heart, giving them a hatred of their sin, a desire to repent and trust in him.
8. In the clip we saw on YouTube you were speaking about abortion and questioning “why should God bless America?” Are hot button “social issues”–e.g. abortion, opposition to homosexuality, etc. — a large portion of your message?
Could you please send me the clip you saw on YouTube. I want to answer with that clip in mind.
The quick answer is not at all. The Gospel should be the predominate message. Christ should be the center of everything we preach. Although I am not perfect and I do get on tangents that are relevant to The Gospel, we try not to make them the central focus of our preaching. Christ is Central. Christ is All.
The question “Why Should God Bless America” is very important. In a nation that murders 4000 Children a day under the disquise of Choice why would God bless america? Why do we deserve anything from him? Its a completely valid question that goes to demonstrate the kindness of God. Remember God flooded the entire world during the Flood, we destroyed Soddom and Gommorah, but then we go and want the Biblical God to bless us while we cling to other false Gods (such as money, pornography, abortion and lust). Why should he?
If God is good he must punish those who are bad. A judge does not reward murderers or else he would be unjust. He must sentence those who break the law. Our God is Good and he is also a Perfect Judge. His love is shown that he took the punishment that we deserve on himself.
Everything this nation has is because of the kindness of God. he has been incredibly kind, but why should he continue? Do we deserve this sort of blessing any longer? The Bible makes it very clear that God demands entire nations to repent and trust in Christ. We should do as God commands or expect what we deserve. The Bible makes it clear that God still removes his hand of protection from those who do not obey him.
9. What sort of reaction do you get from you aurdience? Having seen some street preachers in action before, i seems like more people go out of their way to avoid them than approach and listen to the message?
The reaction varies almost every time we preach. One time we were in colonial williamsburg and had a lady come to us in tears of joy. She was in her seventies and never saw a street preacher. She said she praises God for people who preach in the public square and it brought her much joy to see such an event.
Other times we run into large crowds. We can get crowds of 100 people just standing around listening, asking questions and engaging us with very deep and intellectual conversations.
Sometimes, as you stated people ignore us, they walk fast away.
Other times people are incredibly aggressive and violent, bringing the real life events of Acts to life. The public stonings, beatings and anger from the mobs.
Here is the issue. While people are walking away, they hear the Gospel being preached. We believe as the Bible states that “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
There are many stories of people who have heard just a word or two while walking past an open air preacher and God used those few words to keep them awake at night, forcing them to call out to repentance.
Charles Spurgeon has a story of one of his friends who felt led to preach to a dog in the middle of an empty street. he did it for weeks, every day on that empty street he would preach to a dog who made his home in an ally.
Later on Spurgeon was called in to visit the death bed of a church attendees friend and she asked Charles Spuregon how he knew to send someone to preach out her window. As it turns out that man who was preaching to a Dog, was really preaching to someone who was dieing in her bedroom and she called out and repented and trusted in Christ.
The point is it doesn’t matter if people listen or not. God is still going to use the preaching of the Word. He is powerful and he does with it what he wants. We have no control over what God does with his Gospel. He may use it to bring someone to Christ or he may use his Gospel to give reason to send someone to hell because they rejected it. The truth is God is glorified in the acceptance and the rejection of his Gospel. Take Noah, Noah was not very effective at all. He preached for 120 years while he built that ark. For 120 years people rejected him, mocked him, laughed at him and finally when the ark was done he didn’t have one person get on the Ark. Was Noah a failure? Of course not because he was continually faithful and God was just in punishing the world because of them ignoring the clear warning. Noah was successful.
Lot in the Book of Genesis pleaded with God to let him find just a few good people in Soddom who would repent so the town might be saved. He preached for people to repent, no one did so Lot was forced to flee with his family so God might do as he set out to do.
So to answer question 10. Is this effective? Yes. Completely. It might not be effective in that hundreds of people come before a church and say a prayer, but it is effective as it glorifies God because he is being spoke about in the Public square, the name of Christ is being lifted where perhaps beforehand it was not.
10. In light of that, why is this an effective way to spread your message?
See question 9 and 13
11. As I’m sure you might expect, the comments we’ve had from readers are mostly negative, that what you’re doing is inappropriate for the Historic Area. Your comments?
If anyone has studied American history, they know that two of the main reasons our ‘founders’ left Europe to come to the Colonies was for religious freedom and freedom of speech. Williamsburg was one of the areas that was settled earliest, it has deep history, and as we all know the Revolutionary war was fought in and around the area. The war that birthed a new nation with rights that up until the founding of the US were only a dream. It seems to have been forgotten in modern America that people back in Colonial time were put in jail for ‘preaching without a license’. It was actually against the law to preach unless you were licensed by the state. I feel it is very appropriate to preach in CW, as it was one of the places that instrumental in ‘birthing’ these rights, that (unfortunately) many take for granted. It seems that anyone who knows American history would/should be welcoming to someone exercising the rights that so many have died to defend, even if they don’t agree with the message.
12. It seems that street preaching is a somewhat ….aggresive ….way to spread the message and seems to alienate many people. Why do you think this is?
Again, I would redirect you to Acts. Look at the historic reaction to preaching in the streets. Violence and Death. Beheadings, Stoning and Cruxifictions. In the Reformation people were burned alive at the stake and the reaction to modern preachers are no different at all. there has never been a time in church history where people were fond of preaching in public. Never.
I can’t stress this enough, that people do not have a problem with standing up on box proclaiming what they believe in. (Look at all the people demonstrating in the streets for Conan O’Brien this week, no complaints that they are not being effective.) People have a problem with the Gospel. The Gospel is exclusive and narrow minded. Completely opposed to the comfortable, sinful lives of men.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the Life, no one comes to the father but by me” John 14:6
Matthew 10:22 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Luke 6:22
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Jesus never gives the impression that the reaction to the Gospel will be anything less then aggressive. He warns over and over again about the result of preaching the Gospel. Death, persecution.
I want to be very clear, we are not out there to be aggressive. We are not out there with this cynical mindset that were going to cause a scene. (Although there are heretical, hostile and ignorant street preachers who do think this way…and we do not associate or befriend these men.) We honestly, genuinly and passionatly care for everyone that we minister to.
Let me ask you a question, if you knew that a building was on fire and people were walking into that building how loud and passionate would you be in your efforts to warn them of destruction? You plead with them. Beg them, yell and scream that they come to a stop and turn around from their current direction and this would be seen as incredibly loving.
The same is true, we genuinly believe that every moment people all around the world are stepping off into eternity. Because we love people we want to tell them the truth, they are in danger of Hell because they have rebelled against God.
People think they are naturally good, but the bible says in Romans that “All have Sinned” Jesus said “None is good but God” Telling someone that their sins have made them wicked and enemies of God is not going to get you pat on the back. Just like a Dr, who loves his patients must tell the truth when a patient has Cancer even though that news is not what one wants to hear, but because he is a good doctor and cares and knows a cure, he must tell them the full truth. No one will take chemotherapy for the fun of it.
13. There seems to have been an increase in street preaching over the last 10 to 15 years. Is it an organized movement? Are there conferences or books or codes of conduct that guide various street preachers? Or is it a more individualistic thing?
Before I answer this question I want to have you think about question 10. Clearly if there has been an increase, then the method in some way is working and effective.
I can credit the expanse of preaching to nothing more then the Work of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing thing it is to see Godly, Christ Centered preaching all over the country.
Now, if I had to pinpoint a start to this, some ministry or individual who God has used to start this I would have to point to Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron from Way of the Master. Their TV show has done wonders in spreading the Gospel to the masses and training people in open air preaching and just as you state the ministry started about 10 years ago here in America when Ray Comfort came from New Zealand. Pretty much everyone I preach with was saved as a result of their ministry at LivingWaters.com
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this with me. I would like to put out a challenge to the readers. I would gladly be willing to have a more formal, reasoned and academic debate on the issue of the Biblical Nature of street preaching. Maybe at W&M, sponsored by the Gazzette. If you could find someone willing to take the other side a pastor or some church leader I believe it could be very benficial for the residents of Williamsburg.
Marcus Pittman
