The first time I preached publicly all by myself was in Oregon in about the summer of 1989. I traveled there with my roommate Mitch Stroda. He had family in the area, and was an aspiring itinerant preacher looking for speaking engagements in a few churches he knew of.
I was just along for the ride, but recently been exposed to open air evangelism (street preaching) by my pastor. I first watched him preach to students at a couple of local high schools. Later I preached once with him and Kris Stroda outside a University of Nebraska football game. The few minutes I spoke to the huge crowd passing by was terrifying. And I felt very inadequate. I really wished I could boldly lift up my voice and declare the truth like he did. But besides being terrified, I didn’t really know what to say. I seem to have plenty to say now, and the terror left me after the first 25 years or so. But it’s hard to express just how difficult it is to do it the first time. Plan on doing it yourself, and you will know.
Back to that summer in Oregon: We were staying in the rural Junction City/Harrisburg area with Mitch’s grandmother. I found out about a street dance planned for that night. These are typically large main street beer gardens with a live band and a large crowd. I decided I would go by myself to preach that night. The feeling I had all that day was what I imagine it’s like waiting for your own execution. And I’m not being facetious. When I stood on the edge of the crowd that night, about all I could think of to do was loudly yell something like this: “You all need to repent, or you’re going to hell!” As I recall, I had a little reaction and interaction from a few people in the crowd, and I just repeating my message to them. But one thing I remember very clearly is a seemingly sincere young man who approached me.
He said he appreciated what I was trying to do, but he thought it would help me to learn some apologetics. I didn’t even know what that was. But I would find out later.
Not long after becoming a Christian, I had started passing out tracts with others zealous young people at a church I attended. When I would ask for answers to the questions which sinners asked me; I was told to just ignore them. “The natural mind can’t comprehend the things of God” they would say to me. (1Cor.2:14) And I would think, “But if the truth is the truth, there should be an answer for it.” I didn’t realize it, but that was my first hunger for an apologetic. 1Peter3:15 says: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give ans answer to to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
This New Testament letter to the churches, later included in the New Testament, was originally written in Greek. And the Greek word there for, “answer” is “apologia” where we get the word, “apologetic” from. It’s not an, “apology” for what you believe, but rather an unapologetic, reasonable declaration of why you believe it! That young man in Oregon was the first one to mention it to me. But I should have heard it in church first. How many churches do you know who actively teach and encourage people to witness and preach?
In the beginning of my attempting to preach, people would tell me not to try to be this person or that person, but just be myself. The trouble was, I was just getting started, and didn’t know who I was yet!
Pastor Mike Wooten was one of the biggest influences on my life for some fifteen years. Once he preached a message about John the Baptist being a voice in the wilderness. He said the trouble nowadays was we had too many echoes, and not enough Voices for God.
It bothered me for years, because I felt that every good thought I ever had came from someone else and that I was just an echo rather than a voice. Maybe 10 years later, when he saw how crippling that thought was to me, he admitted that he got the message from Leonard Ravenhill!
But it really set me free when I heard that the ever quotable pastor- B.H. Clendennen freely admitted he himself was a, “product of a thousand spiritual tributaries”.
He said of truths he gathered from others living or dead, “If you preach it, and I like it- It’s mine!”
I suppose perhaps the greatest compliment a preacher could receive is when their words become such a part of you, that their thoughts become your own and you forget you heard it from them. Over time, you might even begin to imagine that they got it from you!
Someone has said that originality is simply undetected plagiarism. (Didn’t I just say that?) Dear reader, if something I say here is a blessing to you. Please use it! Make it your own.
Like Bro. Clendennen, I thankfully recognize the vast number of people who have made spiritual contributions to my life. Some I never knew. Like William Tyndale, who risked being burned at the stake to translate the Bible into English for me. Other influences on me were evangelists, campus preachers, missionaries and pastors whom I knew very well.
Some have died. Some have turned aside from what they once preached and stood for, and I have had to separate from them. Some have committed adultery and even suicide. I lament with King David, “Oh how the mighty art fallen!”
Isaac Newton said, If I have seen farther, it’s because I stood on the shoulders of giants.
I don’t claim any great vision. But some of the men God used in my life were certainly giants to me.
Stolen Valor is a legal term used when war hero wannabes rob glory from deserving veterans (very often Navy Seals) by falsely claiming participation in battles they never saw, exaggerating or inventing wounds they never sustained, dreaming up prisoner of war experiences they never had, and claiming medals, awards, and commendations they never received or earned. Some of these guys even have phony papers and uniforms with decorations. They write books, participate in VFW memorial day parades, and even speak in schools and churches!
In the book of Acts, God killed Ananias and Sapphira for claiming more commitment to Christ than they had, and pretending to be something they weren’t.
In telling my stories, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not a full time evangelist/street preacher as some are. I have not paid a high price like many martyrs through history, or even the persecuted church today. Any slight reproach I have borne in the course of standing up for Jesus feels like a mockery compared to what many have actually sacrificed and endured for him.
Though I have been involved in open air preaching for a long time, I have not always practiced it consistently. And though I have been handcuffed a handful of times, I have only been to jail once for an hour or two. I have enjoyed the lingering benefits of our battered U.S. Constitution, and ministries of pro-bono Christian attorneys who fight for religious liberty in our post-Christian culture. I was involved in two lawsuits against the police. I won a grand total of One Dollar and a very lame apology letter from the authorities. Since my first limited exposure to biblical evangelism since 1986, I have suffered next to nothing.
I’ve never been physically beat up. Maybe pushed around a few times and hit once on a couple occasions. Anything commendable in me is the mercy and grace of God. Anything worthy of condemnation is my own fault. Besides the Bible, reading Foxes Book of Martyrs and other testimonies of the present day persecuted church will keep one from thinking they are something special.
For some reason, when I compare the persecuted church to the relative religious liberty and Constitutional rights we enjoy in America, it makes me think of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 4:10 “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.”
They are persecuted, but we have rights! They are forgotten, but we’re on Youtube! They’re being beaten, but we’re winning court battles! I’m sometimes ashamed that we have freedom while others are enslaved for their faith in Christ. But even the Apostle Paul asserted his rights as a Roman citizen. (Acts 16:37,38 Acts 22:25-28) So I feel that lawsuits to protect our first amendment are good stewardship. God has blessed us with freedoms we should try to preserve for future generations to promote the Gospel and Kingdom of God. The best way to preserve our rights is to exercise them.