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Ask Pastor John

Is Street Evangelism Better Than Building Relationships?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2019

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

God has not given us a formula for when to share the gospel quickly and when to share over time in the context of a relationship. Both are needed.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Well, there are multiple ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

0:08.4

You can open air, preach to an audience, or you can just walk up to a stranger on the

0:13.6

street with a tract and hope for a brief conversation.

0:17.7

Or you can invest in someone's life as a friend first, eventually leading them then to

0:22.6

the gospel.

0:24.5

One approach does not preclude the others.

0:27.0

So what do different forms of evangelism look like in the life of Pastor John himself?

0:32.2

At the recent cross-conference, Pastor John fielded audience questions, and I wanted to share

0:37.0

two of them with you today.

0:39.0

The first is from a young woman named Christie at the microphone.

0:42.2

Here she is.

0:43.2

As I'm curious, whenever you're not in settings like this, how you share the gospel with

0:48.9

people, like if you have a five minutes or less, somebody you're checking out at Walmart

0:53.5

or whatever to tell someone about Christ, like what do you tell them?

0:58.0

Well, let's just use real examples.

1:01.2

I'm in Minnesota, so I only do this about eight months out of the year.

1:06.4

I call it jogging evangelism.

1:08.4

I'm a jogger, and I'm really slow, like 13 minute miles, okay?

1:17.0

And I jog through my neighborhood.

1:18.3

It's a very poor neighborhood, and I know where everything is.

1:20.9

I know where the homeless people are.

1:22.4

I know where the people are under the bridge.

...

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