By Larry Rosenbaum
When evangelist Luis Palau came to San Francisco in 1980, he gave five reasons for having a mass evangelistic crusade:
1. The gospel goes to many thousands more people than if just one or two churches were involved.
2. The whole city becomes “God‑conscious” for the period of the outreach, making Jesus Christ and the Bible common topics of discussion among all groups of people for much longer.
3. The powers of darkness are disrupted as the light of Christ is firmly held up by a united church.
4. As a result of this disruption of Satan’s strongholds, evangelism becomes easier.
5. Churches grow and plant new churches in areas of the city where crusade decisions reveal a need.
Once your street witnessing team has been going for a while, you may want to plan a city‑wide outreach in your community. One way to do this is to plan it around a special event. Almost every city has at least one special event each year‑‑such as a big parade or festival. During this time, there will be a lot of extra people to witness to. Also, it is easier to get Christians excited about witnessing at a special event.
You will need to start planning several months before the outreach. For the outreach to be successful, one or more people need to commit themselves to work very hard at planning the outreach, making sure every detail is worked out. For the SOS‑ San Francisco outreach, a steering committee of six leaders meets about five times a year to provide basic direction for the outreach. I spend much of the year working out many of the details. During the first year, everything was new and I needed a lot of outside help. Now, many of the details are routine‑‑ putting together publicity literature, sending out public service announcements to the radio stations, writing newsletters, arranging housing for workers, getting loudspeaker permits and bands, meeting with pastors, youth leaders and other such things.
How do you get churches involved in your outreach? You can start by visiting some of the key pastors in your community. Call the church office and set up an appointment with the pastor. If someone from that church is already involved in street witnessing, bring him with you. Dress neatly. Share about the street witnessing team, your desire to see more Christians involved in evangelism in the community and to see various churches working together, and about the city‑wide outreach. Ask him what he thinks could be done to get the people in his church involved.
Perhaps you could come and share at his church‑‑to the entire congregation, to a discipleship class or a youth group. You could take some pictures of your street witnessing and put together a simple slide show. Ask him if he would attend one or two planning meetings before the outreach, and if he would really encourage people in his church to get involved in the outreach. Invite his church to help with follow‑up. Take Him to the Streets has an excellent chapter (#89) on “Working with and Visiting Churches.”
It is also a good idea to meet with youth pastors of the key churches in your area. If a youth pastor is supportive of your ministry, he can get his entire youth group involved. Most youth leaders really want their young people to get serious with the Lord. Street witnessing can help young people see the challenge God has given them to reach others. If we can get Christians to start witnessing when they are young, they will develop a pattern that is likely to continue as they grow older.
Most people who receive Christ do so before they are 18. In general, young people are most effective with people their own age, as they relate better. Also, they have natural contacts with unsaved friends in the public schools. Unfortunately, most teenage Christians do not witness to their unsaved friends because of peer pressure. Often, it is easier for them to start witnessing to strangers on the street. As they grow in boldness, they will find it easier to witness to their friends. A high school student who is committed to the Lord and not afraid to witness can be used to bring many others to Christ. A high school youth group that is committed to Christ can turn its schools upside down. Ask the youth pastor if you can speak with his group about street witnessing. We have had a number of high school groups involved in our outreaches in San Francisco. They are very effective on the streets. Street witnessing really helps them get excited about serving God.
Once you have met some pastors and youth pastors, you can form an outreach planning committee. Invite pastors and other mature Christian leaders in your community who are supportive of your work to join the committee. Schedule three or four planning meetings, 4‑6 weeks apart, before the outreach. Explain to them that you don’t want token participation, but that you expect them to participate in planning the outreach, and to get their churches involved. Put together an agenda before the meeting, and give out copies to each participant. Some of the items you will need to discuss include: Publicity‑‑printing up posters and other literature, getting other churches involved. Literature‑‑ printing up tracts, purchasing Bibles. Finance‑‑putting together a budget for the outreach. Ask each church to make a commitment toward the budget. Evangelistic methods‑‑At a parade, you may want to make a Christian float. At a fair, you could get a booth. You could print up a special newspaper for the event. You could have one or more concerts or worship rallies. Ask for ideas. Training‑‑you could do a special institute before the outreach to train people to witness on the streets. Recruiting workers from the churches for evangelism and follow‑up‑‑you could offer to speak about the outreach in various churches.
Ask for input from the pastors as you discuss each item. Delegate as much work as you can. Perhaps one church will print up the tracts. Another will purchase Bibles. Another will make a float, or some signs, or will design and print up a poster. If you delegate work, make sure it actually gets done. Ask the pastors to speak about the outreach with other pastors they know, and encourage them to get involved.
At the end of each meeting, schedule a time for the next meeting. After the meeting, write each pastor to remind him about the next meeting. You can include a summary of what happened at the last meeting, what each person committed himself to do, and what will be discussed at the next meeting.
Publicizing the Outreach
Generally, it takes a lot of publicity to get Christians involved in an evangelistic outreach. We normally start by printing up literature‑‑posters, fliers, information sheets, inserts for church bulletins. The literature should give information about the outreach‑‑what you will be doing, when and where you will meet, who to contact for more information plus your address and phone number.
Then, we distribute this literature to churches, Christian bookstores, and Christian schools. Also, we have put together a mailing list of people who have shown an interest in our ministry, and we send out a regular newsletter to them. Many of these people help us publicize the outreach by putting up posters, talking to pastors, giving out fliers, etc.
We go to major Christian events in our area, such as concerts, to distribute literature. The promoter of the local Christian concerts lets us set up a booth at many of his concerts, through which we reach many Christians. Most Christian radio and TV stations have talk shows where they interview various Christian leaders, and they will probably want to have you on the show. This will help you to reach a lot of Christians in your community. Call the station and talk with the station manager or program manager about this
Christian Concerts and Worship Rallies
We have found in San Francisco that concerts and worship rallies are an effective way of getting Christians involved in evangelism and of drawing in unbelievers to hear the gospel. You may want to plan one or more concerts or rallies for your city‑ wide outreach. First, choose a location. In San Francisco, we found that it is very difficult to get unbelievers into a church or meeting hall. Instead we plan concerts and rallies in outdoor parks which already have a lot of people in them, so we don’t have to draw a crowd. If you decide to do an outdoor event, pick a location and time when there will be a lot of people around. Call the police department to find out how you go about getting a permit for the area. You may want to reserve several different times, or try a few different locations.
Next, find a music group. Ask Christians you know about various local Christian groups. Most will play for free, or for travel expenses. If possible, listen to a tape of the group before you decide to use them. Look for a group that is reasonably good musically and, more important, wants to minister to the lost.
Worship rallies are often more effective than outdoor concerts in reaching people. When a group of Christians gathers together to worship the Lord, the presence of the Holy Spirit is felt by everyone who comes near the area. Many people are drawn to Christ in such an atmosphere. While the worship group you use should be proficient musically, it is more important that they be able to lead Christians into true worship, into the presence of God.
Conducting an Institute of Evangelism
You may want to organize an evangelism training institute before your outreach. The institute will help train workers in evangelism, and help them to get excited about witnessing and feel more confident about their ability to witness. We normally schedule our institute all day Friday and Saturday a few weeks before our major outreach. The institute should include some practical teachings in how to witness, some small group sessions where people can ask questions, and a final message to encourage people to come to the outreach and get others involved.
Attending an evangelism institute is much less threatening than witnessing. You may be able to attract a lot of Christians who have never witnessed on the streets before, including whole youth groups, if you print up some fliers and publicize the institute well. If you make witnessing seem complicated, you will scare people off. Let them know that what they learn at the institute won’t do any good unless they use it, and that they will have an opportunity to apply what they have learned at the outreach. We have found that most of those who come to our institute will also join us for the outreach
Outreach Logistics
Many details are involved in planning an outreach. You need to put together a schedule and find a central meeting place. Normally, we meet in a church. The first day, we have an orientation meeting in which we explain what will be going on during the outreach, how we expect workers to behave on the streets, and some basic witnessing instructions. We also introduce workers to the outreach leaders, go over the schedule, and answer questions. Before each witnessing time, we meet at the church for a time of worship and prayer, a short inspirational message or some testimonies, and some brief instructions.
When people arrive for the outreach, they are asked to fill out a registration form. They are given a schedule of activities for the week and a policy statement which explains our position on various issues that might come up. We also give them a list of names, addresses, phone numbers, and meeting times of churches involved in follow‑up. Another flier, called a “survival sheet,” has referral information for people who need a place to stay, or free food, medical help, job help, and welfare information.
When people register for an outreach, we assign them to a team. Each team consists of a leader and about twenty workers. The leader needs to be a mature Christian with witnessing experience. The leader’s job is to pastor his team, to help them with their witnessing, and to take care of any problems that may arise. The key to a successful outreach is good team leaders. If a group comes from a single church and wants to stay together, we put them on one team. They can use their own leader, if they have one.
One of your outreach leaders will need to oversee the team leaders. He should meet with them daily and take care of any problems that come up. Also, he will need to work out the locations where each team will go each day.
If workers will be coming in from out of town, you need to arrange housing for them. One way to do this is to find a single church (or two) where they can stay. If possible, arrange for some people to cook meals for them. Other possibilities are to house people in a college dorm or in homes of local Christians. Showers could be a problem. Is there a public shower facility at a swimming pool or a school you could use? Transporting workers is another problem. Can you borrow some vans or buses? Often there are enough cars to transport everyone.
At the end of each church meeting, we usually take an offering to cover the expenses of the outreach. Each year we go into debt several thousand dollars as we print up publicity literature, tracts, and incur other expenses. By the end of each outreach we have always received enough in the offerings to pay our bills.
When the church meeting is dismissed, we make sure every person is assigned to a team, and have the workers meet with their team leader for prayer and instructions for the day. As they leave the church, they pick up tracts and literature on the tables outside the sanctuary. You can write your own tracts or get some from a tract company. Some tract companies will send you tracts for free or for whatever you can donate. Take Him to the Streets has a list of addresses for tract companies. Make sure you stamp all tracts with a local address and phone number where people can get help.
If there are people in your community who speak a foreign language, you should have tracts in these languages. Also, you should have tracts written for children. Each worker should take a list of addresses and meeting times of local churches and follow‑up cards, on which they write the name, address, phone number and other pertinent information of people who pray to receive Christ
Follow‑up
We have found that personal contact is the key to follow‑up. When you meet someone on the street and he responds to what you say, you have developed a rapport with him that will greatly help in follow‑up. It is best if you can visit him, or at least call or write him, yourself. If you are from out of town, try to introduce him to a local Christian when you first meet him on the street, so he can do the follow‑up. We need to take a genuine interest in the people we talk with, especially new believers. If a local Christian can develop a friendship with a new believer, he can help that person get established in his church, and in the Lord.
Try to make your initial follow‑up visit within 24 hours after the person prays to receive Christ. Otherwise, Satan will attack the new believer, tell him what he did wasn’t real, and persuade him to return to his old ways. If we encourage people to count the cost before praying to receive Christ and clearly explain the gospel, we will see more genuine conversions.
Some new believers will not grow in the Lord unless they can get into some kind of Christian living situation. This is especially true in large cities such as San Francisco, where there are many people with life‑controlling problems such as drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual perversion, and mental disturbances. Some of these people can be referred to Christian programs such as Teen Challenge. There may be Christian families or singles who want to take someone into their home. Also, you may consider starting your own live‑in discipleship house.
After each witnessing session, we have the workers give the follow‑up cards they have filled out to their team leader, who gives them to the outreach leader in charge of follow‑up. Each local church that is involved in follow‑up will have their own visitation team. The cards will be distributed to the various churches.
After the outreach is over, we send one or two letters to each new believer, encouraging him in his spiritual growth and offering help and counseling. If you include a response sheet and a return envelope, many will respond to the letter. Items we use on the response sheet include: I would like someone to visit me; I would like a Bible study course sent to my home; I need a New Testament; Please pray for me about these needs:
Finance
Our ministry sends out a monthly newsletter that relates what is happening in our ministry, announces upcoming outreaches, sometimes contains a brief teaching on evangelism, and presents our needs. We try to make our needs known in a straightforward manner. Often, we have seen God meet needs that we never told anyone about. While God usually provides our needs through His people, He wants us to depend on Him, not on people. We also take offerings at meetings composed primarily of Christians, but we don’t take offerings at evangelistic meetings.
The Christian world has been inundated by all kinds of financial appeals. I receive mailings from about a hundred ministries. Some are honest in their request for finances, but many use various gimmicks to manipulate people to give to their ministry. Some pastors and evangelists use similarly dishonest methods to get large offerings at churches. These methods do generate large amounts of funds, which is why so many ministries use them. However, such methods are dishonoring to God and a stumbling block to unbelievers, who laugh at the greed and hypocrisy
Communicating a Vision
During the institute of evangelism and church meetings at the outreach, you will have some opportunities to share your vision for ministry with the Christians who attend. Take advantage of these meetings to stir up the saints to continue to witness boldly for Christ, to change their community and world. Suggest ministry opportunities they can get involved with. Each of us is important in God’s plan. We need to be obedient to His calling in our lives.
For too long, Christians have been sitting around, waiting for Jesus to return. We need to see that we have a mission to fulfill on this earth, that Jesus has called us to take the gospel to the people in our community and to the whole world. We have been drafted into God’s army, but most of us are A.W.O.L. (absent without leave). We need to get back on the front lines.
