Glowrage

Glowrage

Ministry Update April 17, 2016

For those of you who are old like me, you probably don’t know what a glowrage is. We were witnessing in downtown Springfield, MO on April 15, 2016 across from the Outland Ballroom. The crowd was lined up down the block and around the corner. We noticed that several people were dressed in white t-shirts and white shorts. So I googled it when I got home Friday night and found out that at a glowrage the young people dance around while music is being played and people on the stage stand there and throw paint on the crowd. 

Hecklers

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised that God provided us with such a large crowd. So we sang a few hymns and then I jumped up on the box and brought a message Will You Split Hell Wide Open? A truck with the rebel flag drove up in front of us and revved his engine in front of us. Then several motorcycles pulled up and revved their engines. One went through the intersection and then he flipped his motorcycle over, throwing him and his rider off. He wrecked it hard enough that it knocked pieces off the bike. Maybe, just maybe he revved it up too high trying to mock God.

Another heckler ran toward me and swiped his leg like he was going to kick the step stool out from underneath me. He did this twice, but he didn’t touch me or the stool, but he wanted me to think that he was really going to do. I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to, but he didn’t follow through.

Then Brian preached next. This is his third time doing open-air. He’s still a little quiet, which usually doesn’t rile people up. But a couple of the guys across the street hugged each other, loudly proclaiming that they are gay and proceeded to describe in detail their sexual immorality. Aaron and I both encouraged Brian to keep preaching, which he did.

Aaron brought a message after Brian and he stirred up a couple of hecklers. The first guy just stood next to him, but didn’t say anything. So Erica came over and held the sign that I was holding and I walked up to him and asked him if he had any questions. He said do you have a question for me? I said yeah, where will you spend eternity? He just laughed and accused Aaron of being angry. I pointed out that all he said was Jesus said unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. I said, that isn’t hate, that’s preaching God’s word.

Then he started walking away and told me not to follow Aaron. I told him that I don’t follow him, I follow Jesus. About that time his girlfriend walked up and he told me that she’s a Christian. She said, yes, that she goes to Schweitzer United Methodist Church. I told her that I used to go there for 12 years. I  asked them if they were married and they both said no. I turned to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and asked them to read it. He told me to read it to them so I did. I pointed out that the apostle Paul said do not be deceived and that’s why we street preach. We don’t want people to be deceived. I asked them if they have sex and they admitted that they did. I reminded them that Paul says the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God and that they need to repent and surrender their lives to Jesus.

He said what about you. I told him that I used to be a fornicator, idolater, adulterer, drunkard, thief and liar. But I’ve been saved. God saved me and changed me. Then I told them that 1 Corinthians 6:11 says that such were some of you. But you are washed, you are cleansed. Then she told me what her pastor says about being good and being good to others. I said yes I know, I used to go your church, but being good and feeding the poor does not save you. It is not the Gospel. Then she said well I pray to God every night. I told her that God doesn’t hear the prayers of sinners (Proverbs 28:9; John 9:31), so He doesn’t listen to her prayers. They both laughed at that. I told her that Jesus said if you love Me, keep My commandments. At that point they were done listening so I offered her a tract and she wouldn’t take it. The man tore up the one I handed him when I first met him. So I offered him a tract again and this time he took it. May God convict and convert both of them. Her name is Amber and his name is Aaron.

Then the next heckler that Aaron stirred up was a tall black man that said he was gay. He cussed like a sailor and stood right next to us. I tried to block him from getting to Aaron, while Aaron was preaching, but he snuck in between us. At that point, he just hugged him. Later on, he’d walk around, cussing and yelling at people. The worst part is I’m afraid people walking by thought that he was with us.

Aaron, Brian, Erica, Diana, Elise and I ended the night singing hymns and this man kept standing near us. So I asked the girls to move down and I stood on one side of him and Aaron was on the other side of him. He had been drinking and we suspect he had taken drugs too. We’d sing and he’d sit down on the curb and start crying. Then he’d jump up and start cussing people again. He kept swinging from docile to aggressive. His strange behavior continued the whole time we sang hymns.

At the end, we were trying to sing Revive Us Again and he interrupted us to the point that we finally gave up and called it a night. So before we knew it, he knocked the hymnal out of my hands, Brian’s hands and Aaron’s hands. Then he walked over and tried to knock it out of Erica’s hand (but as we say in my house she manned up and didn’t let him knock it out of her hand). We all yelled at him to leave the women alone and he did.

We packed up and were heading out. He started yelling real, loud and cussing. Some other guy walked up and started preaching at him. The tall black guy walked over and hit this man. Shortly thereafter the police came. When we walked away, the man was kneeling on the ground with his hands in the air. As we were walking away a woman that took one of my Crossway Baptist Church tracts wanted to know if we all go to Crossway. Erica told her that she goes to an AnaBaptist church and that we go to different churches. She talked to us for a few minutes and thanked us for witnessing downtown.

I forgot to mention that before we even started the night, while we were still getting set up, Erica was handing out tracts. One lady walked by and loudly yelled stay away from me while Erica was merely handing out tracts. She kept yelling at us as she walked down the street. Aaron tried to talk to her, but she didn’t really want to talk, she just wanted to mouth off about how we were judging people. Isn’t ironic how hypocritical people are who accuse us of judging (and we were merely handing out tracts) and they are the ones judging us?

Before Aaron and Brian left downtown, a man named Michael asked them to jump his car. They did so and shared the Gospel with him and prayed with him. May God save Michael.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                  Mostly Quiet at MSU

Earlier in the week Aaron and I witnessed at MSU. It was mostly quiet. At one point I was naming off some sins and a bunch of guys walked by in their gym shorts like they were getting ready to go running. I said are a fornicator? And several of them yelled Yes! Are you an adulterer? Yes, they yelled. Are you an idolater? Yes again. Are you drunkard? Yes. Are you a liar? Yes. Obviously they were just trying to be mockers, but the sad truth is most of them probably are fornicators, drunkards and liars. But making fun of their predicament won’t help them. They need to see their sin as serious and repent and trust Jesus.

Aaron preached next and we had a couple of students that sat down on the benches and listened to the messages. While Aaron preached, I went to the sidewalk behind him and handed out tracts there. Normally we hand out tracts in front of the free speech zone, but I went behind this time to try to reach some of the students that normally don’t walk by us. A few of them took tracts. We probably handed out less than a hundred tracts altogether. The majority of the students politely refused tracts.

This is why we are such big believers in open-air preaching. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). How can they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14) You can say no to tracts. You can mock and laugh at us while you walk by. But you can’t avoid God’s truth. You can’t unhear the Gospel.  You can ignore it or you can reject it, but you cannot unhear what you’ve heard. Who knows, maybe one day God will bring back to mind for someone that unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Maybe God will use the seeds that are planted now to reach a lost soul later on. God’s ways are not our ways. All we can do is be obedient to Him.