Scott Brown discusses the controversial topic of street preaching, acknowledging that while there are unbiblical street preachers, the problem is not street preaching itself. He highlights the many scriptural mandates for going out into the world and sharing the gospel, and stresses the importance of being a mature, bold, and discerning street preacher who builds relationships with the people they preach to. Brown also emphasizes the need to communicate the love of God and the beauty of the kingdom of God while also addressing sin and judgment. He shares effective ways to street preach, and notes that while it can be intimidating, it is similar to individual soul winning in that it gets easier with practice.

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. Let's talk about street preaching. So that's kind of controversial.

You know, I remember in college there were these wacky preachers in the quad, and they were just screaming at the top of their lungs. And then I've met street preachers who they want nothing to do with the church, they hate the church, they're not a part of the church, I have a big problem with them. So there are these polar opposites that are pulling, but there's something better than that. So let's talk about that for a minute. All right.

Well, first of all, we know that there are unbiblical pastors, unbiblical elders. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't have elders. They're unbiblical deacons. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have deacons. There are unbiblical street preachers, but the problem is not street preaching.

We have many mandates in Scripture to go out in the highways and the hedges, and let's just face it, We're now living in a pagan, very pagan society, where most people aren't going to hear the gospel in a church. They're going to hear it somewhere. Now, first of all, a street preacher. Again, there's a misunderstanding of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. We think that those requirements are only for elders.

But those requirements are actually a description of a mature man. All it's saying is the one who's an elder ought to be mature. I believe the same applies to a street preacher. You know, that we ought to be mature men of character. Another thing is we ought to be bold.

And most men who are street preachers are bold. But we know that being bold is a gift. But we also know, Those of us who maybe have the gift of being bold, that that boldness can turn into arrogance. A prophetic view of things can turn into a critical spirit. Also, the flesh can work through religious activities as well as any other activity.

And so you'll see guys out there preaching with the sole desire of becoming martyrs. They'll even film themselves and then publish how they're being persecuted on the Internet. I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind. There are wonderful and very effective street preachers. Some of them that I know, they don't preach.

They'll go on to a college campus eight hours a day and they'll walk around praying, not just praying though, they'll walk around saying, God direct me. And they'll see someone sitting somewhere and they'll walk up and simply hand them a track and say can I share with you the gospel and they'll do that all day? Very effective. Then there are other men and I've done this, preach in parks, preach on buses, but there's a way of doing it. It requires a great deal of discernment.

And one of the things that I've found most effective in street preaching is that you need to build always a relationship with the people to whom you're preaching. And that can be done in a few seconds with just a smile, with a look at them, with talking to them in a certain way, and begin to relate to them so that they see, hey, this isn't a crazy person. This is someone who really thinks he has something to say. And One other thing, even though we must talk about sin and the judgment of God, never forget the gospel is good news. I love just speaking about the glories and the beauties of Christ.

That's the gospel. So a communication of the love of God, the beauty of the kingdom of God, is really important. Street preachers often lose that. It's difficult too, because you're being heckled and things like that. You need sort of a holy, quick speed on your feet to handle a lot of that kind of thing.

Yeah, that's true. Some brothers from Jeremiah cry who I knew over in Ireland, they were preaching. Good brothers and good preachers. And they would take a small ladder and stand on top of it. They were complaining one day after I saw them.

They said, you know, people kept knocking them off the ladder. It was like almost some kind of circus thing where people would throw the ball and see if they could knock the person into the water. It can be difficult. But here, street preaching is a lot like individual soul winning in the sense that When you walk out there and no one knows what you're about to do, it's very intimidating. But when you get the first line out and everybody's, you know, there's nothing to lose now, everyone thinks you're crazy, then it becomes a lot easier.

It's the same way with soul winning, you