Stone the Preacher

Three weeks ago I wrote about preaching in front of the Porta-Potties at the Tournament of Roses Parade (read it here).
But now, see it live! It’s in two parts because we were suddenly interrupted by the police and had to reposition ourselves!

The first part is only three minutes long, and yes, I made two verbal errors; see if you can hear them. In part 2 below (a little over a minute long), notice the man who hurriedly exits out of the Potty. Was it conviction or did he think I was just full of it?

PORTA-POTTY PREACHING LIVE! (PART 1)

PORTA-POTTY PREACHING LIVE! (PART 2)

I can’t be entirely sure… but I think the following comments are from the KISS guy whom I interviewed a year ago on Hollywood Blvd..
You see, I met him again last December (and interviewed him again), and told him that his video interview is very popular on GodTube and YouTube. On GodTube alone, it’s been seen over 31,000 times!

 
(You can see it by clicking here.)

Why do I think it’s him? Well, the KIIS guy’s name is Gary, and the commenter’s name is Gary. He seems to be rather agitated, more so than the average irritated viewers who watch my evangelistic interviews (that is, except for the American Indians who want me to die of cancer because of my interview with one of their own). So heeeeeeere’s Gary’s comments:

“Steve was being a total jerk to the guy! The questions he was asking were a set-up!! What if the situation were reversed and STEVE was being asked those questions?? Could this jerk actually answer NO to any of those questions??? I DOUBT IT!!!! And what about his cameraman??? What about ANYBODY IN THE WORLD?????? And that includes any of you reading this right now!! The questions are set up to make ANYONE look like an ass!!!!”
—Gary Downe

I’m amazed at the controversy that my interview with the KISS guy started on GodTube.
It’s divided between those “Christians” who don’t have a clue what I’m doing as I take him through the 10 Commandments, Judgment Day and Hell; and on the other side are those who are proponents of Way of the Master. Fortunately, it’s catapulted the video into the top 40 of the “most discussed” videos on the site, allowing for more people to be exposed to this evangelistic Biblical principle. Here are some sample comments:

ieatfood said: “At first I only watched a little of this video, and was angry at the interviewer at his approach. I was about to spout off about it, but then went back and finished the video. It seemed ok in this instance. Gary seems like a well intentioned guy, which I know, is not grounds for salvation, but deffinately made the interviewer’s job a lot easier. I don’t think that this way of witnessing would work all the time though… I don’t think that we should stand on street corners and shout about God.”

tuneups said: “If Gary gets to heaven, he’ll thank this evangelist, not the ones who patted his back and gave him all the happy thoughts..truth is the ultimate love.” (more…)

There are a number of  people who read this blog who don’t have the wonderful blessings of living in a place with nearly year-round sunshine like California, so the opportunities for effective evangelism are severely limited.
 One man from the far north complains incessantly about the snow he has to shovel daily; another whines about how cold it is in his state. 

Since I am a pastor, my heart strings have been tugged a little bit. Not wanting anyone to miss out on the awesome privelege of sharing their faith, regardless of their weather or particular life situation, I have provided two links that will help you to be prepared in season and out of season. 

Click here to find out how to use tracts when you can’t get out of the house.

And click here to find out how you can do one-to-one witnessing while watching the latest snowfall. 

“My mom is the best person I know…. For better or worse my parents have pounded it into my head when I was little and growing up that being a good citizen and being an active participant in our democracy is part of being a good person.” —Chelsea Clinton on why her mom should be the next president. (L.A. Times 1/18/08)

Yes, but is she good enough to get to Heaven?

There is no need to “lift up your voice like a trumpet” when you can wear a loud tie only a Dad could love.

—From ALittleLeaven.com

The bodies of a family reported missing in Kentucky were found in a car submerged in a creek, authorities said in Sparta. Foul play was not suspected. —L.A. Times 1/19/08

I get a lot of great feedback when I share my faith. Starting with last week’s quote from the Walmart worker who called my daughter brainwashed when she handed him a tract (read it here), I’m going to attempt to make these quotes a regular Friday feature. There is just so much good stuff people say that I just have to share it all with you.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“They’re not going to listen to you because you are white!”
 —An African American teenager outside Leuzinger High School where another pastor and myself have started sharing our faith every Tuesday after school.

ANOTHER QUOTE:

“You just come to this school because a lot of the kids are in gangs.”
—Same African American girl after she realized our purpose.

AND A REALLY FUNNY QUOTE IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT:

“Hey! You were at the King Parade!”
—An African American teen who recognized me as I evangelized in front of Leuzinger High—which is eleven miles away from the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade where we witnessed the day before! I wanted to ask him how he recognized me, but realized that it might be because I was one of about twenty Caucasion people at the parade—

—and I was one of the few carrying a stack of Giant $100.00 Gospel tracts!

To find out what we are doing and where we are going this weekend as an evangelism team, just click here and scroll down to see the full schedule!

You may remember that ’70’s T.V. show “Good Times”; I watched it a lot in “the day.”

Well, in addition to handing out a Gospel tract to Stevie Wonder at the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, I had the opportunity to hand out a few Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts to John Amos, the Dad in the series. DYN-O-MITE!!!

You may be asking yourself, “What is the big deal in handing out Gospel tracts to celebrities at a parade?” The answer is the same reason why we hand out thousands to spectators who watch the parade: We hope that someone will read the message on the back, repent, and trust in the Savior. With a celebrity though, it’s a little different. If a celebrity should read the back, believe the message, and become a follower of Christ, there is the potential for that same celebrity to use his fame for Christian witness.

I handed L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a few million dollars, too, as he walked beside his vehicle. He proceeded to shout into the microphone that he was carrying, “Ha, ha! I just got a few million dollars.” Then he continued on his way.

Don’t underestimate the power of these simple Gospel tools. Giant $100.00 bills? Ridiculous. Gospel messages written on the back of a silly, phony million dollar bill? How stupid.

Read what R. A. Torrey wrote about the usefulness of tracts over a hundred years ago:
A tract will often succeed in winning a man to Christ where a sermon or a personal conversation has failed. There are a great many people who, if you try to talk with them, will put you off; but if you put a tract in their hands and ask God to bless it, after they go away and are alone they will read the tract and God will carry it home to their hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost.

At the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade I had the opportunity to hand Steveland Hardaway Judkins, aka Stevie Wonder, a Giant $100.00 bill Gospel tract signed, sealed, delivered; it was a bit of a challenge though. I had to call out “Hey Stevie! Hey Stevie! Hold out your arm! I’ve got a Giant $100.00 bill for you!” His assistant gladly took the tract.
Who knows? Maybe someone will read him the truth of the Gospel written on the back of the bill and his eyes will be opened!
(Former T.V. star John Amos, from the ’70’s hit “Good Times,” gets a few million dollars. See it by clicking here.)

I love to occasionally check in and read Ray Comfort’s blog, Comfort Food. One story was particularly intriguing, maybe you’ve already read it: Ray and his manager had dinner with forty atheists—and the outcome was quite surprising. He wrote a great account of what happened here.
As amazing as that was, I read another version of events written by one of the atheists who attended the dinner:

“We were worried that it may be an ambush, that they were just looking to preach to us, that sort of thing. But I never got that vibe from our emails. Fortunately, the entire evening turned out to be an excellent discussion. They honestly wanted to learn more about us, and we honestly wanted to find out more about them. Everyone kept pretty calm and it was a nice rational discussion. Ray filmed a chunk of the conversations, so we divided up our group of about 40 people into a filmable table and a non-filmable table, for those who prefered to remain anonymous. Ray even bought dinner for everyone, and had gifts for myself and about a dozen books for everyone to check out. Very generous of him!”
Read the rest of the story with photos of the dinner by clicking here.

Yesterday the evangelism team hit The Martin Luther King Jr. Parade in a community in which many of us were not familiar. One of the highlights was handing Stevie Wonder a giant $100.00 bill Gospel tract—and getting a picture of the hand off! Tune in tomorrow…

A very talented Cajun violinist from our congregation, Lisa Haley, has been nominated for a Grammy Award for her new album “King Cake.”
This is great news because Lisa is unashamed and unafraid to share her faith in her music and in the public eye. She distributes the Million Dollar bill Gospel tracts at her concerts and regularly confronts people with their eternal destination.

The evangelism team is also planning to attend the Grammy Awards on February 10, preaching to the throngs outside. Lisa will be inviting the Grammy guests, should she win, to take a Million Dollar bill from the people outside the awards venue when they leave. Though she will not be part of the televised portion of the broadcast, I’m sure she will make quite an impact.

Take a listen to some of her music and watch her music video here!

A Texas man can once again freely witness at a public transit station after being told by police that he would first have to buy a ticket if he wanted to share the gospel. Click here to read the rest!

Every now and then an atheist website will call attention to my humble little blog and then all Hell breaks loose. I mean that literally. All the minions who are destined for perdition (should they remain in their lost condition), take potshots at some of my articles.

Here are some samples:

Concerning the quote about my daughter in the article “My Daughter Gets Persecuted,” Jim wrote: “Don’t try to proselytize me and convince me to switch to your faith, unless you want me to do the same to you.”

Phil said: “The fact is, the WalMart employee was NOT singling out and ‘judging’ the child… the employee was showing SYMPATHY for the child, in light of the unconscionable CHILD ABUSE (religious indoctrination and brainwashing) that had been inflicted upon the child.”

MFZ penned: “Shame on you for making your child a tool for YOUR religious agenda.”

And Kenton had some strong feelings about my preaching to the crowd in line at Pink’s Hot Dog stand: “I have to say your “evangelizing” strikes me as very discourteous. People who are just in line for a hot dog probably don’t appreciate having religious dogma preached at them. I know I certainly wouldn’t. Doesn’t the religion you’re peddling teach you the value of common courtesy?”

A reminder for the uninitiated: Every Monday I post an article about people dying suddenly and tragically to remind us that tomorrow is promised to no man. “Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people…” (Hebrews 9:27) There is a bit of urgency in preaching the Gospel…

Carbon monoxide fumes killed a hotel guest and sickened four others Friday after a construction canopy blocked venting from the building’s water heaters, officials said.

Levels of the poisonous, odorless gas were so high that rescuers were forced to retreat until the Best Western Allentown Inn & Suites could be ventilated. —L.A. Times 1/19/07

“Poor little brain-washed kid!”
—Comment from a Walmart worker after my 8-year-old daughter D.D. handed him a Gospel tract.

This Saturday we will be going to The Nokia Theatre to witness to the probable thousands who will be attending the Chinese New Year Spectacular.
The Nokia is a new venue and should be fun! Meet at Hope Chapel at noon to carpool.

On Monday we will attend the Martin Luther King Parade.
Meet at Hope Chapel at 8AM to participate. We will do Parade-Gap Preaching while handing out thousands of tracts.
For further info on ALL upcoming evangelism events, click here!

We weren’t there for the famous hot dogs named after celebrities.

Though I have to admit, The Ozzy Spice Dog, with nacho cheese, American cheese, grilled onions, and chopped tomatoes sounded delicious.

And we weren’t there to see celebrities who acted like hotdogs during the former Happy Days of their careers.

We were there for the ridiculous crowds that have snaked around this Hollywood landmark since 1939!

I can almost guarantee that in the 69 years that Pink’s World Famous Hot Dogs has been in business, no one ever stood on a little stool to preach to people waiting in line for a Rosie O’ Donnel Long Island Dog…

…that just wouldn’t be kosher!

But I relished the idea of asking people: If you were to choke on a hot dog today and die, would you go to Heaven or Hell?

Oh sure, some people may have thought that this venerable institution had gone to the dogs, but I didn’t see anyone get too steamed when I warned them about breaking God’s 10 Commandments, as I reminded them that lying one time, stealing one thing, lusting only once, or misusing God’s name only one time would leave them guilty before a Holy God, and the penalty would be Hell, where they would be broiled and grilled forever.

I then told them the good news of Jesus Christ. I pleaded for them to repent and trust in the Savior. As I did this, an Orthodox Jewish man and his sons walked by.

Fortunately, no one threw a Pastrami Reuben Dog at me.

Fellow preacher “Righteous Richard” Chavarria wanted a piece of this evangelistic action, so he had to ketchup with the rest of the crowd at the back of the line…

…as the sun set on the home of The Martha Stewart Dog.

Photos of former L.A. mayor James Hahn and “The Fonz” are from Pink’s website.
Click here to read the essence of the text we use for open air preaching.

One more E-vangie Tale from a student in my Drama/Evangelism class for 9-13-year-olds. This is from Cody Heath, age 12:

Yesterday I handed my buddy some tracts. We talked, then my buddy’s Mom came out and handed me a gift certificate for $300.00 for martial arts lessons. I was so happy that I almost forgot what my buddy’s reaction was when I handed him the tract. He was very happy and asked for a few more tracts to hand out to his buddies. So… it was a cool day. I guess the saying, “Give and you shall receive” is right.
Thank you…

In a recent interview, the first fitness guru—now in his 90’s—said this:

“Billy Graham is all about the hereafter. I am about the here and now.”
—From the Costco Connection, January, 2008

Last week, “Famous Lost Words” featured Joel Osteen giving his take on Mitt Romney and Mormonism saying that he thinks he’s a Christian and that he would vote for him. Here’s a one minute video of him actually saying this foolish statement—and more!

“…no Book of Morman cities have ever been located, no Book of Morman person, place, nation, or name has ever been found, no Book of Morman artifacts, no Book of Morman scriptures, no Book of Morman inscriptions… nothing which demonstrates the Book of Morman is anything other than a myth or invention has ever been found.” —From “The Facts on the Morman Church” by John Ankerberberg and John Weldon, as cited in “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel.

This is the third E-vangie Tale written by a student from my evangelism/drama class. 10-year-old Kristina Pagett is the author:

I was at Target with my mom when a lady walked toward us. I said, “Did you get one of these?”

She said “No, thank you,” which in other words was, “No I don’t want it.”

Mom said that they weren’t rejecting me, they were rejecting Christ. It made me a little sad.

The End

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, then you know that we love passing out the Million Dollar Bill Gospel tract. It’s a fun and easy way to get the Word out, because the Gospel message is written on the back.
Our church, with permission from Living Waters Publications, printed 2.5 million of these tracts and initiated a drive to hand out one million in a year. We have since handed out way over a million in about 19 months!

A question just might have arisen in your mind, though: What fruit have you seen from all your efforts? Do they really work?

Just recently, I was speaking to a woman who is new to our church. She had an interesting story about how she came to Hope Chapel. She was walking through the parking lot of our local shopping mall when a million dollar bill blew onto her foot. She reached down, picked it up, read the back of the bill, and promptly went to our church’s website that is printed on the back of the bill. She visited our church for the next three weeks and when our pastor made an alter call for salvation after a weekend message, she responded by giving her life to Christ.

Sandy has been a Christian now for nearly three months.

Now imagine if someone would have actually handed that tract to her…

By the way, these great tracts are on sale now for only $3.00 a pack (normally, they are $6.00). Click here to get them!

Hear is another “Gospel tract testimony” from my evangelism/drama class, in which the 9 to 13-year-olds, as part of their homework, must write their experiences of what happened as they handed out one million dollar bill Gospel tract a day.  This one is from Bronson McFarland, age 12:

 “When I was walking my neighbor’s dog, a girl walked past us. I stood up and gave her the Million Dollar bill. She said ‘Thanks,’ and walked away.”

I teach an evangelism/drama class at my church for kids 9-13 years of age (ya gotta teach them when they are young because when they get older they just won’t do it!). Part of their homework is to hand out a million-dollar bill Gospel tract each day and write about their experiences. I will post one of their testimonies each day this week. This is from Seth Lewis, age 9.

“I was at the park. I saw a man and gave him a million dollar bill. He did not want it at first, but then he took it.”

AIR JESUS

Why speak about the Savior when you can misrepresent Him on your T-shirt?
I can assure you that this is not what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote about the Rapture saying, “…we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
(Thank to ALittleLeaven.com)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two New York men wheeled the corpse of their friend around the sidewalks of midtown Manhattan in an office chair in a failed attempt to cash his $355 Social Security check, police said.

Virgilio Cintron, 66, had died of natural causes when two of his friends, both aged 65, brought him to a check-cashing store in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood Tuesday.

“They were trying to pass him off as still being alive,” police spokesman Paul Browne said.
(Read the rest of the article here!)

“Who has the money?” the Sheriff asked angrily as he jumped aboard the MetroRail, staring down the passengers heading to the Rose Parade.

I had the money. A whole backpack full of Million-Dollar-bill Gospel-tracts money.

The deputy scanned the crowded train looking for suspects. I stayed silent. I had no idea that it would come to this…

The train had stopped. I stuck a fist full of dollars out the door, handing out tracts to the multitude of de-training Tournament of Roses parade-goers. Everyone grabbed a bill joyfully. I handed a stack to a stranger and told him to hand them out to everyone. He nodded, then dropped the whole stack. A whole pile of phony cash fluttered around the floor boards of the MetroRail station. I quickly stooped to pick them up, shoved them into my pack, stepped back onto the train when—WHOOSH! The Philistine was upon me! The Philistine was upon me!

“Who has the money?” the very determined Sheriff repeated. I have the right to remain silent, I have the right to remain silent…

I spoke up. Meekly. “Uh, I do, Sir.”

“Step off the train right now!” he demanded. (more…)