When I was musing upon my experience in street evangelism, I thought there were so many opportunties to share Jesus Christ with strangers. I just need to take it less seriously and get people to relax and talk.

Just today I went out to do some street evangelism just to train my faith a bit by fully relying on God while forcing myself to talk to strangers who don’t care anything about me.

“I decided to be an evil guy so I could beat the system since I was 3, so do want to know what has happened between now and then?” (I used this on a muslim guy and it clearly disarmed him. It allowed me to proceed for another 3 minutes and presented the Gospel)

“My life has been an epic story of love, conflict, violence, miracle, adventure, twists, heaven, hell, struggle between two greatest opposing forces in the Universe… do you want to hear more about it?” (haven’t used it yet)

To girls: “I am not calling you an angel… *silence*… because that would be an insult, and you know why? Because girls used to be prettier than angels, let start from Genesis Chapter 6 shall we?… ” (haven’t used it yet)

In a coffee shop or fast food restaurant, talking to a cashier: “Ok I have placed my order, so do you want to hear about Jesus Christ?”

If you want into a convenient store during mid-night, and no one is around, and the staff look very alert (It only works if they are afraid of being robbed and look at you suspiciously): “How come everytime I walked in you keep looking at me? are you afraid of getting robbed?” Cashier: “hahahaha….” “Everytime you do that I thought, what a poor guy, it must be a high stress occupation to be a night shift cashier” cashier: “hahaha” “So have you heard about Jesus Christ?” ( I did the first few parts except the last line, which is to tell him about Jesus Christ. I was uncomfortable and unprepared and I just made up the lines without foreplanning)

“Hey nice shoes! Where did you get it?” “thanks!” “So have you heard about Jesus Christ?” (not yet)

Someone tries to solicit you for business, donation, or anything: “I don’t have anything to offer right now, but have you heard about Jesus Christ?” (A woman asked me for donation and I gave her some changes, and told her why I don’t donate to organization I don’t know. After that I wondered why I didn’t talk about Jesus with her)

The key is to get them to laugh about something, and then suddenly or smoothly transit into the Gospel. If you are bold enough, you may walk up to anyone and offer to take away their glasses or sicknesses of any kind by praying for them right there and then.

Update a week later (Feb 03, 11): It works! My speaking time with strangers increased dramatically after I started using pick-up lines and excuses such as, “I am doing a challenge, which is to talk to strangers for 30 sec, would you help?” People responded and didn’t mind to spend 30 sec with a friendly young man! I have since talked to random kids, young ladies, and family men.

Next time I am going to do a “30 sec impromtu”. It would be aiming at making people laugh, and ease into the Gospel, or to speckle the messages in between. I am also going to bring a camera with me to make it a reality show of some sort. People will surely like it.

How did these ideas come to me? I believe they were generated as a result of my intercession prayers for the people when I took walks for break. I enjoy taking long walks, and recently I have been praying for the kingdom of God while I was walking. Ideas streamed in as I proclaimed that “God is able to make something out of nothing”. So though it appeared that nothing could seem to happen on the street and that people seemed to snub me everytime, I was finally able to have a breakthrough. People are more friendly and street evangelism seems much more doable now. I believe that the more I believe and exercise the faith, the more God will be able to do through me, anywhere, anytime, for anyone.

Approaching Young Women Is My Weakest Spot

So today I have talked to several people in the mall, and at the same time interceding for the social networks that I could think of and prayed that people would come to Christ and form the Lord’s church.

I ran into different group of people and individuals, and as I prayed I wondered what their life stories and stages were. Some were young and some were old. I am usually good at talking to men and old people, but not very good with teenages and young women. To me, young people, especially women, are intimidating.

At the end, after speaking with people in my comfort zone, I opened up to a young lady by saying, “you are tall!”. She was shocked and I asked, “Are you six feets?” “No.” She started clipping her nails, and leaned away! (She is a salesperson in a booth at a mall) I guessed I failed so I left and said to her with a small voice: “You can be a model!” as I was walking away, without turning back. She laughed. I couldn’t tell if she forced it or not. Maybe it was awkward, or maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

I regreted I didn’t commit to the end. I could have asked her if she wanted to hear my story for a minute, and presented the Gospel to her like I did to the muslim guy, but I was timid and walked away!

What if the heaven ended up with old people and men, but lacked young women? I can’t let that happen. I have to reach out to everyone just the same. If God shall lead me, I shall preach, whether that person is the prime minister of Canada or a celebrity!

Then I Became Insecure

You will feel uncomfortable at first, but after you start doing it, it will be okay, but then insecurity might come in. I wondered if people liked me: Am I too young? too old? too salesy? too desperate? too suspicious? too unattractive? too weird? Do I look like an obnoxious salesman? A swandler? Predator?

Perhap this is why many people don’t do street evangelism, or evangelism in general. They prefer to leave it to the professional, such as the pastors, by bringing their friends and families to churches. It won’t really work too effectively. Human touch and courage will do a lot more than just bringing them to a church. The church and its institutional setting is actually quite off-putting and hard to adapt for many people.

I wished I would have done it much sooner. If I was still 17, I might be much less intimidating to people overall, and would have been more welcomed by people. There was a sense of regret, especially when recently I heard about a young minister who is my age, who had started doing street evangelism in Campus many years ago since he was 21, and had planted 200+ campus churches.

I won’t look like a student forever. I worried I would look out of place when I finally went back to campus to plant churches. I wish I could have started much younger. But then I had my challenges and lack of knowledge at the time. I did do some sort of evangelism in Campus and brought a handle few people to Christ, but that was that.

As I contemplated on these thoughts, I went to my hairdresser for a haircut. I hoped that a haircut would alleviate my mood.

I was insecure about my look, because of the “rejection” I got from the tall girl at the end of the street preaching session. I asked him how old I looked like–”27 to 28?” he said. Not a good answer! Too close to my real age!

Rejecting by young women is bad! Even though I was only trying to preach the Gospel, but her age and gender still made her a very intimidating person. I don’t like to be rejected by young women for any reason—regardless of any situation—at all.

So naturally I brought up the topic on girls with my hairdresser and asked him what they thought about men, since a hairdresser talked to women a lot. He has seen many people, especially women, and including young women, because of his job. He said young girls who are his customers confided to him that they actually like older guys, guys who are in their 30-40s. But they couldn’t get them, because most men are married in that age group, and there are no older men in their social circle. I am 29 and moving into 30s, so it was reassuring to hear that, even though I was not very deliberate about marrying a very young woman. At least it is good to know there is a still market out there for guys like me.

The reason why I talked to him about this stuff was because the street evangelism thing triggered my insecurity about my age. Remember I said a few paragraph up that I wished I was much younger?

I like to have a very fertile, healthy wife who will bear at least 4 children and still perserve her look and body afterward! I have seen family like that on Youtube, but the couple married young. I am already 29. It is not so young to have children anymore. I wish I had children by now. This desire has become a pain for me.

So that’s the reason of my insecurity. I am sure different people have different potential reasons for their share of regrets, pains, and insecurity. No one is perfect. We can’t wait until we are perfect before we build the Lord’s churches.

It’s amazing that God used this hairdresser (probably a non-Christian…oh! why didn’t I share the Gospel with him! I was too focus on my own pain and neediness!) to comfort me.

Reward In Heaven And The Price You Pay On Earth

Street evangelism or any outreaching at all really make us vulnerable. We have to open ourselves up, and put ourselves out there for people to scrutinize and judge. It is not pleasant. But the reward is tremendous. Imagine in heaven there are many people there in your neigborhood because you help bringing them to Jesus Christ? People are our biggest rewards. I imagine that you can be very lonely in heaven if you never bless a soul on earth and still somehow managed to enter heaven, because somehow you repent on sick bed.

I found this image to be very motivating. It gives me the reasons and stimulations I need to go back to do what the Lord wants me to do. It gives me the intense desire to keep on keeping on. I want my house to be filled with spiritual siblings and offsprings when I reach heaven. I don’t want my house to be empty without a soul, except myself. I want to earn more souls. On earth they may not be lovely, and some are obnoxious,  but if they make it to heaven I am sure they will become lovely and beautiful. It will be an adorable spiritual family. Like I said earlier, I believe that people are a part of the reward in heaven.

Those who love less, will have less people in heaven. Those who love more will have more close companions in heaven. It doesn’t mean that the community of saints up there isn’t your family or would be total strangers to you, but you know the heaven isn’t a communist nation right? There are kings and properties up there. Those who have earned more for God will have more, and those who have contributed nothing will have nothing but a mere citizenship. Some may even end up in hell for disobeying and refusing to serve God their whole life, and refuse to repent even when they die.

Be careful about what I say here. I am not advocating salvation by work. No amount of good work will earn you heaven. It is a gift that you can only obtain by grace, through faith. But you have to exercise your faith daily and repent whenever you sin.

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So that’s that for now.

I am going to campus soon to build churches, and do interview with the people of God, and broadcast them through this site and a network of other social media. Please pray for me and I sincerely ask you to donate to this cause, and even make a commitment to pay regular donation to me from a share of your income, by clicking here.

Here are some of the demonic strongholds (Lies from demons) I have witnessed in common evangelical church setting, because I am an evangelical myself so I am familiar with our own faults.

UPDATE: 2010 Nov 4. I am no longer an evangelical. I would call myself a biblical Christian and that’s all.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying every evangelical Christian believes in these demonic lies, but I am saying that these lies are infiltrating our rank, so beware evangelical believers. This is a spiritual warfare. Those who see the truth must stand strong.

I generalized some discussions I had with certain pastors over the years to sum things up: (I reply in green. If I enclose the green with * *, that means I didn’t really say it out loud. It was in my head. If there is no* but just green, I did say it out loud)

1 Typical Christian: Hearing God’s Voice is for special people, or the deceived people.

2 Pastor: You can’t understand the Bible without going through our approved seminaries, and if you happen to know the Bible very well, you are either Pharisees or you are thinking too much. A lay Christian shouldn’t know his Bible unless he wants to show off.

3 Pastor: Don’t ask for the gift of Tongue, it’s dangerous.

4 Pastor: If you sin but you don’t repent, then you are not a Christian to begin with. But you can’t lose your salvation if you are really saved!

Sai Kit: Pastor, what if I sin and not repent?

Pastor: You can’t!!

Sai Kit think: So I can sin but I cannot refuse to repent? Why doesn’t God work me the other way around so I can’t sin but can repent?

5 Pastor: Go see a psychiatrist if you have any sign of mental problem. Don’t come to me! Thinking too much about bible prophecies is a sign of mental problem. A normal Christian won’t think               about anything in the Bible as much as you. They don’t ask these question! You must have a problem.

6 Pastor: Your parents’ sin, generational curses (What!?), or verbal curse don’t affect you in any way

7 Pastor: If you believe otherwise on #6, then you are deceived by the Pentecostal.

8 Pastor: No one ask for help to cast out demons in this church, so there are no demons in our church.

Sai Kit murmur in his mind: Who are going to ask for help if you will either label us as being deceived by the Pentecostal or send us to the doctor?

9 Pastor: If you tell me a Christian is demonized (demons live in him), then he must be weak in faith. But since no one ask for help, no one has demon in this church.

Sai Kit think: So no one in your church is weak in faith in your church then? All elites, wohoo! But how come I don’t see anyone moving the mountain or healing any disease in your church if        everyone is strong in faith?

10 Re:#4, Sai Kit: but pastor! I know so and so, they did this and this but they don’t repent.

Pastor: They are not Christians to begin with!

Sai Kit: Pastor, more than 90% of Christian brother watch porn… and more than half the church sin and not repent. Rationalization and refusal to repent are so common!

Pastor: I don’t know about this. No one told me that.

11. Pastor: If you belong to a church fellowship group, attend every Sunday service and Sunday school, then you are doing fine.

Sai Kit: But pastor, like I said in #10, 90% of brothers watch porn or many sin without repentant even though they did the whole nine yards you told them to

Pastor: They are not real Christian then.

Sai Kit: But they believe the Bible cover to cover!

Pastor: It’s just head knowledge!! Head knowledge doesn’t make a person a real Christian!!

12 Re:#11 Sai Kit: I did all you have taught me to do, but I still struggle with this, this, and that sins. What’s my problem? My buddies sin too but some of them don’t repent for a long time.

Pastor: Doing good works doesn’t mean you guys are real Christians!! All you have are just head knowledge, not genuine experience with God!

Sai Kit think: I guess I am going to be labeled as a false Christian if I keep asking…

13: Re: #12 Sai Kit: But why do I still struggle with sins after I repent? What if I can’t stop myself and one day fall into a heavier sin?

Pastor: A mature person won’t ask that question!

14 Pastor: The more money you have the more sorrowful you will become.

Sai Kit: But the Old Testament says God loves to bless us with prosperity!

Pastor: Old Testament is in the past. We are in the New Testament era.

15 Pastor: God doesn’t guarantee your Christian life will be dandy, rich, peaceful, successful…

Sai Kit: But Pastor, my life sucks too much, walking around poor and fail everything, (Thought: something must be wrong with our teaching)

Pastor: The Bible never guarantee your life will be happy and easy!!!

Sai Kit: But Pastor, the Old Testament says… (back to #14)

16 Typical Christian: If it’s God will, brother Ken’s will recover from cancer.

Sai Kit: But brother, what’s God’s will?

Typical Christian: Who am I to say?

17 Pastor: If you don’t devote your entire days to do job search *randomly like God has nothing to say about your career* just like everyone does, but take time to pray and seek God’s will for your job  and wait for Him to speak before you take any job, then you are lazy. God doesn’t tell His people which job to take, it’s too small for Him. *Go back to #1*

18 Pastor: Stop talking about the Bible so much and asking pointy questions about it, and don’t talk to people about these things, otherwise you can’t bring them to the church because they would think you are weird. Talk about “casual” things instead.

19 Pastor: Christians are supposed to be poor and lowly. Get a 9-5 jobs so you can fit in with our church. 90% of our church members are 9-5 employees, who are you to think that you are called to start a business? Don’t be too ambitious and conceited! *Update: Now that I think of #11, maybe 90% of our church members aren’t even Christians!* Don’t forget that “I told you so”, your so called entrepreneurial projects will fail in two years and you will get stuck at where you are now. See what happen after 2 years at #34

20 Pastor: Don’t mention demons. Why ALWAYS [loud] talk about demons? You are worshiping Satan if you talk about him SO MUCH! Just talk about Jesus!

21  Bible Study leaders: This is the New testament era. The Old Testament was past and it was so difficult to read. Let’s just stick with the New Testament in our Bible Study.

22  Pastor: The Old Testament was in the past. The Four Gospels were before Jesus’ crucifixion, and Revelation is about the future,

Sai Kit think: so let just focus on the New Testament books that remain?

23  Lay Christians: Don’t talk about the Bible too much in the church, it’s too heavy for lay Christians. Let’s balance our prayers and Bible studies with fun activities.

24. Re#5 Sai Kit: But pastor, I thought we are supposed to pray and read the Bible to find out the cure from God if we have any problem with our mental health?

Pastor: It has nothing to do with prayers. Don’t talk to your therapists about the Bible.

25. Pastor: Idols, statues, charm, and occult objects of any kind cannot affect you in any way. We are Christians. We can put any object in our home, even if it has spell on it. Go watch any horror movies if you want, The Exorcist, Harry Potter, whatever. They have no ill effect on us!

Sai Kit: But Pastor! Some people saw real demons and real occult magic in these things? If they have no ill effect, why would Satan put these real evil messages in them?

Pastor: Stop talking about Satan! You are worshiping demons if you talk about him too much!! *Back to #20

26. Re:#4 Sai Kit: But pastor, like I told you in #15 I walk around poor, I just don’t have money to see doctor, therapists, and psychiatrists.

Pastor: …

27.  Pastor: Regular fasting is legalistic. It hurts your body. Regular fasting is just good work, it might not help you spiritually.

Sai Kit: So what helps? I did everything you told me but still struggle with sins.

Pastor: … [Repeat what he says in #11, 12, 28, 29]

28. Pastor: Don’t talk to me about the problem of porn or *Dread Word*! [I used a tiny voice when I say the *Dread Word*, but he increased his volume when he mentioned the dread word, even though some Christians sisters are chatting next door. Thanks Pastor!] Don’t you know it’s wrong to walk around and ask EVERYONE question like this?

Sai Kit think: But Pastor, when did I ask EVERYONE this question? I was asking you

29. Pastor: You sin because you choose to sin. Addiction is an illusion; an excuse!

30. Re: #3 Pastor: If people in this church have gift of tongue, fine, but don’t use it in the church because it would disrupt others. No one knows what they talk about if they pray in tongue.

Sai Kit think: Can’t we design some programs and meeting that allow people to pray in tongue? Why should we restrain the gift of God to accommodate the tradition of men? Why don’t we seek the gift of Interpretation so we can interpret the tongue? Won’t they disrupt their family if they pray in tongue at home? [Too bad I didn't think of this rebuttal at the time]

31 Pastor: People won’t read your Christian blog, because you are not a certified, approved-seminary trained pastor! See #2

Sai Kit: But pastor, I got 2000 visitor per month and it’s only beginning. People don’t care who you are as long as what you write is good.

Pastor: …

32 Pastor: Stop writing journal about your walk with God, it only make you think even more (See #5), go see a doctor instead and don’t forget #24. You have already mentioned prophecy, salvation, church living, demons, and the whole nine yards in such a short meeting with me. All you talk about is pointy question. People would think you are weird. See? you have a problem. (Go to #18)

33 Re:#26 Pastor: You walk around poor because you lack focus. You think about the whole nine yards in #32 too much that you fail to land and keep a good job!!!

34 Sai Kit: Pastor! 2 years ago you said that all my entrepreneurial projects will fail. They failed! What do you think? *Now I had failed to make 1 cent from most of them. Only one project made me $3.17 and I can’t even cash it in. Even my younger brother did much better than that, I guess it’s because he doesn’t have a pastor who cursed him with Pastoral authority. He doesn’t go to church. Curses are real! (See #6)*

Pastor: [sheepishly, with a "gentle, kind, typical pastor look" on his face] Give it another try!

Me: …

35. Re# 27 Sai Kit: Since I can’t find the answers from you in #11, 12, 27, 28, 29, I went out and read such and such books. I sensed that the Holy Spirit was leading me to read those books. What do you think about their teaching?

Pastor: You are doing too much that you confused yourself… [repeating #32]…and remember head knowledge doesn’t help you! [repeating #12]… but if you do the list on #11 within our church you will be fine… those books you read were written by famous preachers… On the judgment day you will see many nameless pastors, evangelists, and ministers who will get their rewards in heaven..

Sai Kit think: So that means you are one of those nameless pastors then?… hm… I also read of many testimonies by Christians whom God had led to heaven and hell, and they reported that many pastors ended up in Hell even though they believed in #4 …hm…

36.  Pastor: So few people come to our prayer meeting!

Sai Kit think: you forbid praying in tongue (#30), you refuse to pray for healing (#16), you discourage us from praying for prosperity (#14), you discourage us from battling demons (#20), you don’t let us confess our sins (#28), we don’t even know whether fasting or prayers is useful (#27), you say prayers are useless for psychological problems (#24), you don’t let us keep watch and prepare for the end time (#5), you tell us not to seek God’s face (#37), and you told us not to seek God’s will on something that occupies us 8 hours per day 40 hours a week such as career (#17), then why should I go to your prayer meeting?

37. Pastor: Don’t seek God’s face. If He shows up, you will either drop dead on the spot or you will be bossed around by Him so much you would rather die.

Conclusion:

I am lucky that I am in an evangelical church. If I have been in the medieval Catholic Church, they would have labelled me as heretic and burn me on the stake for criticizing the church.

UPDATE: (2010 Nov 4) Wait, John Calvin burned someone on a stake for disagreeing with his theology before too, so hm… maybe I shouldn’t be so sure.

Demonic lies are everywhere.

See: Restoring the Early Churches for the REAL answer to building the true Church of God.

See: Form of Godliness? To find out who are the modern Pharisees, the hypocrites in Jesus’ time.