Written by Adam Kuehner and Craig Scott for The Reformed Presbyterian Witness.
Part four in a four-part series on open-air preaching. The names of the individuals being evangelized in the following accounts have been changed to protect their privacy.
Faithfulness vs. Fruitfulness?
There is a common saying in Reformed circles that goes something like this: “We are called to faithfulness, not fruitfulness.” There is some truth to this. Too many Christians today have imbibed a spirit of pragmatism, asking, “Does it work?” without considering, “Is it biblical?” In our zeal to oppose pragmatism, however, we must be careful to avoid the opposite extreme of indifference.
Fruitfulness matters. God’s methods are designed to promote fruitfulness and—to one degree or another, in God’s perfect timing—that is what we should expect to see. We are indeed called to be faithful, but true faithfulness includes a passionate, prayerful, believing desire to see results. “I would have fainted,” says the psalmist, “unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 27:14).
The open-air evangelist represents but one aspect of the church’s overall witness. He scatters his seed far and wide to people he may never see again. He knows that “one sows and another reaps” (John 4:37) and that God has many other faithful witnesses to help water, fertilize, prune, and harvest the spiritual fruit of his message. Still, nothing encourages his heart more than visible fruit. Let’s take a look at some uplifting accounts of what God is doing in the realm of open-air evangelism.
The Orlando Women’s Center
Recently, I (Adam) had the privilege of hearing street evangelist John Barros speak during a Sabbath school class at the Orlando, Fla., RPC. John is a longtime friend of the late Dr. R.C. Sproul and labors under the oversight of the PCA’s Reformed Evangelistic Fellowship. Every day for the last eight years, he has been preaching the gospel outside the Orlando Women’s Center (an abortion clinic) with a small team of volunteers. During that time, he has persuaded thousands of pregnant women to cancel their abortions, sending many of them to a nearby pregnancy center for medical tests and gospel-centered counsel.
John spoke of one woman who, being six months pregnant, left the clinic at his direction and went straight to the pro-life pregnancy center. Upon discovering that she had dangerously high blood pressure, they rushed her to the hospital, where doctors induced the premature delivery of her little son Marcus. Marcus was born on the very day in which the abortion doctors had been planning to take his life!
On another occasion, an angry boyfriend pointed a gun at John’s face, hoping to scare him away. Rather than run for cover, John calmly pointed to his own forehead and said, “Sir, just make sure you point that gun right here, and, while you’re at it, try not to miss, because I want to go to heaven and meet my Savior!” The startled boyfriend and his gun quickly vanished.
After meeting John on the Lord’s Day, I was able to join him the next day outside the clinic for about two hours. During that time, we spoke with a young man named Ted whose mother was sitting inside the clinic waiting for an abortion doctor to arrive from Tampa. We urged him to try and persuade her to cancel the appointment. He claimed that he personally opposed abortion, but he refused to take action.
I reminded Ted that the little baby inside his mother’s womb was, quite literally, his brother and that he ought to be his “brother’s keeper” (Gen. 4:9). In fact, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20). This led us to review the ten commandments and discuss our great need for Jesus Christ. By the end of the conversation, Ted had gained a better understanding of the gospel and agreed to re-enter the clinic to ask his mother to reconsider.
I have no way of knowing the final outcome of this encounter, but it reinforced for me the importance of men like John Barros who labor outside abortion clinics, day in and day out. As a result of his faithfulness, countless lives have been spared, and, more importantly, souls saved by the grace of God.