Stone the Preacher

(Thanks to Tony Miano for this…)

Isn’t it cool how Independence Day and The Fourth of July fall on the same day every year?

I went to a meeting with the Mayor of Torrance (the city that I’m responsible for as part of my pastoral responsibilities), along with 20 other pastors because Mayor Frank Scotto wanted help from churches in building up the community of this city.

A Mayor enlisting the help of pastors? I was so grateful, I gave him a $100 Gospel tract. He also wanted pastors to give invocations at City Council meetings. I asked a very important question: “Mayor, will I be able to pray in the name of Jesus?” His answer: A resounding “Yes!”

Click here to read the time that I was forbidden to pray in the name of Jesus by an over-zealous clerk at an earlier Torrance City Council meeting.

For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” Acts 13:47
A new evangelism class has started with 41 students! Will they finish well? I hope so. To get extra credit for their grades they have to write their very own E-vangie Tales here. You can, too.

This Saturday we will be at Peck Park in San Pedro for a dockworker’s picnic called Bloody Thursday (click here to read about that). Meet at Hope Chapel at noon, or meet at the park at 1pm.

What would you do? What should you do?
You have a zeal for the lost. You’re on vacation with your family. All those lost people. Your family must come first. What is an evangelist to do?

In beautiful Sedona, Arizona…

…and at Grand Canyon where we vacationed last week, that was my dilemma.

But it wasn’t really a dilemma.

An evangelist must always put his family first. I am commanded to live with my wife in an understanding way, and to love her as Christ loves the church; I am also not to exasperate my children. If I am so focused on the lost that I forget the found, then the point of Christian love is missed. At times, this means putting my evangelistic zeal on hold for a short while.

I may not have the luxury of a long one-to-one conversation when I’m vacationing with my family, and I don’t want to risk embarassing them by preaching in the desert air to tourists gathered at a beautiful attraction…

Therefore I will take to heart the words of Charles Spurgeon:

“When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract read… Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching Gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”

While the wife and kids take a trip to the restroom, I can covertly hand out a few tracts; when I go to the restroom, I can hand out a few tracts; if my family is resting in the condo, I can make a quick dash down to the pool, or out to the car to hand out a few tracts. I can always Do something! Do something! Do something!

Besides, it’s not up to me. It’s Jesus Who saves!

Read about what NOT to do on a vacation by reading this account of how I totally blew it last year.

Read the companion article, “Third Rail Evangelism”, by clicking here.

(In light of Mr. Carlin’s passing on June 22, 2008, I thought it appropriate to run these quotes from him.)

“Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do.”
“And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you!”

Here’s a few more:

“Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.”

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”

“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.”

(Unfortunately, I don’t think Carlin was a believer…)

(More evangelistic inspiration from my latest vacation…)

A million dollar picture like this at the edge of Grand Canyon…

…came with a warning…

…because many people die from getting too close to the edge, usually by taking a million dollar photo.

24-year-old Timothy J. Rowe was jumping from rock to rock to pose for the ideal photo. He fell 200-300 feet to his death on November 9, 1993.

Yuri Nagata, 21, stepped around the guardrail on the edge of the Canyon and sat on the lower ledge. She stood to pose for a photo, lost her balance and fell to her death on March 12, 1989.

I hoped that someone would pick up this million dollar bill Gospel tract, read it, and repent before they, too, did something foolish at the edge of this cliff and fell headlong onto the jagged rocks below.

Journalist Susan Trausch wrote: Chilling statistics from the Grand Canyon this week. 7 people fell to their deaths in 1993 and park officials can’t remember a worse year for fatalities.

With the exception of a tourist who had been drinking and a drifter trying to grab coins tossed on a ledge, the lives were lost by sober, solid citizens who simply had no sense of danger standing on the edge of the rim of the mile-deep gorge. They died posing for pictures, leaning over for a better look, or strolling along rocky paths as nonchalantly as they walk through a shopping mall.

Warning signs, guard rails, stern words from rangers, and fear did not register. They were in a park, and that meant the authorities were responsible for their safety, didn’t it?

Yeah. I’m in a National Park. I’ll be okay. To heck with those silly warnings!

What me worry?

(Italics from the book “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon” by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers)

“How many people fall here each year?”
This is the question that nearly every National Park Service ranger hears most often from South Rim visitors once they first view the shocking abyss called Grand Canyon.

Here are a few who fell to their death, suddenly:

Gesala Elixmann, 34. Died on March 9, 1989. While she stood on the edge, she became dizzy and fell 500 feet.

Scott Awodey, 29. Died on June 25, 1992. He was “rock-hopping” on the edge of the rim, reportedly hamming it up for photos. He fell 140 feet.

Lori Newcomb, 31. Died on September 7, 1993. She walked far out on the edge to take a photo. The rock crumbled under her weight. She fell 150 feet to her death.
—From “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon” by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers

My family will be taking a train to the Grand Canyon and we’ll be staying in the New Age capital, Sedona; I’ll be prepared with hundreds of Million Dollar Gospel tracts.

Here are a few of my favorite adventures from the last couple of years to keep you laughing and hopefully inspire to go out and preach the Gospel to all creation, especially to bearded hippies sitting in lotus positions on red desert rocks…

We Invaded a Jehovah’s Witness Convention!

We invaded a Jehovah’s Witness convention in 2006 and were all booted out in about 90 minutes. An elder threatened to push me down a stairwell as I shared the Gospel with him. Read it here!

Chased by Scientologists!

At an evangelism boot camp, also in 2006, I snapped a picture of some Scientologists inside their headquarters on Hollywood Blvd.—and they chased me and a friend down the block! Read the 3-part story here!

Evangelism in Communist China

Also in 2006, I took a mission trip to Communist China, where I threw caution to the wind (out of ignorance), and shared my faith as if I was in a free country. It is a 14 part report, and covers everything from techniques in the airports at LAX and in China, to the shocked guests at a wedding who may never have heard a wedding message using the 10 Commandments and Hell, to a demonized Buddhist, to salvations in a Chinese market. Start with part 1 here!

The artist who designed my new blog banner is Dale Jackson, the graphic artist for Way of the Master and the designer of the “NEW” Million Dollar Bill Gospel tract.

He and his wife, Banana, (if you have ever listened to the CD, “What Hollywood Believes” by Ray Comfort, then you will know why her name is Banana),
…have a wonderful little evangelism-oriented business called “EvangelismStuff.com”.

You can get really cool stuff that is guaranteed to annoy atheists…

Christians…

(The shirt says: “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.”
—Charles Spurgeon)
 
…and false converts alike:

(This shirt says: “Could you be one of them?
On Judgment Day many who think they are Christians will be horrified to find Jesus saying he never knew them. Encourage people to examine themselves now–before it’s too late.” Then it gives a site for the false convert to visit: www.examineyourself.com)

Be careful when wearing these shirts, though; you just may have to talk to someone about the things of Christ! Oh noooooo!

Happy 9th birthday, my wonderful daughter!
I love you!

—Dad

Read about some of her adventures here as she confronts an atheist, and here as she is persecuted for her zeal. And here in a tract challenge!

Them: Hey Steve! What was the name of your blog?

Me: Ev Tales dot com

Them: EB Tales dot com?

Me: No. EV Tales dot com.

Them: Oh. I got it. IVY Tales dot com.

Me: EV… E-V! Tales dot com!

Them: Ohhh. EV Tails dot com…

Me: E-V-T-A-L-E-S dot com!!! E! V! TALES! TALES! EVTALES dot com!!! Ya got it? Huh? Huh?

Them: Why did you have that dumb old name, Veggie Tales, anyways?

That’s why I changed the name of this site.

That… and because StoneThePreacher.com is funnier.

(If you can’t see the new design, you will have to clear the cache on your browser.)

At least 10 people died as hundreds of young party-goers rushed to get out of a crowded nightclub in Mexico Ccity during a raid on under-age drinkers, police said.

“More than 1,000 people left in a stampede and that caused the…deaths,” Mexico City’s police chief Joel Ortega said.
—L.A. Times, 6/11/08

This is a sneak peak of a great four minute video from Living Waters.

Two big stars. Million dollar bill Gospel tracts. Steven Spielberg in the crowd. Excitement! Will John Travolta and Holly Hunter take the Gospel tracts offered to them?

I was preaching on a box in front of Travolta when this took place—and I totally blew it! What did I do? Click here to find out what happened.

Most mornings when I awake I think, I have to do it again. That is, I have to go out of my comfort zone and share my faith with someone, most likely a stranger. I don’t always want to do it, in fact, sometimes I don’t want to do it all because it takes effort. Yesterday’s opportunities disappear; my evangelistic successes are always history. Still, because of my goal to witness everyday, tomorrow always comes. It’s here today, already.
Everytime I have to walk through a wall of faith. It seems impenetrable, insurpassable, solid and difficult. But with God, I can pass through it. I must pass through it. I will pass through it. I make a choice each time to do it.

It isn’t very easy. But once I take that first step—putting my toe in the Jordan, my smooth stone in the sling… once I take up my mat—God meets me. The wall crashes down with nary a blast from the ram’s horn.

And another lost soul makes a choice for eternity.

Walk through the wall.

I was tired and hot and wanted to lie down. I didn’t care about who needed to hear the Gospel this day because I wanted a nap. But seventeen men had taken a powder from their Men’s Retreat for an evangelism excursion into Lake Arrowhead, so I couldn’t let them down. And wouldn’t you know it? God didn’t allow me rest; instead, He did something wonderful…

I don’t always want to share the Gospel; most days I would prefer to let someone else do it. The dread of having to always walk through a new wall of faith each time I hand out a Gospel tract or share about Christ can be terribly burdensome. It’s inconvenient, awkward, and sometimes just plain embarassing to let people know that they are headed for Hell because of their sin and that they need Jesus to save them—I just don’t want to do it some days.

At times I’d love to have a normal life, a calm life, a peaceful, innocuous life, where I can just sit in my backyard listening to the birds singing, and worship alone. Oh! For the soft life of a pew-sitter. I would just love to be religious, do a few dutiful good works, and be left alone: just me and my God.

But I can’t. I’m compelled to preach the Gospel!

I take great comfort from the writings of John Wesley, that great preacher during the Great Awakening in the 18th century, who felt the same way on occasion.
As an experiment he chose to not talk about the things of God for two days unless he felt like it. He learned 3 things:

1.) “That I spoke to none at all for [eighty] miles together; no not even to him who traveled with me in the [carriage, except for a few words as we started out];

3.) “That I had much respect shown me wherever I came, everyone behaving to me as to a civil, good-natured gentleman.”

The seventeen men were promised that they’d be out for only an hour. Every five minutes I glanced at the time, wishing the hour to end because I was bored; it was 90 degrees; I was thirsty, tired, grumpy—time to head back to the van! Let’s retreat back to the Retreat, men!

I leaned back in the driver’s seat; a few of the men waited with me, as we all waited for the rest of the evangelists to return. C’mon guys, hurry up! I was impatient, sleepy, sweaty, dehydrated—and rightly and justly irritated that the guys were taking their precious sweet time conversing about eternal things while I battled exhaustion, nausea, heatstroke and vertigo. Through my half-lidded state, I peered out the front window of the van. HORRORS! One of the men was bringing back a stranger—and they were headed to the driver’s side—my side—and…and… wanting to talk to me!

The stranger was down on his luck; hard times had befallen him. I smiled grudgingly, rolling down my window. After a bit of small talk I got to the point: the million-dollar question: “If you were to die today, would you go to Heaven or Hell?”

I don’t remember the exact conversation, fatigued and fuzzy-headed as I was, but I do remember this: His tears rolling down his face after hearing that God can forgive all his sins, and his enthusiasm when grabbing my hands to pray for God’s forgiveness.

I’ll also never forget him walking away from the van, drying the tears from his face, smiling, then suddenly turning around and grabbing my hand—and kissing it!

I wasn’t tired anymore! Heck no! I was filled with the Holy Spirit! The heavens opened, the radiance of God’s glory shone all around and the angels rejoiced!

I was now Father Steve!

This Saturday and Sunday we will have a booth at the Redondo Beach Summer Fair from 10am to 6pm both days. We will be conducting fun, evangelistic interviews from our booth entitled, “Free Intelligence Test.” Join us both days. We will be located on Catalina Street, 1/2 block down from Palos Verdes Blvd. by the Coffee Cartel. See ya there!

This Welsh rugby team generally mocked and ignored me as I tried to engage them in eternal things while they sat at an outside patio of a local beach bar. These mates were too taken with Richard Dawkins and his atheistic take-over of Europe to pay any attention to a guy who gently explained that they should flee from the wrath to come. I’m part Welsh, but that didn’t impress these sons of Belial.

The only Welsh Revival these guys will encounter is awakening the next day with a hangover.

A well-known street preacher has been convicted of two federal crimes for preaching the gospel on the public sidewalk outside Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

It was back on October 6 last year when Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America, was arrested by National Park rangers for refusing to leave the public sidewalk outside the Liberty Bell Center. He explains what happened:

“I was instructed that I needed to go to the ‘free-speech zone,’ which was on the other side of the Liberty Bell Center, away from the people that we were attempting to speak with and reach with our [gospel] tracts,” says Marcavage. “This was a main thoroughfare where there are, throughout the day, thousands of people that pass by. So this was a prime location for us to be able to witness to as many people as possible.”

On Friday, Marcavage was convicted of two federal offenses, fined $445, and ordered not to return to the National Independence Historic Park for a year without first notifying Park Service officials and obtaining a permit if he planned to engage in any evangelistic activities. Read the rest here at OneNewsNow!

Archived here: Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, I am experiencing various and sundry trials in the blogosphere: First, it was the Internet Service Provider that was unreliable, now it’s the server. Apparently, it can’t handle some of the new traffic I’m getting, so it goes down. As we are in the process of getting all this squared away, please be patient as I will continue to try posting new items daily.

Oh! And pray!

Last week I wrote about how I was pulled down from a 3-foot high mobile traffic sign at the third game of the Lakers Finals by a man I affectionately called “Mr. Big.” (Read it here!)
You may be asking why? Why did he pull me down as “Righteous Richard” and myself preached at the traffic light across from Staples Center?

My answer: Not sure.

We thought we were on public property, and that we were standing on a city-owned sign. Mr. Big came by and tried to stop us from preaching, shouting at me to come down. The reason I ignored him was a lot of people try to stop us; he was no exception, except that he was a lot more forceful. He didn’t identify himself; he had no badge; he looked like one of the multitude of white business people attending the game after getting off work from their downtown office.

As Richard and I discussed the issue with him—post-pulldown—he said that he owned the sign. Did he own the sign? Probably not. But for the sake of preserving our Christian witness, we didn’t get back up on it.

That and the fact that he was a lot bigger than us.

George Whitefield (1749-1769) wrote:

“…I preached twice at Exeter, and, in the evening, I believe I had ten thousand hearers. The bishop and several of his clergy stood near me, as I am informed. A good season it was. All was quiet. and there was a great solemnity in the congregation; but a drunken man threw at me three great stones. One of them cut my head deeply, and was likely to knock me off the table; but blessed be God! I was not at all discomposed.”

An organization is taking up a battle in favor of a U.S. Marine who was sent home from an assignment in Iraq because he handed out coins with a Christian message to Muslims in Iraq.

The organization is Christian Freedom International whose president, Jim Jacobson, says the Marine distributed coins with the words of John 3:16 on one side. The other side asked, in Arabic, the question: “Where will you spend eternity?” The soldier is now on home turf awaiting further word on possible punishment. Read the rest here from OneNewsNow.

Archived here. Read the rest of this entry »

(Read Part 1 first by clicking here!)

“Come down from there! Hey! Hey! Come down from there!”

I have heard that so many times, I’ve lost count. Whenever we preach on some type of elevated platform, inevitably, some offended listener tries to push their weight around by demanding, even yelling, that we stop preaching our message and climb down, and act like a normal person. Our standing operating policy is to just ignore the person, anticipating that they will just go away, so that we can continue with our message.

But we couldn’t avoid “Mr. Big” as we stop light preached atop a mobile construction-type sign, across from the Staples Center before Game 3 of the Lakers Finals.

The crowds were huge one half hour before game time at the corner of 11th and Figueroa

In fact, there were so many people crossing, and so much traffic, we were forced to use a very loud portable sound system to reach the teeming Hellbound masses.

Mr. Big apparently didn’t like it. He shouted at me to stop.

I ignored him.

He shouted again.

I ignored him again.

He tugged on my shirt. Then he pulled on my shirt.
Then he grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me down to the ground—a three foot drop!

I was stunned. No one had ever done that before! “I told you to come down!” Mr. Big warned.

After a few words were exchanged between the two of us, we shook hands and parted ways.

The great temptation when things go wrong is to take things personally. When that happens, things can go very badly. I have never been physically accosted before and was very surprised at the anger that welled up inside of me. In the next few years, persecution of one type or another will probably be the norm, so the prudent evangelist will do well to flee to another place where the preaching might afford better, and safer, opportunities. 

R.A. Torrey said this in regard to some of the “Don’ts” of open air preaching over a hundred years ago:

Don’t lose your temper. Whatever happens, never lose your temper. You ought never to get angry under any circumstances, but it is especially foolish to do so when you are holding an openair meeting. You will doubtless have many temptations to lose your temper, but never do it. It is very hard to hit a man when he is serene, and if you preserve your serenity, the chances are that you will escape unscathed. Even if a tough strikes you, he cannot do so a second time if you remain calm. Serenity is one of the best safeguards.

Don’t fight. Never fight under any circumstances. Even if they almost pound the life out of you, refuse to fight back. (Read part 3 here!

The four policemen marched ominously toward the man standing on the box in front of Staples Center, riot helmets in hand.
This was not a good sign. On game three of the Lakers finals, would the evangelist preaching to the ticket-holders in line be arrested in effigy—made a scapegoat—for the hometown team’s previous two losses?

I watched quietly as the small LAPD squad walked on by, oblivious to Chris the preacher. Trouble was narrowly averted—for now; but a short time later, things started to get very heated.

To the average Lakers’ fan all evangelists must look the same: crazy, strange, wild-eyed…

…always preaching the same old message: “Repent and trust in Jesus!”

And they’d be right.

The average person doesn’t understand the importance of the Gospel message, and the urgency in which it needs to be preached. 104 people die every 60 seconds, the vast majority of them will end up in Hell. Who knows what could happen at this Lakers’ Finals game?
It might be the final game for many in attendance: Someone could choke to death on a hotdog during a rousing cheer; another might fall out of their loge seat onto unsuspecting fans below resulting in many tragic deaths; still others might have a sudden heart attack—should the Lakers actually win! Time is always of the essence.

But just as we wanted to be there to seek and to save the lost, others wanted us to get lost. And they tried hard to rid the area of the Good News Nuisances. The police relegated Ambassadors’ Alliance leader, Tony Miano, to preaching between two potted plants. (Read Tony’s version of events here.)

“Righteous Richard” Chavarria kept an eagle eye on the police to make sure that they didn’t get out of line.

One man, Shane Griffin, got escorted off Staples’ premises for just handing out tracts.

“Righteous Richard” took the brunt of the abuse this evening, though. While he preached atop a potted plant, a very serious and very determined LAPD officer shouted, “Get off of that!”

“Righteous Richard” hurriedly complied (that’s why he’s known as righteous).

Then the red-jacketed Security officials rousted him.

They even tried to scare him into relinquishing his First Amendment Right to hand out Gospel tracts. He was bold as a lion and stood up to them graciously, even when they threatened him with this statement: “If we see anyone carrying those in, we’ll take them away!” The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!

Next, an irate biblical-scholar-homeless man tried to shout him down with poorly parsed Greek hermeneutics.

But what really took the cake, was when “Righteous Richard” was accosted by two volunteer “District Safety” guys after he snapped a photo of a very large man.

You see, I asked Richard to take this very large man’s picture after he suddenly, forcefully, grabbed my shirt and pulled me off my three foot preaching perch… (Read Part 2 here!)

Open air preaching, one-to-one sharing, and Gospel tracts—the full compliment of evangelistic endeavors—will be practiced on Saturday. You can even introduce yourself to Eutychus’ Sis, our very ugly—and dead—preaching dummy! Meet at Hope Chapel at noon! Click here for more info.

We had quite a team of evangelists go to the third game of the Lakers finals at the Staples Center yesterday.

My version of what happened (including my being pulled off forcibly from a three foot ledge by an angry Security guard) will come later. But please visit Tony Miano’s blog to read his version of this exciting event by clicking here!

(Read the first 7 collections starting here.)

45. You contend that no war in history has ever been created by non-belief. Yet, when you are told that 176 million people lost their lives in wars during the last century, created by non-believers like Stalin, Lenin, Mao and Hitler, to name only a few, you reply that those wars fought were fought in the name of ideology and not ‘atheism’ because atheists “don’t fly planes into buildings or start wars.”

46.You accept (and quote back to Christians) any number of works that say Jesus wasn’t the Son of God and call them “honest”, “thought-provoking”, and “scholarly” proof, even when they completely contradict each other and come to completely different conclusions.

47. You believe that when our forefathers were framing the Constitution, they were staunch deists; but when they were beating their slaves, they were Bible-believing Christians.

48. You think that the Declaration of Independence is unconstitutional because it mentions “The Creator”.

49. On that basis, you think that the Declaration of Independence is therefore void and the United States should return to British rule.

50. When it is returned to British rule, you plan to go straight to London and tell those Brits that having the Anglican church as a state church violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

More to come at a later date!

I don’t have the time or inclination to answer all the angry accusations and ridiculous questions that are written against the videos I post to YouTube, so I enlisted a quite charming fellow, Mike Farmer, to do it for me.

He is very patient, has lots of time on his hands, and is able to draw out my accusers in a very affable manner. Remember, every time they go to YouTube to respond to his comments, they are exposed yet again to the Gospel.

I have also asked him to post some of my more provocative writings on atheistic websites like RichardDawkins.net, which usually results in a flurry of God-haters visiting this site with their foolish rants… further exposing them to the Gospel as well.

Way to go Ole Mikey!

(Feel free to join the fracas. My two main YouTube accounts are here and here. And please, I’d love it if you took some of my articles and posted them to your favorite atheist site, too.)

Another big move of the spirit? A second Great Awakening? Here is the leader of the latest “Revival” taking place in Florida explaining how God has spoken to him.

You know how you always hear of Christians giving Jesus a black eye? Watch this two minute video and see that it’s now the other way around: Jesus is giving Christians a black eye! It gives new meaning to a person being “slain in the spirit.”

Click here for direct link.
Every few years a “New Big Revival!” is talked about. If you do a little digging, you’ll find out that something is strangely amiss, and usually it’s a Christian’s discernment. Until we get out there and preach repentance and forgiveness in Jesus’ name, we’ll just have to endure the counterfeit.

Bird flu hit Florida this last week.  
A disaster!  Killed a bunch of them.

This is for those who say that evangelism is for the birds.