Open-Air Preaching: A Ministry of Encouragement

“Save your breath!” was the jeer from the rowdy crowd, “No one is listening!” I have lost count of how many times I have had those words thrown at me in the open air. Now, the short answer says that someone is listening, namely the crowd that is yelling, but the point they are trying to make is that the open-air preacher is wasting his time and energy being out on the street. 

I will freely admit that sometimes those heckles make it through my ears and then rattle around in my brain for a time. I begin to wonder, “Am I doing any good out here? What’s the point, maybe I should just go home!” There have been many times that I’ve gone home from an outreach feeling like it is time to give it all up and to focus on a different form of evangelism, but as I draw away to a quiet place to be alone with the Lord, I am reminded that salvation belongs to God, and He will use His Word in whatever manner He sees fit. My job isn’t to go hunting for results, my job is to be faithful and then to trust Him with the fruit which will come.

That being said, let me try to encourage you. Brother open-air preacher, you may not see the fruit of your labour, but you don’t know what the Lord is doing in the hearts of those who hear your preaching. He is often at work behind the scenes working all things together after the perfect counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11), and only eternity will reveal the true fruit of our labours. 

Sometimes the Lord can be at work in ways that we will never know about. Let me tell you a true story of a young man who was greatly impacted by two open-air preachers even though he never knew their names, and even though he was a non-Christian at the time. 

This young man grew up in a Christian home, but he wasn’t a believer. From his perspective the whole Christian thing just wasn’t true; he was firmly convinced that the church was full of hypocrites, so he didn’t want to attend. One summer, his family went on holiday to regional Victoria. The first town they visited is located on the beautiful Murray River, the small tourist town of Echuca. While enjoying the sights of this country town, the young man noticed a man put down a box, stand upon it, and then begin to preach from the Bible. Now, the young man had no idea what the preacher said, and to be honest, he thought the preacher was a bit of a fool, but something inside of him said, “That man has courage. He has something worth shouting about.” The raw boldness and courage of that open-air evangelist impacted the young man. 

The next town this young man visited with his family was a small country town, it was one of those places where if you blinked you would miss it, he found himself in the little community of Nathalia. While walking along the main street, the young man thought it would be good to cross the road to the bakery to purchase lunch, as he did so, he noticed an elderly man on crutches walking along the footpath. The old man could barely move, but in his hand was a small Gideon’s New Testament. The elderly evangelist, though weak from his many years, faithfully heralded the gospel, though it appeared that no one was listening. Once again, the young man thought this old-timer was a fool, but something stirred deep inside, “That man has courage. He has something worth shouting about.”

Up until this stage of his life, the young man had never seen any open-air preachers, but now in the space of a few days, he had seen two in small country towns. If he had been wise, the young man would have realised that the Lord in His providence was allowing him to hear the gospel, but this young man wasn’t wise, and it would still be nearly two years before he was converted to Christ. 

Eventually, the young man came to Jesus, and soon after he had a desire to tell everyone about what the Lord had done. But he had a problem – how should he share the gospel? At first, he would hand out church invites, then tracts, and finally he stood on a box himself and began to preach in the open-air. The memory of those two preachers in Victoria, men who he never knew the name of, inspired him to say, “I have something to shout about”, so he went out and proclaimed Christ. 

Those two open-air evangelists in regional Victoria had no clue of the impact they had. That young man hasn’t stopped preaching the gospel in the open air, and over the years the Lord has opened doors for him to preach the gospel to many people. In fact, that young man (if he can still be called that) is writing this blog for you now. 

I will always be thankful for those two open-air preachers who proclaimed Christ and were faithful even though it appeared no one was listening. Brothers, next time you go to preach the gospel in the open air remember that you may be serving to encourage the next generation of evangelists to step up to make much of Jesus.