Bezeugen BLOG

On Saturday, November 28, a group of us meet at Campus Corner in Norman, Oklahoma to witness prior to the Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State football game. We arrived near campus just after 8AM. The game was scheduled to start at 11:30. As we walked towards the stadium, we were able to engaged some college kids in conversation and then swing the conversation to the spiritual. The gal I was talking to was openly discussing her spiritual thoughts when her boyfriend basically told us to buzz off. She told him to hush and that she wanted to hear what I had to say. We had the opportunity to share the Law and the Gospel with both of them!

When we reached the stadium, there were not too many people around. So we continued moving up the street towards Campus Corner until we eventually reached the Campus Corner area. Campus Corner is an area just north of the campus that is home to a number of shops and restaurants. On game days, they close the main street through the middle of the area and set up radio broadcasts right from the area.

We set down the preaching box and then began handing out tracts and engaging some people in one on one conversations. There was a woman on the same corner who was selling programs for the game. Talking with her, we learned that she is a Christian and she was very supportive of us being out there.

Having never open air preached in that area before, I decided to ask the security guard that was nearby where the best place to preach would be. He said, “as long as you are not planning to set up twelve foot speakers, then just about anywhere is fine.” I pointed to the box we had with us that was sitting next to the curb and I said, “what about over there?” He said it was fine.

So, after we prayed, I got up on the box and started some dollar trivia using season statistics for both teams. After a few correct answers I asked someone if they would be willing to prove that they are a good person for three dollars. A man volunteered. Unfortunately, he was standing a ways away, so it was a little hard for me to hear him. But, with the amplifier, he could clearly hear me. I walked him through the “good test” asking if he had ever lied, blasphemed, murdered or lusted. He admitted to all of them. I was able to show him that he was guilty before God and he finally admitted his destiny is hell. He stopped interacting with me, but I still shared the Gospel with the crowd.

Brady, Shane, Adam and I took turns open air preaching in that area for three hours. Others handed out gospel tracts. People complained to security and the police. But, we over heard security saying, “if anyone trys to harm them we will protect them” and the police saying,  “they are well within their rights to be here exercising their right to free speech.”

By the time the game started, we had handed out well over 2,000 gospel tracts, preached the law and gospel for three hours and had numerous one on one conversations.

I think we have found a good place to witness in Norman on OU game days. So, we will be looking forward to next season!

This is the final part of the “As You God” series. If you have missed any of the previous parts, or if you’d like to review, the please check out the index at the As You Go web site.  We wrap up by taking another look at one of my favorite famous quotes about Evangelism is by Charles G Finney:

Make it an object of constant study, and of daily reflection and prayer, to learn how to deal with sinners so as to promote their conversion.

This week, I’d like to recommend what I believe to be the pinnacle of Evangelism training; the Living Waters Ambassadors’ Academy!

In the summer of 2007, my wife and I went on our date night to downtown Dallas to go to dinner and then meet up with some folks from “The Great News Network” that were doing open air preaching and witnessing. I had felt the call of God to do open air. Yet, I had no idea how to do it. And I had never even seen anyone doing it. I observed for a couple of hours as different folks took turns on the “box” sharing the law and the gospel. I knew I had no idea what I was doing, but I had listened to some Ray Comfort audio lessons that explained what to do. So finally, I took my turn on the box. I can’t recall exactly what I said that night. But, I was glad that I had taken the step of faith to share the Gospel in the open air. The experience confirmed my calling that this is what God wanted me to do. I got some contact information from a couple of folks that were there that night  and I talked with another friend that does some open air. Several times we talked about having them train me to do open air preaching. Yet, our schedules rarely synced up until one night in May 2008. Two friends and I meet up at the Shops at Legacy in Plano, but eventually ended up on Oak Lawn (the gay bar district) in Dallas. With two open air experiences under my belt, I felt called for more. Yet, I still did not have a good game plan for learning. I ordered DVD’s from Living Waters and Mark Cahill. I watched those and I continued studying. During this time frame, Living Waters launched the Ambassador’s Academy. I knew it was the answer to my prayers of how to get some hands on training and learn how to open air preach. Here is a video of me open air preaching at Huntington Beach at Academy #10 (May 2009).

Some of you may be like me and looking for a safe place to get hands on training to open air preach. If so, the Ambassadors’ Academy is your answer. Some of you may be saying, “but, Carl, I have no desire to open air preach”. That’s okay. There is no obligation or persuasion to do anything you don’t want to do at the academy. Instead, the leaders of the academy ask you for your goals and then ask you if you have meet them. So if you have never handed out a Gospel tract and want to, go to the academy, and they will encourage you to do so. If you have never had a one on one conversation and want too, then go tot he academy, and they will encourage you to do so. If you have never open air preached, then go to the academy and they will encourage you to do so. In short, whatever next step you’d like to take in your witnessing, the Ambassadors’ Academy will help you to take it.

 

The Ambassadors’ Academy is an intense four day Evangelism training offered in Los Angeles. Participants get a day and a half of classroom training and then spend two full days witnessing at some of southern California’s greatest witnessing spots. When I went to Academy #10, witnessing events took place on Hollywood Blvd, in Glendale and at Huntington Beach. The  academy offers the most amazing Christian fellowship I have ever experienced. Spending a few days with these like minded individuals was simply amazing. And the friendships that have come out of the experience will surely last a lifetime. I’ve even become good friends with people that went to other academies, not just #10 that I attended.


So forget the ties and fruit cake this Christmas. Ask your family to send you to an Ambassadors’ Academy instead! There are six academies scheduled in 2010 . Pray about attending one. You’ll be glad that you did. If you don’t think you can afford it, you should apply anyway. There are often scholarships provided. Applications for the March academy closes in just four weeks. So, don’t delay!



The Ambassadors’ Alliance offers many great benefits, even without going to the Academy. For instance,  Tony Miano hosts a weekly online radio broadcast which offers many valuable tips for continuing your learning about Evangelism. The show is on live at 8-10PM Central (6-8PM Pacific). You can also listen to past episodes online .


Additional information

• 2009 State of the Ambassadors’ Alliance report
• Ambassadors’ Alliance Radio
• Ambassadors’ Alliance

The Dallas Christmas parade is one of the biggest gatherings of people in the entire metroplex for the entire year. In the past, attendance has been estimated at 400,000! The parade starts at Austin and Commerece, heads east on Commerce, and turns south on to Harwood Street. It then will travel south on Harwood Street to Young Street, west on Young Street, south on Ervay, on through City Hall Plaza and finish on Akard Street.

• 6:00AM Jon Speed’s car pool leaves Justin. Be sure to RSVP to Jon if you are going with him.
• 6:00AM Roy Cadow’s car pool leaves the mid-cities. RSVP if you are going with him.
• 6:30AM Carl’s car pool leaves Carrollton. Be sure to RSVP to Carl if you are going with him.
• 7:30AM meet at Main and Akard in Dallas
• 7:30-11AM – open air, one on one, distributing Gospel tracts, etc
• 11AM-12:30PM – follow parade to the end at City Hall. Continue witnessing at City Hall
• 12:45PM – whenever – meet for lunch at Subway restaurant at the Noth East corner of Young and Ervay (caddy corner from City Hall). We will have a chance for fellowhip and prayer before we disperse.

Bezeugen Ministries will supply 16,000 Christmas gospel tracts and will bring other tracts as well.  You are welcome to bring other Gospel tracts with you as well. A PDF map of Dallas along with locations marked for Main and Akard (X) and the Subway (S) can be downloaded from our website.

The current weather forecast shows a high of 51 and a low in the lower 30’s with a 10% chance of rain. Please keep in mind that at 7:30 AM when we meet the temperature may be around 30 degrees. Please dress warm. I recommend dressing in layers so you are not too hot as the day warms up.  Keep in mind that in downtown you are often standing the shade so it can seem colder than it actually is. We will bring a cooler of water bottles for the team.

I’ll be posting updates on Twitter on Saturday. So, if you’d like to keep track of what is going on, where we are, and any last minute updates, then please follow me on twitter.

See you Saturday!

You can read about our past outreaches at the Dallas Christmas Parade online.

• 2008 
• 2007

For those that are not in Dallas, or are unable to attend, please be praying for our team as we hit the streets in Dallas. Thanks!

I have a question for those following this blog:

Would you be willing to lead an effort to go door to door to all of the households in your zip code?

please post a comment or contact me with your response.

I just got in from covering 55 more houses in my neighborhood. You could break up the 55 houses into three groups. The first group, I did by myself. The second group, Pastor Tony was with me. The third group my youngest son was with me. Along the route we talked with several mormons and several hindu’s. I also had a very long one on one dialog with an agnostic who had grown up in a Christian household. Pastor Tony and I spoke with a Hindu man who after we shared the Gospel with him, said that he had never heard the Gospel before. Pastor Tony was really amazed that people right here in the neighborhood have never heard about Jesus and the free gift of eternal life. I also had the pleasure of speaking with several born again believers who could clearly articulate how to become a Christian!

Today I visited 55 houses. I collected 62 food items for MetroCrest Social Services. We gathered 12 prayer requests. And I had the opportunity to share the Gospel one on one 16 times!

As Pastor Tony, my wife and I talked, I came up with an analogy that I’d like to share. It is a comparison between a shotgun and a rifle. Shotguns spray their ammunition out over a large area. Some of the spray hits something. Some does not. In comparison, a rifle has a scope and is very precise at hitting a particular target. This is the analogy to show what door to door evangelism is about. Door to door is the rifle, while a witnessing event like handing out tracts at a sporting event or even a mall is the shot gun. I personally participate in both types of witnessing events. However, when God called me to go door to door, it was precisely for this reason. Some people may never come out of their house and go to the mall (or where ever we may happen to be witnessing). So, for those people we need a targeted approached. That is where door to door comes in.

If you have not yet considered or started going door to door, I encourage you to give it a try. Please check the other blog posts here and the door to door section of the Bezeugen web site for more information on door to door Evangelism.

I find that many people don’t get started doing door to door evangelism for the same reason they have not gotten started doing evangelism in the first place. This video addresses this about 50 seconds in you will see two college students going door to door…

This is part 9 of the “As You God” series. If you have missed any of the previous parts you can catch up using the index at the As You Go web site.  Last week I mentioned one of my favorite famous quotes about Evangelism is by Charles G Finney:

Make it an object of constant study, and of daily reflection and prayer, to learn how to deal with sinners so as to promote their conversion.

I indicated that I’d like to conclude this series by providing some resources that I have found useful for learning about evangelism and “dealing with sinners”.

This week, I’d like to recommend a study called “The School of Biblical Evangelism.” The School of Biblical Evangelism offers 101 lessons on Biblical Evangelism.  The study takes you step by step from the basic purpose of Evangelism all the way through providing background on world religions and cults. The textbook can be ordered from Amazon or Living Waters . The synopsis from the Living Waters website gives an understanding of what this book contains:

In this comprehensive study course, you will learn how to share your faith simply, effectively, and biblically . . . the way Jesus did. Discover the God-given evangelistic tools that will enable you to confidently talk about the Savior.

With 101 lessons on subjects ranging from basic Christian doctrines to knowing our enemy, from false conversions to proving the deity of Jesus, you will be well-equipped to answer questions as you witness to anyone. This study course will help you to prove the authenticity of the Bible, provide ample evidence for creation, refute the claims of evolution, understand the beliefs of those in cults and other religions, and know how to reach both friends and strangers with the gospel.

As the printed version of the popular online School of Biblical Evangelism, this book provides all the lesson text at your fingertips, as well as room for you to record your answers to the study questions. This makes it a convenient format for easy reference as you put its lessons into practice.

This is a wonderful study. Possibly the only downside is that with 101 lessons, it takes some persistence to make it through all the lessons. I can offer three suggestions on how to make that easier:

1. Living Waters offers The School of Biblical Evangelism as an online university. The online university offers all of the lessons online, plus 45 audio material that is not in the text book, 50 cartoon lessons for kids and an online forum. In addition, Living Waters provides you with copies of Way of the Master and Out of the Comfort Zone books and CD copies of Hell’s Best Kept Secret and True and False Conversions.  When you complete the lessons, Living Waters will send you a diploma and a bonded leather copy of the Evidence Bible to celebrate your accomplishment! It is a great value to enroll. I enrolled in the school and got a lot of value out of it. Access to the online community remains even after graduation.
2. Find a friend or two that would like to go through the material together. Then commit to doing 1 or 2 (or more) lessons a week together. Do the lessons on your own and then meet together and go over the lessons together. Having some friends to work through the material together helps keep going through the material. Having a group to discuss the material with is very helpful. Craig and I worked through the material in 2006 doing two lessons a week and then meeting for lunch once a week to discuss it. Eventually we started meeting at the mall on alternate weeks to practice what we had learned. Having completed the material we still meet at least once a week at the mall for lunch and to witness.
3. Recognizing that everyone does not have a friend close by that can meet with them to study this material, and some don’t have the money to enroll in the online course, we have created a Yahoo! group to provide a place for encouragement and questions to go through the material. Each week or so, we post a message to the group to ask how you are doing at working through the material at whatever pace you have decided to go at. You can join the group online .

Whether you get the textbook and work through it on your own, find a friend to study with you, join the Yahoo! group or enroll in the online university, I believe that this material provides a solid foundation for effective Biblical Evangelism.

For several years, my friends and I have been meeting at shopping malls at lunch time to witness. This starte while we were studying The School of Biblical Evangelism in 2006. Eventually we decided we could meet one week to study the material and then the alternate weeks to practice what we had learned by doing some witnessing.

Over the years we have been to a number of the malls in and around Dallas. We have made friendships with many of the shop and kiosk owners and employees. And I’m sure we have shared the gospel in these malls thousands of times by now. I should write another post sometime about how we do this. But the purpose of the post is to focus on witnessing to Israeli Jews.

Many of the kiosks in our malls are staffed by Jews from Israel. In Israel there is some “work in the us” program where they can come work in the US for three months. After their three months working, they are given time to vacation and tour around the US. These folks are here from Israel year round. But at Christmas time, there are many more of them here. We talk to them about spiritual things and using the Ten Commandments we can lead them through the good test. However, Jews more than any other group I’ve witnessed too will actually claim to have kept the Ten Commandments and believe they have salvation simply because of who they are.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine obtained some books that are written in Hebrew. So, recently as we were talking to an number of Israeli Jews, I thought it would be wise to try to get some more copies of this book. I tracked them down through a contact at Baruch Ha Shem, a messianic synagogue in Dallas. As it turns out, my contact there also had written a Gospel tract for Jews called “Green Card”. The tract is written in Hebrew. The rough translation that I was provided is:

Green Card
Do you have a green card to get into heaven?

• have you ever doubted god? Yes / No
• have you ever made an idol? Yes / No
• have you every worked on the sabbath? Yes / No
• have you ever committed adultery (had sex outside of marriage)? Yes / No
• have you ever stolen? Yes / No
• have you ever lied? Yes / No
• have you ever coveted? Yes / No

If you answered NO to every question, do not turn the page, you are perfect in every way and will go to heaven when you die.

If you answered YES to ANY question, then please turn the page.

When they open the page, the inside talks about the Ten Commandments, the curses of not keeping them and the sacrificial system that was necessary for the propitiation of sin. It then talks about the prophecy of the Messiah and how that prophecy points only to one person, Jesus Christ.

I received a supply of these tracts from Baruch Ha Shem. On Thursday we took them to the Galleria Mall. While we were talking at one Kiosk, Roy had the brochure under his arm. One of the Israeli women we were speaking with saw it and actually asked him for it. So we gave them each one and they read it as we stood there. We asked what they thought. They said they did not agree with everything, but that they would read the rest of it later.

I was also given about 10 copies of a book called Why Me that is written in Hebrew. Why Me is the autobiography of Jacob Damkani and tells of how he came to know Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In addition, to the 10 copies that I got, I have requested 100 more copies from the Trumpet of Salvation Ministries. Once they read the tract, we asked them if they would like a gift. They said, “yes.” So, I said, “I’ll be glad to give you this book” (as I pulled it from the bag) “provided that you agree to read it.” Each one that we talked to on Thursday agreed to read the book. In less than an hour we handed out tracts and books to five Israeli Jews. They agreed to read the book and let us know what they think about it when we come back in a few weeks.

One of the young ladies that we gave a book too, I had spoken to last week. Since I was already in the process of obtaining the books, I had asked her last week if she would read a book written in Hebrew about what we were talking about if I brought it to her. She said, “Yes,” and paused, “but, it must be written in Hebrew.” So when I returned with a Hebrew book yesterday, she was very interested in it and said she would read it.

So, “as you go” to the mall, consider engaging these Israeli’s in conversation. We found that many of them were excited to talk to us just because we were the only Americans to actually take an interest in them. Giving them the gift of a book was really meaningful to them. If you need a copy of the book to hand to one of your contacts, please let me know.

Today I participated in the Origin into Schools project with a team at The University of Texas at Austin.We had about 15 people on our team and 2000 books to distribute. We set up our main location at 22nd and Guadalupe in Austin. Guadalupe runs along the west side of the campus and serves as a main cross point for students going to and from class.

The books were well received. Many of the students asked if it was the book that was advertised on the Internet. I said yes. Some declined to take one, but most did take one. It took our team about two and a half hours to distribute 2000 copies of the book.

We were meet with a small amount of opposition. A couple of students took a book and then handed me that “bananas” bookmark that was advertised on the “don’t diss darwin” web site. I saved the bookmark for a souvenir of the day. Eventually, I got two more of the bookmarks for my sons. From the time that those students arrived on the scene, there were somewhere from 3-5 students at a time that were hanging around us handing out materials from the “don’t diss darwin” site as well as some information on a meeting they were having to promote evolution later this week.

In addition to the students, the most active and vocal of the resistance was a professor of biology. He also was handing out the information from “don’t diss darwin.” It was actually kind of funny to watch him scurry around chasing the students that had taken a book and try to give them his material as well. He and I spoke off and on throughout the morning. I asked him what evidence he had for evolution. He would say things like, “I can’t get into all that.” So I would ask, “what is your favorite piece of evidence” and still no answer would come. Finally, he agreed to sit down with us over coffee after we were done. And, he apparently did sit down with one of the members of our team. However, from what I hear, he still did not offer any evidence of evolution. At one point I asked him how many bookmarks he had. He said 500. I said, “that’s not going to be enough.” I think he then sent some students to make some more copies.

The most violent response I got all day was one girl as I offered her a copy of the book, she tried to spit on the book. Even the evolutionists that were handing out their counter materials said, “that was inappropriate.”

Once the books were all distributed, some members of the team did open air preaching for several hours. We had a number of great one on one conversations with the students. We handed many tracts. I think I personally handed out 300-500 tracts. So the whole group must have handed out a few thousand Gospel tracts. The Law and the Gospel was shared. And we had some great fellowship within the group. I got to meet several people that I previously only had meet online on facebook and via email and a few phone conversations.

I’ll update with pictures and videos later.

Here are some links to Origin into Schools in the news

• Los Angeles Daily News – November 18, 2009
• Gainesville Sun – November 18, 2009
• Forbes Press Release – November 18, 2009
• World Net Daily – November 18, 2009
• Science Blog – November 18, 2009
• CNN coverage – November 20, 2009
• JeremiahCry blog – November 24, 2009
• Lost Cause Ministries Blog – November 23, 2009

Last week I wrote about the seminar and going door to door at Empowerment Christian Center in Farmers Branch. A week after the initial training and neighborhood witnessing, the church invited me back to lead the team into the neighborhood again. They were having a weekend long Harvest Outreach and had slated Saturday morning to reach out to the neighborhood. When I arrived at the church at 9:45AM, there was no one there. We were supposed to start at 10AM and still, no one was there. I tried to reach the pastor and got no response to a text message. I sat in my car waiting and praying. Some of the people had been a little late the week before. So, I was not overly concerned. Finally, I thought, I’ll just get started by myself. I’ll leave a note on the door to tell them where I am and they can come join me. Just then one of the women from the church arrived. She told me that the pastor was detained because he and his wife had had to take their youngest son to the Emergency Room during the night. So, she and I prayed and then headed out to the neighborhood across the street from the church.

We went to about four houses, gathered a few cans of food and a prayer request. We gave out a couple of tracts. But a couple of the people were not home. As we made our way up the street, the pastor arrived in his van. He needed to run by the church to get something and then said he would come back to join us. We continued up the street. When he came back, he had FIVE others with him! Two were from Kenya. One was a pastor from another church in the area. But, aside from the pastor, they had not been at the training the week before.

So, we had Evangelism training at the side of the road!

I pulled out a WDJD/Craft card and explained the Way of the Master. For those not familiar with this card, you can order them from Living Waters. They are perfectly sized to carry in your wallet. This is wonderful for people that are newly learning Way of the Master so that they can carry them with them, refer to them to refresh their mind about the method and even hold it in their hand as they have a conversation if necessary. For example, while witnessing door to door, one could put the card on the clipboard and easily refer to it inconspicuously while witnessing to someone one to one at their door.

I explained WDJD to the group. Then I turned the card around and explained the Craft side of the card. If you are not familiar with these concepts, then please contact me and we can talk about doing an Evangelism Seminar in your church.

Once I explained the method we use to share the Law and the Gospel, I then spent a few minutes explaining our three fold method of going door to door, asking for food donations, asking for prayer requests and then taking a spiritual inventory with the purpose to share the Gospel using the method we just discussed.

Everyone in the group said they were ready to go. I promoted Pastor Tony and Hilde to team leaders. I lead a third group. Then we split the other five people into our three groups. One group when back down the other side of the street that Hilde and I had covered. The other two groups took each side of the street as we continued up the street.

The three groups continued door to door for about an hour. By then we had two carts full of food, about a dozen prayer requests, had shared the Gospel one on one nearly twenty times and had visited over fifty houses! We went back to the church and prayed over the requests. Pastor and I prayed for the church members to have a burden for the lost and continue this task. Would you please join in that prayer?