Taking the Good News to the streets
Diocesan Evangelist at large, Jim Fleming, tells us about his involvement with ‘Operation Evangelism’ – a group of individuals from different backgrounds and denominations committed to taking the gospel to the streets.
I have been involved in ‘street evangelism’ for the last three years. The idea of evangelism on the street might sound pretty frightening to most and indeed if someone had approached me to get involved in this form of outreach, say 5 years ago, I would have been kindly declining their offer! However, considering the amount of people who have never had an opportunity to hear the Good News message and given that busy streets are an ideal place to meet many who might never set foot into a church I felt led to try and get involved.
After meeting, and being inspired by, guys who had been doing outreach on the streets in Dublin for many years, using bright yellow ‘John 3:7’ boards, I eventually gave it a go. The first time I went out with these gentlemen was in on a Friday evening in February 2013; into the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast. During the evening our squad of around 20 had many very good Gospel conversations and hardly surprising the odd offended atheist and drunk as well! Initially I did feel overawed by being out in the public arena and rather vulnerable too but with some good guidance, advice and pointers from those who had been doing it for a considerable time I did feel that I could pluck up enough courage to try and initiate conversations with members of the public.
Since those early days I’ve been involved with various outreach teams in Belfast, Dublin, Sligo, Dundalk and at the Irish Ploughing Championships which took place outside Portlaoise in September 2014. In my home church of Willowfield I am a member of teams that do ‘Healing on the Streets’ and ‘Door to Door’ evangelism.
Last year God brought together a group of individuals which has subsequently become known as ‘Operation Evangelism’. We are drawn from different backgrounds and denominations with Diocesan Evangelists, trainee Diocesan Evangelists, other experienced people and indeed individuals, like myself 3 years ago, who have never done street evangelism before. Our common goal is to reach those who need to hear the wonderful news of Jesus and His saving power. We regularly do outreach in Belfast City Centre and have occasionally been outside Ravenhill (The Kingspan Stadium) on match days working with Mount Merrion Parish.
We use various ‘tools’ when on the streets including tracts, survey forms, ‘John 3:7’ signs, ‘miracle questions’, prayer and recently with a colleague who uses a ‘sketch board’. It is amazing to get into conversation with people that the Holy Spirit is obviously already working on and to be able to point them further along in that journey towards faith and at times, with much joy, to be able to lead them across the line into a relationship with God.
We are always open to hear from others who feel led to obey Jesus’ command to ‘Go into all the world’ and offer training and advice in evangelism. What we have experienced is that the training and equipping that we have received on this ‘frontline’ can become very valuable in other areas of life in reaching family, friends and work colleagues.
Anyone interested in knowing more please email Jim: jim_fleming06@msn.com