The Street Preacher and Andy Stanley
The Street Preacher and Andy Stanley
First of all, let me say that I love to hear Andy Stanley speak. I don’t think I’ve heard a more effective communicator than him in a while. I’m reading his book The Principle of the Path for the second time now.
On the other hand, I’m not discounting street preaching either. I think in some cases, it’s effective… but there are some markedly different styles in play here.
Andy Stanley and the Street preacher do have some things in common.
- They both have a message that the world needs to hear
- They both are communicators (they talk)
- They believe their message is relevant
Here are the differences.
- One guy spends many hours of educating himself on how to present his message
- The other believes that just saying his message louder is good enough
- One guy studies who his core audience is
- The other doesn’t care who the people are, he blindly says things that he would never tell someone he loved
- One guy has people coming back every week to the same place so that they can hear what he has to say about another subject
- The other has people actively avoiding him
In both cases, the message is the same. It’s not the message that needs refinement, it’s the messenger.
Two questions for you:
- Don’t you think that what you are marketing, your passion deserves to be presented in the best way possible?
- What will you do about it?
Kevin
P.S. I love it when you comment!
It’s not the message that needs refinement, it’s the messenger. YES, KEVIN, THAT IS THE KEY.
I think we need to do a lot less talking and a lot more “being”. When Jesus was outside the Jewish people, he rarely preached and never quoted scripture. Instead he healed, fed, talked about the Kingdom of God and told stories to illustrate reconciliation and salvation (what we know as parables).
It doesn’t do us much good to stand on the corner with a bullhorn and preach to a nation that doesn’t like want to hear our message because they are disgusted by our people. A revival of Christianity will not be an Andy Stanley Fall speaking tour or all of us standing on the street corner quoting John 3:16, it will be through Christians being obedient to what they have learned through years of sitting in church.
This kind of obedience takes some life change for most of us…something that many aren’t willing to give. Instead we result to inviting someone to church or screaming through a bullhorn. While a few will hear and receive, in this end, this method of evangelism will never counter the continuing decrease in Christianity in our country.
We must BE the body of Christ for the world to accept the Message of Christ.
I agree and would add that the Gospel isn’t something that needs to be marketed, it is something to be lived out on a day to day basis. We wouldn’t need street preachers if we (Christ-followers) all did our job loving and serving people and telling them about the gospel. In fact we wouldn’t have the institutional church because we would be living church already in our lives and in our neighborhoods just like they did in the book of Acts. Just my two cents.
Agreed Corey! I believe that our lifestyle… how we LIVE should be a calling card!
Well said Matt. I think Jesus fascinated people by what he did… not just what he said.
thanks for the comments… really!
After being a physician and husband for 13 years I have realized,”it’s not what you say, but how you say it.”
exactly. The one’s who say it right win every time. You can get your point across AND help people!
Thanks Jer