When I Met Michael Clarke Duncan

Michael Clarke Duncan, star of The Green Mile, and prolific actor, died on September 3rd.  I've seen a few of his movies and he was an excellent actor.  However, my most singular memory of him comes from meeting him in 2005 or 2006 (I can't remember which, although I am leaning towards 2005) in a "chance" encounter on Venice Beach, CA.  I say "chance" because there really is no such thing as chance or luck when it comes to a world that is governed by a Sovereign God.  Believe it or not, God is even Sovereign on Venice Beach, a place where He is often hated. 

I've had the privilege of bumping into several celebrities while on ministry trips and have had the privilege of at least offering them a gospel tract.  When I see them in public they are usually surrounded by an entourage or security so the possibility of actually engaging them with the gospel is slim.  When I ran into Ted Turner, billionaire and owner of Turner Broadcasting, CNN, etc., etc., in downtown Atlanta while he was walking his dog he wouldn't stop.  That is, until his dog decided to stop and do what he came there to do.  I didn't consider my appearance as I approached Turner: I had an amplifier slung across one shoulder and a backpack across the other.  His security guard held out his hand (a la Heisman move) while he reached under his sport coat with the other, probably for his gun.  I looked like a terrorist.  I held out a Million Dollar Bill gospel tract and said, "Mr. Turner, did you get one of these?  It's a gospel tract."  He was very gracious in spite of his well known hatred of the gospel and said "No thank you" (while he was scooping up the droppings that his dog made on the sidewalk).  I tried offering it to the security guard instead, but he declined it. 

I've also run into Ozzie Osbourne, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Hulk Hogan (twice), and the producer and crew of E Network's since discontinued show, "Wild On."  Perhaps the best encounter was with the producer, but after that, the most receptive was Duncan.  At the very least he took the tract and engaged it.  Others took the tracts, some didn't and few will engage with the content, but Duncan did. 

Duncan was strolling down Venice Beach with a crowd of people following closely behind.  I didn't even know who he was at first.  I had been facing the opposite direction handing out tracts and turned just as Duncan approached on the other side.  It was obvious he was a celebrity but since I didn't know exactly who he was (he was wearing sunglasses and a hat; I wouldn't learn who he was until later) I just offered him the tract as I would have anyone else.  It was a Smart Card from Living Waters.  He asked, "What is this?"  I said, "It's a Smart Card.  You put your thumb on the square for thirty seconds and if you are a good person, it turns green."  He said, "Oh", smiled real big and shared a laugh with the person he was with and put his thumb on the square and walked away.  As I watched him go, he was looking down at the tract, presumably waiting for the square to turn green.  If Duncan's response is typical, when it didn't turn green he probably flipped it over and read this. 

If Duncan had stuck around, I would have said, "Huh, it didn't turn green.  Do you think there's something wrong with it?  Are you a good person?"  And then I would have taken him through some of the Ten Commandments.  Our lying, stealing, greed, blasphemy and more condemns us before God.  Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, kept the Law perfectly and paid it's penalty as if He was the one who committed these crimes against God.  Jesus was made a sin offering on the behalf of His people.  Those who turn from their sin and trust in Jesus will have Jesus' obedience to the Law credited to their account (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This is our only hope to be found "not guilty" on Judgment Day (Romans 5:8-9).  Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death once and for all (1 Corinthians 15). 

I do not know if Duncan repented and trusted Christ as the result of reading that tract.  I know of others who have.  God uses gospel tracts.  You should too.  They do not "trivialize the gospel" or "demean it"; they communicate it, which is the point, isn't it?  Well designed tracts can reach many thousands of people.  I've been blessed to write and edit quite a few tracts over the last seven years or so.  I've been privileged to hand out tens of thousands of them and use them to share the gospel verbally in countless conversations. 

Tracts historically have a bad reputation because they are poorly printed or badly written.  We were recently at the New York State Fair handing out tracts and I saw a man passing out hundreds of poorly designed tracts and watched as many of them ended up on the ground.  By comparison, the tract we used wasn't thrown out.  That's a pretty good test of a tract's design.

I hope that Duncan did repent and trust Christ.  If he did, he is now in Heaven with his Savior.  If he did not, he is in Hell.  This is the reality all of humanity must face.  A holy God has one way of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.  Have you taken the time and effort to share the gospel?  Everlasting souls are at stake. 

Eulogy for a Facebook Account

Jon Speed’s Facebook account, born sometime around 2008 in Justin, TX died a timely death this last week of August 2012 in Syracuse, NY.  The cause of its demise was a healthy dose of repentance after a bout with common sense.   “It should have died long ago” Jon was reported to have said.  

Surviving is Jon Speed himself, his family of six, and Christ is King Baptist Church in Syracuse, NY.  It is expected that these, the most important people in Jon’s life, will not only survive, but flourish without the distraction of Facebook.  No visiting hours or funeral service will be observed.  The account will be buried in an umarked grave and hopefully, will not be remembered by any one, at any time, for any reason.  

In lieu of flowers and cards, friends are advised to send money and lots of it in bills that end with “zero”.  How many zeroes is completely up to the generosity and the philanthropy of the Facebook friends (aka heart stricken and extremely giving mourners).  Jon is hoping with somewhere around 3 bazillion friends, he should be able to buy some books, because there are not enough in Jon’s house.  Kim could not be reached for comment but weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth were heard in the distance.  

 

Yes, I am leaving Facebook.  No doubt, those who remain will wonder why.  Some will hold to its imminent usefulness, and I agree.  It is useful in its way.  Therefore Christ is King Baptist Church will have a profile for the use of its people.  It is also dangerous in its way.  

This death is overdue.  Reports of it will not be greatly exaggerated.  There are so many reasons to abandon Facebook, reasons I have been warned about over the last couple of years but did not heed.  I don’t think there is enough space in one essay to list them all, but let me give you the highlights.

1.  Facebook is a good way to cause believers, new and mature, to stumble.  I have some pretty strong opinions.  I have expressed opinions about books, theology, politics, woodchucks, fishing, child rearing, and St. Swiven’s Day.  Facebook gives me instant access to about 2600 people and I am free to let them all know what I think so that they can “like” it or comment on it.  Eventually someone stumbles.   Somewhere I read something about loving my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I have reached these opinions through a lot of study, thought and in some cases, prayer.  It’s not fair and unloving to unload these like a shotgun on people without some context.  

I love to write and plan on continuing to write.  But my best efforts should not be on the internet buried in some file somewhere, but in books that are published and on carefully written blogs.   The longevity of writing depends on the medium it is preserved in and diatribes in 140 characters or less is not writing.  It is venting.  And when we vent we tend to hurt someone who may disagree with us no matter how self justified we think we may be.  

And let’s be honest.  Sometimes I like to roll the proverbial hand grenade in the room and see what happens.  Sometimes I like debate too much.  That’s just my flesh and it needs to die.  

2.  Facebook is divisive within churches.  We’re too young as a church here in Syracuse to have seen much of this, but I have seen it elsewhere.  Largely because of the reasons delineated above, people leave churches.  Good churches.  Recently someone used the involvement of someone on Facebook as an excuse to leave a church.  (BTW, if you think it is you, it’s probably not.  The fact I have to say this is sad by itself.)  The excuse was lame and masked about a dozen other reasons, but I never want to give any believer any ammo or excuse.  In leadership, free expression of everything and anything instantly, in the matter of a fraction of a second, is a nice recipe for disaster.  There’s a reason I study for many hours during the week before preaching on Sunday morning.  I am accountable for my words.  I am no less accountable on Facebook.  

3.  Who has time for this stuff?  Seriously, if you are called to ministry you don’t need to know what everyone is doing around the world.  You have enough right where you are to worry about without trying to live in community with people in a virtual online world.  It doesn’t work.  I think that most of us are trying to find something on Facebook that we’re only supposed to find (and CAN only find in reality) in the local church.  Before Facebook, we used to do the same thing on message boards.  

4.  There’s stuff I want to read.  From where I sit I see the works of Jonathan Edwards, seven volumes on Hebrews by John Owen, George Whitefield’s Journals, two volumes on Hudson Taylor, a whole shelf on the history of preaching, the works of Tolkien, a whole bookshelf of classics, and a pile more.   I also want to read more American history.  I think I’d be better served reading this stuff than either: 1) what someone had for dinner last night, 2) countless internet memes, 3) invitations to Farmville, and 4) the endless reports of people’s evangelism outings that sound strangely familiar after reading them for the past eight years (sorry, it’s true—there’s the hand grenade).   

By the way, leaders are readers.  And they read books.  Real ones with pages.   It’s not enough to read good blogs from favorite preacher\writers.  You learn to think by interacting with entire books, not just a couple of pages.  So repent and buy a book.  And then read it.  

5.  There’s stuff I want to write.  I’ve been asked to write a book on evangelism (yes, another one, whether we need it or not!).  I have at least three other book ideas.  I’m contributing to Crown Rights’ Media’s blog (which I am extremely excited about) and have another blog I may air my opinions on.  The difference is, if you want to read it, you have to go look for it and not have it on your newsfeed whether you like it or not.  If you read it now, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.  

6.  There’s stuff I want to do.  I want to trap furbearing animals, rip their skins off, and sell them for fun and profit (I just lost half of my friends there).  I want to hunt meat-bearing animals and eat the meat they’ve been carrying around (there goes a few more).  Not to mention the fish swimming around freely in New York State lakes—yum, yum, yum.  I come from a long line of people who kill things and eat them.  I want to teach my sons to be men and not to be chained to a computer screen.  

7.  My mother-in-law is dying.  When you watch loved ones die real deaths, things come into focus a bit.  Stuff that doesn’t matter is exposed as not mattering.  For example, how I am perceived by those who are my virtual friends--doesn’t matter.  People matter.  I need to spend time with people I am invested in and who are invested with me.   The Lord matters.   What people think of me?  That doesn’t matter a hill of beans.  

7.  I’m planting a church.  Nuff said.

In the meantime, I exist in the real world on the south side of Syracuse, NY.  You may find me there, evangelizing on the streets, standing in front of Planned Parenthood, reading good books, selling books, writing, loving my family and killing things.  Call it “taking dominion.”  In short, I am doing what Paul Washer recommended a few years ago.  I’m going to be a man and get off of Facebook.  For the glory of the Lord and the good of His church.  

With Charity for All and Malice Toward None,

Jon

P.S.  Thanks to Phil Johnson, Justin Edwards and David Catoe for their examples and explanations regarding these things.  

P.P.S.  The account will be left open for one week for friends to post their well wishes, good riddances, and Farmville requests.  

P.P.S.S.S.  Some of you are real friends, believer and unbeliever alike.  I have met you and know you.  Stay in touch.   Drop me an email at jon@lostcauseministries.com. 

An All Night Prayer Meeting

**Note** Some have asked how we got the idea to do an all night prayer meeting, which we held last evening. Some of my critics will probably judge me as being a Pharisee, praying on a street corner or something, but this is written for your edification, with the awareness that we are mere beginners in the school of prayer, and with the hope that others will consider prayer. Churches emphasize a lot of things these days, but serious prayer is not one of them. Considering the state of our nation, the state of the church, and our own lives, our prayerlessness must be a sure sign that we are Laodicean, lukewarm and worthy only of being spit out of the Lord's mouth.

 Our prayer emphasis in our church plant started back in January when Mack Tomlinson, who has served in advisory roles at HeartCry Missionary Society and who wrote the biography of Leonard Ravenhill came and lectured at The Log College on prayer. You can hear those lectures for free here:

 Since then we have had almost daily prayer meetings for revival, for the church plant and personal needs on weekdays. Actually, now that I think about it, we were already doing these meetings as part of The Log College but they expanded to the church at this time. The groups are small, usually no more than four or five. We also have a Wednesday night prayer meeting once a week. We keep our regular meetings simple. We try to keep the request times fairly short. Occasionally we read a short Scripture or sing. On Wednesday night we read one chapter from the Word, sing one song, take requests and spend the balance of the time in prayer.

We planned on doing this a couple of months ago, but every time we got ready to do it, satan came in like a flood. Be ready for spiritual warfare if you commit to prayer, even more intense than commiting to evangelism. satan doesn't care if we engage in much prayerless evangelism. Since we started planning all night prayer my mom has been hospitalized in a mental hospital and my mother-in-law has received news that her cancer treatments aren't working and will probably be gone in 3-9 months. In my 40 years I never had a cavity, and yet I had two wisdom teeth and a molar pulled and most of my kids and wife got strep throat. It is for our good and even the warfare has been a strange sort of blessing, but this is the reality. Even last night one of our folks had a strong bout with her allergies and she didn't want to come, but did anyway. I was also strongly attacked spiritually this week with depression.

 Last night we followed the ACTS method, reading Scriptures on each of these elements. There were five of us. I posted the outline as a status last night before we prayed. We went through each Scripture, applied it, and then spent a season in prayer. The first session of adoration lasted 2 1\2 hours. After that we took too long of a break before we began confession and things slowed down a bit. We were getting tired. We took another break and did thanksgiving and this, sadly, was our shortest season. We finished with supplication and spent a bit more than an hour there. By the time we finished it was a little after 3:30AM. We began at 9PM.

I would keep the breaks short and be careful of making it into a Bible study. That wasn't my intention, but that's what happened. Some might think this strange because we love and emphasize the Word of God in our church. However, this is a prayer meeting. The Word should be prayed more than studied in a prayer meeting. Next time the Scriptures we print out will be used for guidelines for prayer rather than be reviewed in detail. We did do a little singing between. I do believe the Lord was greatly glorified and we learned that we could actually do this and find great enjoyment in it. His yoke is easy. The Lord manifested Himself. I feel as if my depression has lifted and my motivation has returned.

We're going to plan on doing these once a month. I say that with a bit of fear and trepidation, but the Lord is our fortress. I hope this is helpful to the Bride of Christ.

Compromise Kills (Abortion)

Please take the next forty minutes or so and consider this sermon, Compromise Kills.  May the Lord be pleased to use this message to bring the covenant people of God, the Church, to repentance over the compromises that we have allowed in our lives which result in the murder of the most innocent among us, the unborn. 

A New Model of Street Evangelism

Philippians 1:6

"What can a street evangelist do in order to balance Biblical discipleship and evangelism in the context of the local church?  If we hand out tracts with our websites on them, and offer business cards with ways to contact us, haven't we done everything we need to do?  After all, if God is doing a work in someone, shouldn't we trust Him to work in them to contact us?  Philippians 1:6!"

This was my own attitude for many years while doing full time street evangelism.  There is an element of truth to this.  If God is doing a work in someone's life, they very well may contact you in order to hear more.  In our ministry at The Lost Cause Ministries we saw this happen on occasion.  For example, a bouncer from a nightclub in Dallas, TX once called me and left a message saying, "I couldn't get what we talked about out of my head.  I am calling to let you know that I am getting right with God."  My partner, Tim Crawford, had the experience of seeing a man we met outside of a rock concert come up to him in a festival booth about 30 miles away from where we first met him.  While Tim was sharing the gospel with a man at the booth, this other guy said, "Hey man, make sure you listen to what this guy has to say.  I spoke with him a few weeks ago and what he said changed my life."  He had gotten off of drugs and made a profession of faith.

Half of the Job

Handing out our contact information and ministry websites is a good way to see what the Lord is doing in the life of the person you spoke with if you are passing through the area.  What we failed to do in both of these instances was try to get these men into good local churches.  We did half of the job.

Some might object, "What do you mean?  These men were saved and the Lord will take care of the rest."  Yes, He is able to complete what He started.  But let me ask you this question, as I must ask it of myself.  "How much do you love people?"  Do you love them enough to tell them the gospel, hear from them later and then forget they exist?  Is that love?  Do you want to see them grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, or are they only "marks" to target for the gospel so we can get our own personal quota?  If you don't love people, why are you evangelizing? 

Let me ask you this: if I applied your application of Philippians 1:6 the same way to John 6:44, would you do any more evangelism?  Would you have the same hands-off attitude towards evangelism that you do with discipleship?  If you applied it the same way you would have to.  There's another name for this: hyper-Calvinism.  Some of us are Calvinists in our evangelism and hyper-Calvinists in our discipleship. 

What do we see as the predominant model in Acts and the epistles?  People saved and left to flounder on their own or people saved and "added to the church"?  How can we act as if we are doing the Book of Acts if we don't even make an attempt to do this? 

This is as painful for me to write as it is for some to read it.  If you are content to feel better about yourself because you are "doing evangelism" and feel no obligation to see people grow, you are not doing Biblical ministry in the fullest sense of the term.  You are not following Paul's model in the Book of Acts or the epistles. Nevertheless it is common in our circles that people will evangelize for years and never see someone saved, added to any church, or even have a second conversation with someone over coffee or a meal.  If someone can demonstrate from the Scriptures that when the gospel is preached the Lord does NOT ever draw His elect, I'd be interested to see it.  Many we witness to on the streets are His elect.  The problem is, we don't spend enough time in their lives to see the harvest. 

What More Can I Do?

The obvious question is, "Well, what more can I do?"

Answer: Start a weekly Bible study in your area for the people you share the gospel with near your "fishing hole" and invite them to it.  Make copies of half sheet black and white invitations, list the location and time, and start showing up there every week.  Download Paul Washer's "One True God" online (it's free) and print out a few pages at a time, make copies, and be ready to teach the characteristics of God.   Or do a verse by verse study of Mark.  Have snacks available, find someone who would be willing to teach kids and have a kids class available if it is in a home.  Get to know the people you met on the street and continue to bring the Word of God to bear on their lives.  Have a full ministry to them.  Laugh with them, cry with them, and as the Lord saves them (or even if He doesn't) bring them to church. 

There are not many objections to this model of street evangelism\Bible study that I think I could take seriously if I am looking at the Biblical model in comparison.  However, I can anticipate one:  "I am not a teacher."

This may actually be true.  Some might be bold street evangelists who actively one-to-one and don't have a gift of teaching.  So what do you do?  What if you invited someone from your church who IS gifted in this way to teach this class?  1 Corinthians 12 teaches us that we can't all do the same things.  So let someone else do it who can do it. 

If you are called to open-air preach, then you should be able to teach a class.  If you cannot, you may need to re-examine your calling to open-air preach. 

Being Taken Seriously

Sometimes, we bemoan the fact that pastors and other leaders do not take street evangelism seriously.  I bemoan it.  If our churches saw a weekly Bible study filled with people off of the street who are asking questions about the gospel and the Bible, do you think that might have a little bit of an effect on church leadership?  You see, pastors and other church leaders give themselves to the ministry because they love people and want to see them grow in the Lord.  When someone comes along and says that they are called to ministry and yet show little desire to be involved with the lives of those they minister to, it sends a pile of red flags up to anyone who is called to ministry.  "Ministry" literally means "service": service to the Lord AND people. 

Some of you might not believe me on this front.  That's fine.  Here's my challenge in response.  Print this blog post out, take it to your pastor and ask for his feedback. 


We are all growing in our understanding of how to do ministry.  It's a never ending process.  If we don't grow it's a sign that death has come to our ministries.  Let's pursue Biblical ministries for the glory of the Lord and for the sake of His Bride, the Church. 

Open-Air Preaching Dream Team

Alistair Begg

Last month I had the privilege of hearing Alistair Begg preach at the North Syracuse Baptist Church.  He brought an excellent message on Romans 1:16-17, a very thorough and able message on the gospel.  At the end there was a Q&A and most of the questions had to do with evangelism: how to do it and why there is such a weakness in this particular area in the church in spite of the glorious truth of Romans 1:16-17.  Frankly, it was surprising since serious questions about evangelism in a venue like this are about as common as serious questions about one's favorite police officer or judge on death row.  A speaker of Mr. Begg's caliber usually draws deep theological questions.  This line of questioning is intellectually stimulating but very comfortable since it doesn't require much of anyone.  

One of the questions came from a friend of mine named Robert Gray.  Robert is retired from the US Air Force (Major).  He has guarded presidents of the United States and nuclear weapons in his role in the USAF's version of the Military Police.  He has been touring the USA and the world since then preaching the gospel in the open-air.  Robert is theologically sound, a voracious student of the Word of God, and a man of prayer.  He is the real deal.

His question was, "Considering the heritage of open-air preaching in church history, why don't we see more of it?"  It's an excellent question, especially considering the fact that Begg is a native of Scotland where there have been some fantastic open-air preachers, such as Robert Flockhart and some of the Covenanters (e.g. Alexander Peden).  Begg's answer was a mixed bag.  He rambled a bit, explaining that in the 1970's he used to open-air preach in Edinburgh with Campus Crusade.  However, he said that: 1) he didn't know of anyone who open-air preaches and 2) he doesn't know anywhere it would be effective.  He suggested that there are better means today, such as Twitter and Facebook.  He did admit that the "point is well taken."  It was a confusing answer to a straightforward question which did nothing but make a lot of comfortable Christians feel more comfortable.  

Ironically, Robert and a team of 20-something open-air preachers just returned from Scotland this week where they preached in the city of Begg's birth (Glasgow), Sterling, and Edinburgh.  The reports from this trip are nothing short of amazing.  Steady, consistent crowds gathered on the streets in the central business districts everywhere the men went.  Around 15 people professed faith in Christ and they were referred to solid local churches.

Check out this video from Glasgow just last week.  Note that it seems to be working. 

2012 Thunder Over Scotland Tour from Shane Sands on Vimeo.



The Seminary Answer

So what's the deal with Alistair Begg?  How does such an intelligent, gifted man know virtually nothing of open-air preaching in the 21st century? 

I told Robert later that Begg gave the seminary answer to the question.

In seminary, evangelism is either relegated to trendy, cool methodologies (right now the "missional" term is the thing) or to old stand-bys such as Campus Crusade's four spiritual laws or some convoluted mish-mash of methodologies meant to take the best from all and scrap the objectionable.  In other words, seminary training on evangelism isn't much better than what you can get in an average Sunday School class in a local church.  Or it might be far worse.  Someone who has taken the Basic Training Course from Way of the Master has a far more coherent and Biblical method of sharing the gospel than what is offered in most seminaries. 

Robert and others like him have a crazy idea.  Remember the whole KISS acronym?  Keep It Simple, Stupid.  We have a Bible, there are people on the street, and in a postmodern society that rejects absolutes and meaning, preach the gospel and watch people interact with it real-time.  After all, Jesus and the apostles seemed to think it worked as did many major figures throughout church history (Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Flockhart, Peden, Moody, etc.).

Abuses Do Not Disqualify the Methodology

So why don't men of the stature of Begg acknowledge or support the Biblical nature and call of open-air preaching?  I suspect the abuses have a lot to do with it.  James White agreed to accept an invitation to speak at an open-air preacher's conference in 2010 after much soul searching because of the antics of some misguided Pelagians in a venue where White used to go to witness.  Their lack of local church affiliation, a common issue in street preaching circles, was also a concern for White.  I am glad he agreed to come anyway because we all were greatly blessed by his message on Isaiah 6.  Discarding open-air preaching because of the bad theology of some in the camp would be like discarding pulpit preaching because there are preachers like Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Jimmy Swaggart, and Ted Haggard.


I think the church as a whole would be greatly blessed if men of the stature of Begg, White, John MacArthur, John Piper, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney and many others would  take to the public square and preach the gospel.  I know these men are busier than I have ever thought of being, but arranging to have some of them preach in a free speech zone on a college campus would be a great encouragement to the entire church to do evangelism.  We would all probably learn something in the process. 

Here is my open-air preaching dream team. 

Ray Comfort
John MacArthur
Alistair Begg
R.C. Sproul
James White
C.J. Mahaney
Mark Dever
John Piper
Paul Washer
Phil Johnson

Todd Friel
Steve Lawson

I hope no one misunderstands me.  All of these men have made valuable contributions to the Body of Christ.  We are all stronger for their work.  But one area that has been weak within the Body in recent years is evangelism.  Watching James White handle a heckler at a secular university or seeing Mahaney preach the cross in a similar environment would go a long ways toward motivating the Body to do the same.  We would also have excellent examples of open-air preaching to emulate.  It's a pipe dream, I know, but we can all dream. 

Someone with a whole lot more money than I have could put something like this together.  Maybe they could call it Together for the Gospel.  That sounds strangely familiar--might already be taken.   Kinda catchy though.

Sye TenBruggencate vs. Dan Courtney on The Existence of God