The Greater Scandal

Recently in our community, a scandal has broken out over--of all things, preaching the gospel.  Each year, the city has contracted with a private party to host a Christmas park of sorts with piped in music, concessions and most centrally—a vast and truly dazzling display of Christmas lights.

  As these kinds of displays go, it’s really quite impressive for a community our size and has quickly become a big hit with the surrounding communities.  Several thousand people have visited the park each year the two-plus years it has been open.  During this time while the park has been open, two local street preachers have sought to preach the gospel in the open air in the park.  The park is public property and there is no admission charged so they have a constitutional right to preach in this venue.  They have overcome two legal challenges by the city—that have held that they are a distraction. These legal battles have been heavily publicized and as a result, many have taken sides.  My perception is that vast majority of the public sympathy lies with the city.  The tension has been heightened by the fact that the main individual sponsor of this event has publicly wondered recently if opening the park next year is worth it in light of the distraction of the preachers and other complicating factors.

Opinions in the local church have been fairly impassioned as well--with many evangelicals expressing a sense of shame over the preachers who are very impassioned and pointedly preach the sinner’s need to repent of their sins and place their trust in Christ.  There has been widespread criticism of the preachers from within the evangelical communities.  It is not uncommon to hear questions like, “Do they really think this is honoring to God?”  “Hasn’t it occurred to them that their public preaching in an area where people are gathered for something else is not helping the cause of Christ?”   I know these men and have discussed with them their methods at some length.   They believe very strongly they are doing God’s will in their ministry.  This whole commotion has left me wondering why the church isn’t much more concerned about a different kind of scandal.

That scandal is this: many of these believers who have been openly and angrily critical of these brothers, have seldom if ever shared their faith in Christ with another person.

I wonder which is more offensive to God—two street preachers who give out the gospel in admittedly controversial venues—or a local evangelical church that is largely ashamed of the gospel.  I’m not contending that the church’s silence justifies evangelism that may evidence a lack of discernment.  What I am maintaining is that local believers who are not actively involved in any form of evangelism should not be nearly so willing to condemn those who, whatever their failings, are preaching the truth.  I have been very hesitant to find fault with these men because frankly, I admittedly have—to use Matthew 7 as a pattern--had trouble removing the log of my faithlessness in evangelism from my eye in order to take whatever speck might be floating around the eye sockets of these two preachers.

There is certainly room for the local church to have a discussion about the appropriateness of open-air preaching in this venue and from what  I know of the preachers, they would be pleased to participate in that discussion.  However, from a Matthew-seven point of view, what there does not seem to be room for is a church that is angrily condemning others for preaching the gospel, when many of them are not being faithful to preach it themselves in any venue.  Perhaps some of the shame should be transferred from the open-air preachers to our own lack of faithfulness to bear the good news Jesus died to give us.