from: http://www.faithfulsoldier.com/practical.htm
Avoid overly emotional tirades, (Pentecostal preaching style, screaming preacher style, etc…) Also avoid the other extreme; monotone and bland preaching. Speak from the heart in a genuine way that properly communicates the seriousness of the content and the concern you have for your hearers. This also becomes important as you learn to project your voice and maintain good volume without a) looking like a crazy person, or b) being so soft that no one can hear you.Listen
“Be swift to hear and slow to speak” (James 1:19
). People are much more apt to listen to you and consider what you are saying if you show a genuine willingness to do the same for them. Plus this helps you to understand them and avoids unnecessary confusion and miscommunication.
Use reason as well as simply proclaiming things
To simply declare something to be true is fine. But the human mind works in such a way as to desire a reason as to why “such and such” is true. When we are setting forth things that are not obvious truths then we owe it to those listening to “give a reason” (I Peter 3:15), If we don’t make sense then our message is worthy of rejection just as we would reject someone who made a presentation to us but couldn’t back up their claims with sound fact and reason. (ex. A Mormon knocking on your door, a telemarketer on the phone, etc…)
This entails that you study, exercise your mind, learn what you believe and why so that you are able to “convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9) and to “reason and persuade” (Acts 18:4, 19:8,) as is our Biblical example.
Answer questions honestly, answer them well
It is very important to be honest, don’t make stuff up or twist the facts to gain advantage in an argument. First, it is simply bad moral character and secondly, even if done from good intentions it can be a stumblingblock to hearers if it is exposed. Sometimes you may simply need to say, “I don’t know”. Remember, no one likes “know it all” attitude anyway.
Establish common ground, relate to hearers
Paul in Acts 17 used a religious monument and a poem of the Greeks to relate to them, establishing common ground whereby he could then communicate the gospel to them. This opens people up to you and establishes communication, something that is very difficult but very important to do for the open air preacher. I often times will use something on someone’s T-Shirt; a sports team or a music band, to connect with them. People want to know that we are real people with real life experiences and emotions. Phoniness or pretentiousness is very destructive to an effective witness.
Ask questions, frame the debate
Many times Jesus responded to a question with a question. Using questions does several things. One; it engages people personally, two; it gets people thinking, three; it helps to frame a subject or discussion.
Many unbelievers will ask loaded questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no answer. The Pharisees often did this to Jesus. He had the wisdom to respond with a question to reframe the discussion. For example when asked should we pay taxes to Caesar, Christ responded by asking for a coin and then asked whose image was on the coin. Another example I use is when someone says, “Prove to me God exists?” I often will ask them in response, “What do you mean by prove”? Can you define proof for me? People will often ask for God the type of proof that they don’t demand for lots other things they believe, thus exposing a bias in the way they evaluate the evidence for God’s existence and the truthfulness of the Gospel.
Maintain a humble, gentle, and patient disposition
Your demeanor is very important. Even if you don’t think that you are being thingyy or impatient, or overly aggressive it is important to understand how you are being perceived. Public preachers are already stereotyped as “condescending” “angry” and “ignorant”. We have to work extra hard to overcome this. Not that we should be putting too much stock in what others think of us either, that can be equally as harmful. To simply desire that “all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26) is not to follow in the path of our Savior either, but we should be sure that we are going the extra mile to effectively communicate. We can’t let our personal disposition be a stumblingblock to our message. Avoid becoming (or even looking) defensive, or mean-spirited.
Anger is not always bad either. Jesus flipped the tables over and whipped the Pharisees out of the temple, but this was not His general disposition. Paul in Acts 13 harshly rebuked a man and cursed him with blindness, but this wasn’t an everyday thing. These men were balanced. “The servant of the Lord must…be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition…” II Timothy 2:24
Use hecklers properly, work to control the crowd
A heckler is your friend. Ray Comfort has some great material on this. I will add a few of my own thoughts. When someone engages you, use them to attract others into your discussion. Let the heckler ask questions that others probably have but don’t have the courage to publicly ask you. It’s like batting practice in baseball. You don’t have to answer every question, especially when you have five or six people asking questions at once. Wait for the question you want and take the discussion where you want. This is a vital part of controlling a crowd. When a crowd gets to be a bit wild you can use some tactics to calm things down. I often will ignore the hecklers who are just trying to be disruptive (there can be bad hecklers). If they don’t leave then I try to shame them publicly by saying things like “Man, I am here to have an honest discussion about important things, are you not mature enough to do that or what?” This many times will get an irrational person to calm down and when done to a whole crowd can calm a whole crowd down. If they are only getting irate and argumentative then you are not going to be able to effectively communicate with them, work to calm things down, control the crowd, work for a dialogue, an exchange of ideas and thoughts (this also means that you have to be willing to listen too).
Another important thing is to not let yourself get bogged down with one person in a crowd. If you have twenty or thirty people standing in front of you listening, and one person gets real close up to you and wants to have a “personal” conversation then you will need to let them know that you are interacting with a large crowd, they can either join in, talk to someone else in your group who may be doing one-on-one stuff, or simply ask them to wait until you are done, offering them your email or something. Here you have to use discernment too. There have been times where I have preached for a while and the crowds are thinning out (or never built up in the first place) and a sincere person comes up and wants to talk, Sometimes it may be that you need to stop preaching and talk to this person. There have been times where I have preached it seems just for one person who was drawn in and I was able to really minister to them on a personal level. Don’t be afraid to stop preaching in these instances.
Be prayed up
Be in prayer as a way of life, but especially while engaged in open air preaching and witnessing. There are many times I have gone out ministering “in the flesh” and my preaching is off, my spirit is bad, and I simply need to recognize it and shut up. Sometimes you can work through this and the Lord touches you as you’re out there, but other times you simply need to get alone for a bit and work on your heart. Pride or irritability can do more harm than good. Don’t think that simple fear is an excuse in this instance though. Work through your fear. NEVER let fear hold you back from being obedient. Every time I go out, despite fear, I get greatly blessed as a result (as do others whom I come into contact with)
Define terms, clarify points, be careful to communicate effectively
Many times we fall into using Christian “lingo” that non-Christians don’t understand. “You must be born again!” shouts a zealous young preacher. Okay, what does born again mean? Your average young person in America doesn’t know what that term means. It requires some explanation. If we are going to say it, then we need to at the same time DEFINE IT. I have found that about 90% of confusion and miscommunication in witnessing is a result of people using a word when the hearer has a different definition in their mind. Another example of this is when someone might say in regards to homosexuality, “What’s wrong with two men loving each other?” My response is, “Nothing, two men should love each other, I love lot’s of men!” Then I will clarify the definition of the term love, “Lust, or sex, is not love. “Two men should love each other, they should not have sex with each other.”
Use the Law, touch the conscience, speak to the heart.
If you have never heard “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” I would encourage you to listen to it. The Law of God, written on every man’s heart, is evidence of right and wrong and is also evidence for God’s existence and authority. The Holy Spirit came into the world “to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come.” John 16:8. We are not helping anyone by tickling ears and telling them what they want to hear. A sinner who thinks all his problems will go away if he becomes a Christian is not coming to Christ for the right reason and when he finds out that his problems don’t go away but may even get harder he will most likely fall away. The law is the “schoolmaster that brings us to Christ”, (Galatians 3:24). Men must come to Christ through the cross, broken over their sin and ready to submit to the rightful authority of their Creator.
This does not mean we don’t use reason and appeal to the mind as well. As Charles Finney would say, you go through the head and into the heart; you must make sense to the person for the conscience to be struck. Thus God’s Law, when presented properly, brings genuine conviction of sin. A man must see the shame of his sin before he’ll see the need for a savior and before he will appreciate what Christ did for him. The deeper the conviction of sin, the deeper the repentance; the deeper the repentance the deeper the Christian life that will be produced.
Avoid deliberately offensive rhetoric
Too many Open Air preachers use rhetoric designed at getting a crowd, not realizing that they often times greatly compromise their credibility. As we said earlier, be sincere, be genuine. There is nothing wrong with humor, or with well timed one-liners to make a point. But be careful that your motive is right and that what you say to get people to listen won’t damage your credibility or cause reproach to those who happen to be passing by and only hear a short snippet of what you’re saying.
Engage your audience, don’t’ just preach at people, preach to people
Many open air preachers fail to realize that open air ministry in the New Testament is more like a public debate than public “preaching”. Paul engaged in lively public debates. So did Jesus. They didn’t just stand up and quote Scripture. They engaged their audience. I often see street or campus preachers who preach and preach and preach, with people just walking past. They never engage and connect with their hearers. When someone walking past yells something at you, rather than try to ignore him and keep your focus on “preaching”, engage the person. Respond to their comment. Use their remarks as material to speak on, address them personally, drawing them (and others) into your public debate.
It is important to stay in touch with people who are impacted by the preaching or conversation. I have found that most people whom I give my info to don’t contact me. I instead will get there info, then I can contact them and work towards building a relationship with the person.
Never lose sight of individuals
This is my most important point. I have a tendency to lose focus on the individuals that are in front of me. I either get so focused on a debate that the debate becomes the issue and not the person or I get focused on the “numbers”, the “crowd”.
People will often use “arguments” as a smoke screen. Answering questions is important, but you must be able to discern the sincerity of the question. If someone asks you a question and doesn’t even listen to you as you’re responding, they are insincere and the question is a smokescreen. It there are others who may have the same question who are listening I will often times answer it for their sake, but I will not get wrapped up in “answering a fool according to his folly, lest I be found just like him” (Proverbs 24:5).
In the same passage in Proverbs it says to “answer a fool according to his folly, lest he becomes wise in his own conceit” The difference between the two, I believe, is sincerity. An insincere fool doesn’t care about the answer; he is not reasonable nor is he really seeking truth. Don’t answer him. But a sincere fool, someone who has bad ideas, but will listen if they can be shown through reason, that what they believe is wrong; This fool ANSWER, labor with him, work with him, go the extra mile with him, because he can be won! Don’t lose sight of these people in a big crowd. Don’t get focused on numbers, or arguments, or whatever. Keep your focus on individuals, for whom Christ died, and may you see many come to know the Lord and His great redeeming power through your simple efforts.
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one, does not leave the ninety-nine…and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing…I say to you likewise that there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:4-7
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