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Topic: Open-air Preaching
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Chaplain Bob
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Member # 5019
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posted
If one takes "open air" to mean some place other than a church building I whole-heartedly support the idea. There are many people in the world who would never darken the door of a church building for whatever reason but they would attend a theatre, park, beach, campground and such. I am working on developing a cinema ministry to reach the lost through films. We need to "go into all the world..." as the Lord said rather than trying to entice the lost to come into the church building.
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In His Service,
Bob Allen
Posts: 209 | From: Checotah, Oklahoma | Registered: Aug 2005
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WKUHilltopper
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posted
Anyone know where you can pick up video clips off the 'net with open air preachers?
Posts: 259 | From: KY | Registered: Feb 2006
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HE LIVES
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Member # 4931
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posted
David,
quote:
But I do suggest that the Churches take a little of that building fund and entertainment money and train some open-air preachers to go out during the week and not just keep it inside their building.
Amen!!! I agree with that 100%.
Posts: 182 | From: Missouri | Registered: Aug 2005
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KnowHim
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HisGrace, no one suggested that people should not go to Church so I don't get your point.
But I do suggest that the Churches take a little of that building fund and entertainment money and train some open-air preachers to go out during the week and not just keep it inside their building.
Most missionaries have to raise their own money to go ..... it is so sad that the Churches can not send some, but you know how that goes got to pay on that building.
I know, I know you hear how the Churches give to missions..... I hear it all the time... but you would be shocked if you knew how far that $100.00 bucks they give will go...... (yes this is sarcastic) the part that the $100.00 will go far) but they act like the little they give is so great. If you compared it to what they take in and spend on themselves. It is shameful........
Not all Churches are like this. I am sure if you search long and hard you might find one that gives more to spreading the gospel then they do on themselves. Got to have those padded pews you know.
Where does one find the term "going to Church" in the bible.
If the assembling of ourselves together means going to church, then we would find examples in the Bible, where buildings were churches and Christians assembling together in churches, wouldn't we? We find many examples of Christians assembling together. But never once do we find them assembling in any kind of building called a church, the house of God, or any holy, sacred place of God's dwelling and presence.
Protestant leaders today define the church as both the Christians and the building where they assemble together, in order to confuse us. Show me where in the entire Bible can we find a building ever called a church. The Bible defines clearly what the church is. I Corinthians 12:12, 26 says that those who belong to Christ are members of the one body of Christ. The Apostle Paul defines Christ's (his) body as the church, "...which is the church." (Colossians 1:24)
The entire book of Hebrews contrasts the Old Covenant Law of Moses with the New Covenant Doctrine of Christ. And proves that the Law was only a type and shadow of Jesus and His New Covenant Doctrine. These Christians in Hebrews were trying to keep the New Covenant by the Law of the Old Covenant. And it couldn't be done. Once Jesus came and fulfilled the Law by dying for our sins, the Law became useless, since He to whom the Law pointed had come.
I found the below article very interesting:
The True Origin Of The Church Building
THE TRUE PROTESTANT PROOF-TEXT FOR GOING TO CHURCH
In his message (located in "BIBLICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BASIC DOCTRINES OF PROTESTANTISM"), Dr. Charles Stanley continued trying to convince his viewing audience that the doctrine, going to church, was a biblical doctrine.
"Jesus went to church. Are you better than Jesus?" Stanley asked those whom he said had stopped going to church. Then he quoted, Luke 4:16, but changed the words, "into" to "to" and "synagogue" to "church", so that the verse would say, "...he (Jesus) went to church on the sabbath day..."; thus, the true Protestant proof-text for the Protestant doctrine, going to church, and the origin of the church building.
No wonder we can't find the church building, the word "church" or the doctrine, "going to church" in the Protestant traditional proof-text of Hebrews 10:25 or anywhere else in the Bible. By changing these two words, Protestants made Luke 4:16, the very Word of God, to fit their doctrine, going to church. And instead of judging this doctrine of men by the Word of God, they interpret the Word of God by this doctrine of men.
However, this deception didn't begin with the Protestants. As we'll see in the historical analysis of this series, this deception originated with the founders of Catholicism, who took the doctrines of the false religion of Phariseeism, changed them slightly and made them the doctrines of Catholicism. The synagogue became the church. The doctrine, going to synagogue on the sabbath day became going to church on the sabbath day. The Jewish seventh day sabbath became the first-day "Christian" sabbath. Then Martin Luther--a former Catholic, one of the Reformation leaders, and deemed by Protestants, as the father of Protestantism--took Catholic doctrines and made them the basic doctrines of Protestantism.
PHARISEEISM: THE ORIGIN OF THE SYNAGOGUE
Contrary to popular belief, the synagogue didn't originate with the Jews during their seventy-year Babylonian captivity. We don't see anywhere in the Old Testament, at any time, where the Jews built synagogues in order to have a place to read the Old Testament Law, pray, worship God and keep their religion alive. But we do find Daniel in Babylon, during the captivity, on his knees in his own house--not in a synagogue--praying to God with the windows open toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10).
We do, however, find the word "synagogues" one time in the Old Testament in Psalms 74:8. But we aren't told what these synagogues were. Synagogues, though, are located throughout the New Testament.
History traces the origin of the synagogue back to the Jews. The fact that the Jews are the only people on earth today, who call their places of worship, synagogues, would certainly prove that is the case.
But what group of Jews? It couldn't have been the Jews in the Old Testament, since we don't find any of them building or worshipping in synagogues. Since we find synagogues only in the New Testament, the group of Jews from where the synagogue originated then had to have been those Jews in the New Testament, who were the religious rulers over God's people at that time. And the religious rulers, throughout the New Testament, were the Pharisees. The Pharisees made the laws which the Jews had to obey.
Most Protestants believe that the Pharisees kept the Old Testament Law. And that all that Jesus found wrong with them was that they rejected Him and added a few insignificant doctrines to the Old Testament Law. But that isn't true, according to the Bible. Certainly they rejected Jesus, but Jesus said that they also rejected the Law, the Word of God, to keep their own doctrines, the tradition of the elders, in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. Their false doctrines were their tradition, their false religion--Phariseeism.
Yet, in Luke 4:16, Jesus went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was His custom. Jesus, born a Jew, according to the flesh and by promise, did what Mary, His mother, and Joseph, His mother's husband--both Jews--raised Him to do, until He was thirty years old, when He came out from under their authority. Then Jesus was under the authority of His Father, God, only.
It had been Jesus custom to go into the synagogue on the Jewish sabbath day. But not on that particular sabbath day in Luke 4:16. That sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue to reveal who He really was and what He had been sent to do, as He read Isaiah's prophecy concerning Him. (Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-2.
BIBLICAL PROOF THAT CHRISTIANS DIDN'T USE SYNAGOGUES FOR WORSHIP
Many pastors preach that christians in the Bible used the Jewish synagogues to worship God in. And they use Acts 9:1-2, 20 to prove it. When we exam carefully these scriptures, however, and also the Apostle Paul's account of this event, we'll find that these pastors' interpretation is totally wrong.
Saul, the Apostle Paul's name before God saved him, was born a Jew and was a Pharisee. (Philippians 3:5) As a Pharisee, Saul hated all those, who had left his religion of Phariseeism and had become christians, and continued to breath out threatenings and slaughter against them. After the death of Stephen, all the church in Jerusalem was scattered abroad because of the great persecution, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1) Saul was at the forefront of this persecution. (Acts 8:3)
Saul didn't stop his persecution of the church, though, after they were scattered abroad. He went to the high priest and requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus which would give him authority to arrest any christians he found there. And bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2)
But on the Damascus road, Saul met Jesus (Acts 9:3-18) and his plans changed. Instead of arresting the Christians in Damascus, he stayed with some of them, certain days. Then after his stay with the christians, he straightway preached Christ in the synagogues.
The question is, who did Saul preach in the synagogues?" It couldn't have been the christians who fled Jerusalem, since they preached the word of the gospel everywhere they went. (Acts 8:4) They didn't need to be saved. They already were the church. Acts 9:21 proves that those in the synagogues couldn't have been those christians who had been scattered there. Look at how they didn't refer to themselves but to "them".
Paul, himself, tells about this account in Acts 26:9-20. He reveals another usage for the synagogues in v.11. Synagogues also were used as a place to punish those who disobeyed, and preached against, the Pharisees law, before they were arrested and put into prison at Jerusalem. This was why Paul needed letters from the high priest, giving him that authority.
In Acts 26:19-21, Paul proves that he was preaching in the synagogues in Acts 9:20 to Jews, who were not saved, and not to those who were already saved. He preached to them that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. This was why, Paul said, that the Jews were trying to kill him. He was converting those in the false religion of Phariseeism to Christ Jesus.
Reference: History of the Church
The Synagogue:
Judaism - the false religion of the Jews - would include the synagogue worship. Such forms of worship were somewhat similar to that which we find in the small local Christian Church today. A synagogue could be formed wherever ten men could be found to become the pillars of that synagogue. Such synagogues were built in every city of the empire These consisted of both Jewish and foreign synagogues. Galilee for instance, flourished with synagogues that were largely Gentile. The emphasis would be upon the study and teaching of the law and other sacred writings, and this would be supplemented with songs of praise and prayer. It became the social center providing religious education and preservation of the religion of Judaism. In the synagogue, the rabbi replaced the priest as emphasis was no longer upon sacrifice and ritual, but rather upon teaching and instruction. Each synagogue had its leader selected from among the elders by vote. The leader acted as an overseer of the service. Each synagogue also had a custodian who was responsible to care for the building. Often this custodian was also the master over the synagogue school.
From:
http://www13.brinkster.com/exposed/5.htm
Posts: 3276 | From: Charlestown, IN | Registered: Jun 2002
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WKUHilltopper
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David, since youre from TN, you're probably like me--remembering the many "corner preachers" in open air services. I was born about 30 miles north of Nashville on the KY side of TN. So I was smack in the middle of the Bible Belt.
I rarely see this type of preaching anymore. Especially here in Louisville. We're too "fancy" for that. But I did enjoy this type of preaching--sort of a hell and brimstone, that you really don't get in a "traditional church" much anymore.
I usually only see "open air" preaching on internet clips nowadays. Seems like the crowd is much more likely to be scoffers than they were when I was a kid. Used to be, you'd stand there and listen--respectfully. We used to have these preachers come on the college campus and would preach. Mostly they were treated respectfully. But now, they aren't allowed do this on a state campus. Funny--but I thought college touts itself as promotion of the "free exchange" of ideas. This country is in serious trouble--I tremble thinking about the judgement of God that's in store for our country.
Posts: 259 | From: KY | Registered: Feb 2006
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Eduardo Grequi
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Member # 3984
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posted
We are to compel them to come in! Compel with love, compel with respect, compel with truth- BUT DO NOT SACRIFICE the truth for a lie.
I find that I am more apt to listen to an open air messager if it included music that praise Jesus. After all- more people will listen to a song. Therefore chose your song- wisely.
John the Baptizer, would not sacrifice the truth for a lie even if it ment his death.
AMEN DAVID!
AMEN! ![[clap2]](graemlins/clap2.gif)
Posts: 771 | From: Belvidere, IL | Registered: Oct 2004
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HisGrace
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I don't think you would get too many attending an open-air meeting in January in Canada, including myself.
Where did Jesus worship during the first 30 years of his life? The temple? The temple was a important gathering place for spiritual worship and events.
Luke 2:21-35 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the LORD, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
Vrs's 36-38 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
Vrs.40-49And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 5And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
~In Hebrews it shows the importance of assembling together. We need each other as a church family to encourage and uplift one another. Has our society become so disconnected and fragmented that they are fearful of bonding as a group?
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. ![[Bible]](graemlins/bible.gif)
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KnowHim
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John the Baptist was an open-air preacher. Jesus was an open-air preacher. He preached the greatest sermon of all time, the “Sermon on the Mount” in the open-air. Peter preached in the open-air at Pentecost and Paul chose to stand on Mars Hill and preach open-air to the Athenians.
If we are serious about reaching this world, let us follow in the footsteps of Jesus and the apostles and preach where sinners gather. In thirty minutes, a good open-air preacher can reach more sinners than the average church does in twelve months.
Thank God that the disciples didn’t stay in the upper room. They didn’t carpet the building, pad the pews then put a notice outside the front door saying, “Tonight: Gospel outreach service, 7 P.M. —all welcome.” They went into the open air.
The gospel is for the world, not the Church. One-third of the word “gospel” is “go.” Two-thirds of “God” is “go”; but like King Og, we seem to have it backwards. We take sinners to meetings rather than meetings to sinners. The Church prefers to fish on dry land rather than get its feet wet. Charles Finney put his finger on the reason why: “It is the great business of every Christian to save souls. People complain that they do not know how to take hold of this matter. Why, the reason is plain enough; they have never studied it. They have never taken the proper pains to qualify themselves for the work. If you do not make it a matter of study, how you may successfully act in building up the kingdom of Christ, you are acting a very wicked and absurd part as a Christian.”
He who loves his neighbor as himself will be concerned for his eternal welfare. He who couldn’t care less that every day multitudes of living people are being swallowed by the jaws of hell has a heart of stone indeed.
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