Street Preacher

Everyone who's been a Christian for a while will know of 'street preachers' in their town, some good, some noisy, some downright embarrassing. There's a feeling amongst a number of Christians that this isn't the way to preach the Gospel.

Of course there's always another side to the story, and street preaching is missionary work in the same way as any other kind of missionary work.

Earlier in the month, on the Out of Ur site, they featured a brief interview with an Irish street preacher named Anthony Brabazon. Brabazon is an architect by trade (by which I presume it's meant that he works at that during the day and street preaches in his spare time). "...he considers the Dublin streets his church and the passing pedestrians his congregation."

Note that word, 'passing' - many Christians would think it was a waste of time to preach to people whom you might never see again. And when you look at the video, you might keep on thinking that. However, check out the interview which is wonderfully positive.

Street evangelists put their lives on the line, though most don't get beaten up or murdered - at least not in Western cities. On the other hand, Christians in other countries are still being martyred for their faith - in Nigeria and Malaysia most recently. We need to remember to pray for people in these countries, for the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters, and also for the Muslim people who are attacking them.

And just by way of a footnote, here's a comment made about a photo of a street preacher that appears on flickr.com: There's a dude in Swansea who does preaching. it's the best preaching i've ever seen. It's done in the style of a Swansea 'barrow boy'. Lots of " there you go darlin"s and "go on my son"s thrown in for good measure.

I guess he was a hooligan or some shit who's been 'saved' and hence has taken to the streets without anyone quite teaching him a new etiquette to approach his work. You're not sure if he's shouting at people in an attempt to provoke violence at first and it's only after a while that you realise he's is preaching the word of the big man upstairs.