Long Beach City College - One Step at a Time & An Impending Scripture Study WIth A WIling Listener

My wingman Rick has worked up enough radness that he was able to let the Gospel message soar at the stop light to the masses! We have decided that we will not be able to bring the entire complete Gospel message in the 45 second time window we have while these people are waiting at the cross walk, and we don’t really want to speak in generalities, so we decided to just bring up different points each week for the hearer to ponder. So this week was “Jesus as the great physician” – Rick would share a small but potent and compelling points to think upon in regards to this notion of Jesus as the great physician. And then as he would speak I would hand out a small flier/tract that has pretty much the same words that Rick shared but in text form. I too will be sharing in this capacity; I find it much easier to bring thinking points/bits of truth in 45 seconds rather than trying ti cram the Gospel message in that time. So our hope is that, as Rick and I become fixtures on the campus, and the students keep seeing us, and each week we bring them a different thinking point, and then hopefully they will eventually consider these truths and engage them, and hopefully email us (as we have provided at the bottom of the fliers). 
               Also, this week was a first in that a girl I had shared the message with texted me and she and one of her friends wants to meet up. So our first thought is like “O yeah, come to church with me!”, but I think we are missing it there as they become dependent on the “pastor” for their spiritual growth, so I have posed to them that we just meet up in a community setting and then read through the Word and wrestle with it ourselves and try to meet God there. So yeah that’s spose to happen next week so we will see and Ill keep you posted. 

Long Beach City College - Can You Share the Gospel in Under 1 Minute? I Cant (Yet)

So as to not bore you, my loyal readers, I have thus decided to post just once a week (that is until people are getting raised from the dead and limbs are growing out). This last week was disheartening and reminded me how ill equipped I am in the areas of actually preaching the gospel in an open-air setting. I say this because Rick and I have decided to post up at certain cross walk on the campus that really is a hub of foot traffic, and since they wait at the light for the turn to green they are a captive audience.
       So Rick and I went for it, Rick is the pastor and was to do the public speaking, but for some reason he just couldn’t step out and make it happen, so I, even though Im a blabbering incoherent public speaker, decided to kind of break the ice for Rick and spoke out. So I walked up to the cluster of people and, still not knowing why, I raised my arms like an actor form a bad Charlton Heston film and almost took on an English accent and began to speak out. We have about a 45 second to 2 minute window to share, and I began to speak, and every time Id open my mouth to begin a train of thought I realized it would be too long, so by the time I was done I had begun about 5 different approaches but just ended up quitting on them; this was sad cause I realized I cant really sum up the Gospel in 1 minute. Go ahead, you try to sum it up yourself; it proved to be very revealing and has really pushed me to study the Bible a bit more. So yeah that was a train wreck, and I wish I could say Rick got right up there and started knocking it out of the park, but no, he sat there close mouthed – whoops. But I know once he does the flood gates of wisdom and truth will flow from his mouth. So yeah that was kind of discouraging, but I have high hopes for next week, and still, I am proud of us, we took a baby step towards a great place.

Long Beach City College – “Dude, are you drunk?”

Today as I was preaching the Gospel truth I was asked twice if I was drunk – ha ha ha. I couldn’t help but laugh and remember the story where Peter preached in Acts 2 and some naysayers said about him and his crew that “they have had too much wine”. Its funny a thing to be mistaken as being drunk, because inebriation is usually evident by the fact that the drinker is acting in a way contrary to the way one would usually act, or is saying or doing things one would otherwise not do, that is because the drunkard is no longer in control but the booze inside of him has taken the reigns., and so in the same way I think that I was not “drunk with wine, but [was] filled with the Spirit.” Its true, I felt like today I was on point in my sharing!

            So prior to before today we would hand out fliers inviting people to join us at a set time at a certain placed, but no one was really coming, so we thought, what the heck, lets go to a place where there is a lot of foot traffic and then lets simply let the gospel message resound in the air and if anyone has ears to hear than they will hear. I ended up going for it, I set up shop near this one stop light where people collect and are crossing. I took a few different approaches in attempting dialogue, but after awhile one thing seemed to work just fine and so that was the approach I stuck with. I’d kind of just look at people there waiting to cross and then I would throw out this question “Is there one truth, or does truth vary from person to person?” and then usually one or two people would engage with me, and seriously it was amazing! It was amazing because through that question I was able to walk them through the unadulterated gospel message. It was pretty amazing in that 2 different people at different times said that basically what I was saying seems to be truth and they believe it, but they just don’t want to make the choice to lay all aside and give it up to follow Christ. As much as I wanted them to get born again right then and there I am very much aware of the fact that it must be God who gives growth, all I can do is till ground, plant seeds, prune false teaching and wrong ideas, and water bits of existing truth they have (1 Cor. 3:6-7 & John 3:8). But yeah I have to admit I was encouraged when one girl said to me, after I shared, “Where are you trying to invite me? Some church?  A bible study?...” and I said “No, I just want to share with you the things that save your soul from eternal torment, and the things that will give you earthly abundant life”, and the girls said “I will admit you make a very compelling argument, and I even agree with you, but Im just not ready to make this decision.” Well, pray I see her again, and that God convicts her. Stope – out!

Long Beach City College – Why cops wanna be slowin’ my roll?

Today Rick had some work to attend to so I was running solo. I hate being pilgrim style, and hope that soon some other folks will run with us. Anyways, I printed up 200 fliers, got those out with no problem, and felt confident that maybe like 5 or 6 people would come, but alas that figure was a bit high. Ok rewind a bit, as Im handing out the fliers inviting people to come connect with us at 12:30 to hear my first attempt at leading a discussion/message in connection with “Jesus and our deepest longings” I put a flier in the hand of 2 older ladies who were sitting at a table in front of  the cafeteria, after I handed it to them they began bustin me up telling me I need a permit and all this kind of stuff to assemble and distribute these since I am not a student. Fast forward to 12:25, 5 min before we/Im are to begin, I see a cop with my flyer in her hand hovering at the spot I was to share; luckily, no one was there at 12:30 when we were to begin so she couldn’t stifle the masses assembling since there were no masses assembled to begin with. She ended up walking away. I then took a seat where I told folks I would be, there was no one there except for a girl who was already there enjoying her Harry Potter book in the shade, I said “Well, I was to preach the gospel here but no one showed, since your in ear shot I guess you will hear”, she was kind and we ended up havin a lil 10 min discussion, until 2 people finally showed up! I went ahead and got my speaking notes out, proceeded to spew out a heart felt and genuine, but completely incoherent message, of the realities for those who walk in Jesus’ light. The 2 girls who came were both very gracious and kind, and I think they will be coming back (but then again the girls the day before said they were gonna return, but they left me hanging). But I will say I really felt good about connecting with these girls, they seemed to have a genuine hunger for things of God, and they didn’t seem caught up in anything except for profitable discourse and the things of God so that was encouraging. I do hope to see them again, Besides that, as I was walking out I met a lady who was handing out some simple home made gospel literature, she ended up being from St. Lucia (a Caribbean island), and my connection with Caribbean island of Haiti by default instantly made me love this lady, so I got her email and hopefully she will join us. So, nothing really huge happened that I could see, but I have set my face like flint and expect to arrive at a place where the Gospel we preach is not a powerless one but one being carried by the Spirit through me. Here’s to expectations that God will show up and release the captives and put things to right through the knowledge of Him that loves us. Word.

Long Beach City College – And so it begins.

Today Rick and I printed up some rudimentary flyers inviting Long Beach City College students to the first of our weekly “gatherings”, the flier read; “Connect for thoughts and a brief discussion on; Jesus & Our Deepest Desires.” I quickly handed out the 100 or so flyers that we had xeroxed off in a short period of time. We weren’t sure how many people were going to come, but as I was passing them I felt encouraged that maybe like ten people would come, but at 12:30, our start time came, we had about 6 (not including Rick and I). The format was as such; sitting in a circle at a nook of grass on the campus near the library with Rick at the helm – Rick spoke for about 15 minutes with a few questions and responses here and there. Rick shared - and I know that even I was stirred as he was sharing, and so I know that any of those 6 who had ears to hear heard as well. When it was all finished, I felt like that little crew of us (by this time 3 people left) actually were, somehow at some level, kind of on the same page – like I feel that Ricks profitable exhortation was just that, both profitable and exhorting. Now theres so much I can say about todays experience at this point; about the subject matter of Ricks sharing, or the body language and responses from the hearers, or what I learned from it in regards to social interaction and evangelism, any myriad of things, but alas, I don’t want to build a mansion from todays comings and goings when it really was only a tree house – I don’t want to force “fruit/results” on you or speak in generalities, but I want to speak of the amazing exploits of God as we see them, and I trust we will. Also, kind of along those lines, in regards to my writing, by no means am I a steady and well spoken, but you need no wit or scholastic know-how to make the phrase “today 9 people got saved, we baptized so and so, and Joe Blow just moved in with us and we are getting him off drugs…” to sound good. I want the fruit to speak for itself, I want these lives we touch to be our “letters of recommendation”, most of all, I (and Rick), only want to speak out of what we have seen, heard, felt, and experienced ourselves without any spin or hype. Please pray for us that lives would be touched, joy and purpose would be found, and relationships restored, God glorified and that the harvesters would increase. Amen.