How effective is this?

On Friday night, Mande and I meet up with Tim Crawford (Lost Cause Ministries), Jason and a few other brothers in Christ for some Evangelism in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. We had a wonderful evening, preaching the Law and Gospel, handing out tracts, having one on one conversations and having fellowship with each other.

Just before we left, a woman came by. I handed her a tract and she handed it back saying she is already a Christian. So I encouraged her to take it and give it to someone else who needs to hear the Gospel. She said that she does not use tracts and that she prefers to just talk to people and meet them “where they are.” I had no problem with that and she walked off.

Mande and I were listening to Tim preach when suddenly the woman came back. She asked if what we are doing is effective and how many people come to Christ because of it. I explained to her that only God knows how many people receive Christ because of our street ministry. I explained to her that we have seen people come to Christ on the streets. I also explained that we may not be priviledged to see that. 1 Corinithians 3:6-8 says:

⁶I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

So although we plant and water a lot of seeds, only God can make it grow and knows the result.

Something to consider. Each person who has a conversation with us about the Gospel, hears an open air message, receives a tract or sees the cross displayed makes a choice. At that moment, they may choose to accept or reject the Gospel. They may choose to stand and listen. Or they may choose to call the police, as is happening regularly at our Project Ezra outreaches at the park. They may choose to keep the tract, or they may choose to throw it away. They may choose to engage in a conversation, or they may choose to run away, pretend that God is not real and that there is no coming judgment.

Tony Miano’s words from ambassadors academy ring true. We are 100% effective at bringing each person to the foot of the cross. The rest is up to God. We must keep being faithful to glorify God and share the Gospel truthfully and Biblically.