Best way to approach open air preachers?

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catholictiger

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simple question

at lsu we have open air preachers all the time, i ushally ignor them mainly cause ill be going to class so i have no time to talk to them, but every once and a while i run into them when i have a break so i sit and listen.

so question if they are to approach you or you would want to approach them what would be the best thing to do

or is it better just to ignore them at all cost

thanks
 
Are you talking about people who gather a congregation together in an outdoor location, and give a short talk? In this case, simply listen respectfully - don’t be a “heckler.” Or else just walk on by.

But if it’s someone who is talking to you one on one, then answer them respectfully, give them the best answers that you can, and say “I don’t know, but I feel sure that the Church knows, and I can find out for you if you want,” if they stump you. 🙂
 
catholictiger said:
youtube.com/watch?v=ixG9hx5mw_g

here is a video of what the more extreme open air preachers do
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Yeah, just walk on by. Guys like that are on a mission - they aren’t going to listen to you. Unless you feel sorry for them, and then maybe take them out for coffee and chat with them in private, in reasonable tones of voice.

But don’t try to engage them on the street itself - that’s a lost cause.
 
If you mean soap box orators with a religious bent, that’s a dying art these days, which is a pity in some ways. If you’re going to preach in an open air setting, you need to have your wits about you.

This reminds me of two humorous stories I heard.

In the first, an ex-alcoholic friend of my old pastor used to live in a bed sit near Kings Cross in Sydney. Kings Cross is Sydney’s red light district (years ago it had a more bohemian flavour, but Vietnam and R&R changed all that).

While he was on the dry, some days the old bug to drink really used to gnaw at him. He had a unique solution. He’d put on a sandwich board with Bible quotes and go for a walk down Kings Cross.

Within five minutes of getting to the Red Light district, he found he was so busy defending his faith that he had no time to worry about the alcohol bug.

The second story concerned an anti-alcohol soapbox speaker. As he spoke, he suddenly pointed to a brewery in the distance, and shouted, “There! I wish to God that a thunderbolt would strike that brewery, and that all the ill made contents were to flushed down to the Georges River and lost forever!”

There was silence for a few seconds, then some wag started up in a hymn like tone, “Then we shall all gather down by the river…”
 
jmcrae said:
Yeah, just walk on by. Guys like that are on a mission - they aren’t going to listen to you. Unless you feel sorry for them, and then maybe take them out for coffee and chat with them in private, in reasonable tones of voice.

But don’t try to engage them on the street itself - that’s a lost cause.
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thanks for the advice sometimes i will be working the pro life table in that same area, and they will be there at the same time i usually try to sit and ignore them but they do sometimes approach me,

it actually happened once and no yelling was involved, we had a conversation type debate not a yelling one, he showed us some material and we said thank you we will take a look (to be kind, even though we probalby wouldn’t really read into it, maybe just to know the common objections to the church) they apparently came once every two weeks on tuesdays but since ive come to campus they haven’t shown up nearly as much.
 
Walk on by peacefully. If you are offered literature, it is often a tract with the “Roman Road” theory of salvation, teaching that praying the Sinner’s Prayer will get you saved permanently. The prayer will be at the back of the tract along with contact information of the sponsoring church.

For years, I was at public events weekly. People such as the man in the video were at many, though most were much quieter. They meant well. I took the tracts, sometimes looked at them briefly, and then privately dropped them into the trash. Please remember that the street preachers love God and want to do His will. They may teach error, but the street is not the place to have a meaningful discussion.
 
As a special treat when I was in high school I used to go into the city (Sydney) to the Domain on a Sunday where hundreds of people were gathered around numerous speakers standing on their soap boxes under the gigantic spreading tropical fig trees.

It is mostly a case of us approaching them because such open air preachers or debaters have a message and want to tell or yell it to as many people as possible. There were often hecklers and people who posed difficult questions. It was quite a wonderful, and sometimes confronting, experience.

It’s pretty rare for them to approach a single person though.
 
youtube.com/watch?v=ixG9hx5mw_g

😃 He’s got kahunas! Reminds me of Holy Scripture where John the Baptist sees the Pharisees coming and calls them a generation of snakes. John also told Herod Antipas (Herod-the-Great’s son) that he was sinning against Jewish law when he divorced and remarried.

Catholic open air preachers would have a gentler way to call people home to confession and to the Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist. It only takes a spark to get a fire going. 👍
 
do you have an example of a catholic open air preacher.

also one other thing, mary has a history converting people to Catholicism so just ask mary that her immaculate heart moves in their heart and they notice that the catholic church has the one truth that jesus preached.
 
On EWTN there was a program with an English women in her late 70s or so, and she taught the Catechism. She was, in her youth, an open air Catholic evangelist. 🙂

She said that to start, it was difficult, but that it was one of the greatest ways to learn the faith.

I’d imagine a Catholic open air preacher would start out as St. Paul did, “Brothers and sisters in Christ…”
 
Barbkw said:
On EWTN there was a program with an English women in her late 70s or so, and she taught the Catechism. She was, in her youth, an open air Catholic evangelist. 🙂

She said that to start, it was difficult, but that it was one of the greatest ways to learn the faith.

I’d imagine a Catholic open air preacher would start out as St. Paul did, “Brothers and sisters in Christ…”
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i hope she didn’t yell at people

or when people walk by say, becuase you are ignoring what im saying your going to hell

or your short are to short your going to hell

and so on and so forth yes people do that in these groups is sad
 
One encounters this sort of street proselytizing from time to time on college campuses or in downtown areas. I work for the chancery of the diocese in which I live, and down the street from us is a Scientology center. Their missionaries station themselves on the sidewalk yapping at anyone who will listen.

One day, while returning to the office from lunch, I passed a roving college Communist who assailed me with his beliefs and his literature. He handed me a pamphlet, I took it, and never stopped to listen to his blatherings.

One block later, two Scientologists approached me with their own blatherings and asked me to accept their literature. I stopped (for the first time ever) and said, “I’m sorry gentlemen, but I only accept literature from one street proselyte a day, and the Communists got to me first. Better luck next time.”

With that, I handed them the Communist’s literature, and they both laughed out loud. I continued on my way.

Sometimes humor is the best weapon of all.
 
Pregustator said:
One encounters this sort of street proselytizing from time to time on college campuses or in downtown areas. I work for the chancery of the diocese in which I live, and down the street from us is a Scientology center. Their missionaries station themselves on the sidewalk yapping at anyone who will listen.

One day, while returning to the office from lunch, I passed a roving college Communist who assailed me with his beliefs and his literature. He handed me a pamphlet, I took it, and never stopped to listen to his blatherings.

One block later, two Scientologists approached me with their own blatherings and asked me to accept their literature. I stopped (for the first time ever) and said, “I’m sorry gentlemen, but I only accept literature from one street proselyte a day, and the Communists got to me first. Better luck next time.”

With that, I handed them the Communist’s literature, and they both laughed out loud. I continued on my way.

Sometimes humor is the best weapon of all.
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great story

and i think your right humor can be the besst thing to do i just think you need to be carful how to use it becuase someone may say why do you joke about your fiath your faith is something you should take seriously your going to hell if you joke about it.
 
your faith is something you should take seriously your going to hell if you joke about it.
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Wow, that’s quite the assertion there, partner. I advise you not to read anything by the late, great Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who had a marvelous sense of humor about the Catholic faith. You’ll be scandalized to the core.
 
Pregustator said:
Wow, that’s quite the assertion there, partner. I advise you not to read anything by the late, great Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who had a marvelous sense of humor about the Catholic faith. You’ll be scandalized to the core.
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your right im just saying if you aren’t careful with the humor someone may say that.

btw i love fulten sheen

i love when he said one day jesus was walking around heaven and he saw people who easily got into heaven, and jesus went to peter and asks peter I gave you the keys to the kingdom of heaven how did these souls make it in, and peter said “lord every time i close a door your mother goes and opens a window”
 
your right im just saying if you aren’t careful with the humor someone may say that.
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I see. I misunderstood you. My apologies.
“Lord, every time I close a door your mother goes and opens a window”
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Love that quote!
 
these people showed up on campus today yet agian

i didn’t argue with them but two of my friends did

one kinda focused on history but i didn’t here much of it.

the other was alot more focused on theology, my friend who is a ex seminarian was arguing the guy

what would happen is that my friend would make a point

lets say you have to trust someone who is holier then you are who more experince then you and you can follow his example.

then this guy says oh I agree with you but you have to have the holy spirit in you to know if this guy really is the guy you should follow.

then he would make a point like well satan sometimes makes himself seem like the spirit how do you know if thats what you should listen to.

He would talk about that alittle bit but fall back on the same argument about how you have to have the spirit to know.

it seems like every point my friend make he would find a way to get back to this you have to have the spirit argument.

This guy also seemed to not want to be in a coversation with him instead he was just let me say what i want to say but maybe not let you say it. he cut my friend off many times.

Interesting argument they had just thought i let you know about it.
 
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