Black Friday: An Evangelist's Gold Mine!

I have been a little bummed out lately because there just aren't all that many opportunities during the winter months to go out and do any mass evangelism. When the weather is cold, people stay indoors, so any place you go is probably going to be private property. I have had enough incidents with mall security and crowd management services for distributing gospel tracts that I think I am marked every time I go to one. I can't get away with anything anymore.

But along comes Black Friday, the day when people come out and line up in droves just to hear us preach! Well, okay, they are lining up to save money on their Christmas gifts and big ticket merchandise, but who cares? They are a captive audience, and all we need to do is find a way to get them to listen to the gospel without feeling like we are ramming it down their throats.

So with that thought in mind, I began trying to build a team that would come out early in the morning and make the most out of this incredible opportunity. I started by calling local department stores to get opening times, and with that information, mapped out a route to hit as many of them as we could before the doors opened.

Then I had to come up with some sort of ice-breaker. I needed something to appeal to them in order to win their favor. Why not give them free coffee? Many of them will have been standing in line since 12a.m. to get a good spot in line, so they will have to be freezing! How better to soften them up and open their ears than to give them something they will appreciate? So, I got ahold of some commercial coffee-makers and a couple of 5-gallon thermal-insulated dispensers, and had 200-plus cups ready to go.

I was able to find 6 guys who were willing to get up early and hit the streets with me. Thank God for those guys. I pray he blesses them for this.

So here's the run-down. We hit Circuit City first, at 4 a.m. I really wish I would have called Kohls, because when we showed up at 4 o'clock, they were opening up across the street and there must have been 400 or more peope there heading into the store. Missed opportunity. Darn!

Anyhow, there were about 75-100 people at Circuit City, so we pulled up right in the front of the store, and I jumped up into the bed of my pickup and said, "Good Morning, would anyone like some free coffee? Just raise your hands and we'll bring it to you." The response was wonderful. People were so eager that many of them just rushed to the truck and gratefully accepted the hot coffee. Then, as the rest of the team were passing out the coffee, I preached a short, 5 minute gospel message and finished up by asking them to please accept a gospel tract from us and read it at their leisure. I reasoned with them that if they cared enough to stand out in the cold for hours just to save a few bucks, how much more should they value their souls? Almost everone took tracts from us.

I didn't even have to shout or use amplification because we were facing the front of the store, and the building itself contained my voice very well. It went better than I had expected.

Second store, Toys-R-Us. The line here was a little bigger, maybe fifty or so more, and I think they were the most receptive of all. We followed the same format at each store.

Then we went over to Shop-Ko, where there were a lot more people, and then to Best Buy, where we had to preach twice because the line was so long. We started shooting some video when we got to Best Buy, but I forgot to put new batteries in my wireless mic and they ended up dying on us halfway through the gospel presentation. I never bothered to check them all morning, so I have a lot of video with no audio. Oops! At least I posted the video I do have on my youtube channel, so if you are new to open air or are looking for pointers on getting a message started, you can check it out for yourself by clicking on the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfeEq6NcG1w

After Bust Buy, we hit Joes sporting goods, which had a pretty large crowd of about 200 or more. By then it was 5 a.m. which was opening time for most of the stores, except for the two local Target stores, which didn't open until 6. Suprisingly, there weren't that many people at the first one, but since I had a lot more time, I was able to preach a little longer message, which was cool. We ran out of coffee and had to stop for more before we hit the next one.

I thought I was going to have plenty of time here, too, so I was taking my sweet old time, expounding on the fact that we have all sinned against God and deserve his judgement, and reasoned about the aweful reality of hell, when all of the sudden a security guard approached me and asked me to stop. I begged and pleaded with him for just one more minute. I said, "I just told these people that they are heading for hell, please just give me one minute to tell them about Jesus. I can't leave them like that! Please, just one little minute?" But he wouldn't budge. But at least he let me address the crowd and let them know that the management had asked us to stop speaking. Funny thing is, the crowd turned on him, and demanded that he allow me to finish! He still wouldn't give in though, so we were forced to stop. He did, however, allow us to continue handing out coffee.

It was a great morning, and a great opportunity that we took full advantage of. I tried to encourage members of the team to get up and preach, but they were not comfortable with that yet. Maybe next time. Everone contributed and was a big help in getting this done. They must have all handed out a couple hundred tracts each. It was a real blessing to be a part of it and see these guys stepping out of their comfort zones for the sake of the gospel.

I really hope that this experience inspires you to look for opportunities in your community to get the gospel out. It was a total blast.

Until the nets are full...