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Open Air Preaching

TTUN @ tOSU Ministry Report – Nov 24, 2018

November 28, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

Me, Nick, Sarah, Jeff, Rusty and Jason (l to r)

The outreach to the game in Columbus, OH with TTUN actually began on the evening of November 23.  We had great joy that evening because several evangelists visited from out of town to help us this week!

We began the weekend with a time of prayer with president and founder of Sports Fan Outreach International, Bill Adams via conference call. After beseeching God by His mercy to bless us and our efforts, we headed to Skyline Chili to enjoy one of the many blessings God has given us through creation. The photo to the left is the Friday night team after downing some chili together.

After we ate, we headed back to my house where we worshiped the Lord through song and Bible reading. It was a sweet time of fellowship and praising God. It isn’t often that people give up an entire weekend or two days for the sake of the gospel, and I am grateful to these folks who all drove from more than 3 hours away to assist me at my primary fishing hole, the corner of righteousness, at THE Ohio State University.

Rusty and my son, Michael Robert, worshiping Jesus Christ through song.
Here’s Nick, Sarah and my son, Wesley singing. As part of our worship, Nick read Revelation 5 and Wesley read Psalm 1. God be praised!

“The Game”

Jason Bradshaw preaching on the right.

“The Game” is always the most crowded event at Ohio State. So we left earlier than usual on a cold and rainy day so that we could begin to minister by 9am. It is actually hard to believe how many people were out walking around in cold rain at 9am when kickoff wasn’t until noon! I praise God for my co-laborer Jason Roberts who met us near the stadium in order to help with the ministry.

Most of us don’t mind getting a little wet, and we live in a culture where keeping warm in the cold isn’t very difficult (at least in central Ohio). But keeping electronic equipment and tracts dry becomes the name of the game for evangelism. No one is going to take a wet, soggy, tract, and we certainly don’t need a speaker to malfunction or even electrocute someone due to water!

 

The Result

The day went like any other. We sang, we prayed, we preached, and we passed out hundreds of tracts. There were very few hecklers and a lot of kind-hearted souls who God sent to offer encouragement. A young man selling pies to raise money approached me for prayer, and I prayed for him. I offered to buy some of his pies and his response surprised me:

“I can’t take money from you, sir. I see you out here every week. I just wanted to encourage you.”

I was really excited to hear that. One of the reasons we don’t change locations is so that people will consistently see us, and that maybe that would have an impact on them. Another aspect of being at the same location for years is that we actually get to know the vendors and the ticket sellers. When you think about it, we are there doing the same thing…

Here you get an idea of the crowd size as they cross Lane Avenue to go to the game.

Street vendors and ticket sellers have the same physical goals we have:

  • Keep your equipment dry/protected
  • Get your message to as many people as possible
  • Stay warm; go home safely, and try to enjoy yourself while there.

Now we have a supernatural aspect to what we are doing, but in many ways, we are employing methods that by God’s grace are common to man in the dissemination of information. I think we build a kinship with the vendors when they realize we are not “against them.” ** When I left Saturday, I actually walked around and said bye to all of them. They were all very kind and chuckled as I said, “See you next season.”

Overtime

After the outreach I took the team to Raising Canes, another restaurant (like Skyline) which they do not have in that state up north. So we enjoyed a final Raising Canes lunch as the result of the kind supporters of this ministry. The fellowship was sweet as we shared stories and talked theology and simply enjoyed each other’s company.

Jason, Jeff, Sarah, Jason, Rusty, me and Nick

But the story doesn’t end there! The Buckeyes completed their season with a victory over our rival, and earned a place in the Big Ten Championship game. Now, several of us had already planned to go to Indianapolis on Dec 1 to minister to the crowds there, but now we get one more chance to reach our Ohio State fans. Will you pray right now that God would save souls in Indy? And pray that my crew of 8 would all be able to make it and dispense His gospel that day.


** The exception is when people peddle their pornography or strip club cards. I am openly against what they are doing, and God has driven those folks away because of His mercy toward us.

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Witnessing Tagged With: 2018 OSU, attributes of God, God, Grace, Love, Mercy, Open Air, people, power, preaching, pride

Nebraska @ tOSU Ministry Report – Nov 3, 2018

November 6, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

On November 3rd, we went to OSU to preach the gospel to the fans of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Ohio State Buckeyes. But it was the events of November 2nd which in many ways are most notable.

My 2 year old son packing ESV NT Bibles into a box for us to bring to OSU.

I was actually beginning to be a little depressed near the end of the morning of November 2nd. Only 3 people had committed to meeting me at Ohio State for evangelism the next day. Please don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful for all those who accompany me and labor with me in the gospel. But there’s a strategic side of evangelism whereby we know that the more laborers there are, the better chance we have of reaching more people, and thus, reaching God’s elect.

My brief sadness was not only quickly overcome by our Lord Jesus Christ and His providence, but HE LITERALLY OBLITERATED it.

Around 2pm, I received a text from someone asking if she could come with us.

Minutes later, my friend John texted asking if he could stay at my house and evangelize with us the next day. 

Things were heating up!

Dear brother John Rataczak of Eleutheros Books.

Side note: John may be the smartest and most educated person I know. I relish every minute I get to sit at his feet and learn, frankly. You can buy his books here – https://www.eleutherosbooks.com/book_store

What joy I experienced now that I had 6 team members, when a coworker texted me completely out of the blue around 10pm to tell me he wanted to come too, and then Kurtis who was not sure he could make it also texted to say he could come!

I had gone from a team of four to eight in 8 hours! This was truly an answer to several prayers we had prayed throughout the season.

Here are some pictures, be sure to scroll down to the end for a really neat story about our public worship.

Miri, Jason, Kurtis, Alayna, Matt, Caleb, John and me before we began.
Here you can see Caleb preaching in the Buckeyes shirt on the far left and Alayna handing out tracts to people as they passed by on the right.
In this photo, Kurtis is exhorting the man walking away from him near the yellow car. This man yelled at Kurtis as he walked by and Kurtis was trying to help him see his need for God.
In the middle is Dennis, a drummer who was playing on some homemade drums most of the afternoon. We asked him if we could sing Christian hymns while he played the drums.
We sang a couple Christian hymns while Dennis played the drums. It was a sweet time of worship and also it drew attention from the passers-by as they heard God glorified through song.

Dennis was quite pleased to play with us. After we finished, we prayed for Dennis and his family, thanking God for him and for salvation for all. Dennis received our tract and one of our team members had $100 bill for him as a gift. Hopefully, God will use our generosity and gratitude to lead Dennis to Himself.

After we finished, we had a sweet fellowship meal together, as is our custom. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us this season through prayer and financial gifts. Everything we do is made possible and more enjoyable thanks to saints who care about getting the gospel to people. We have one remaining home game on November 24th against Michigan.

But God, in His infinite wisdom has seen fit to send me to Michigan November 17th to preach at the Indiana vs Michigan game. This will be the second time Indiana fans could see me. And Michigan fans will see me two weeks in a row now.

And the Big 10 Championship game is December 1st where likely Michigan or Ohio State will be playing. So who knows what God will do with his preached Word? Maybe someone will see me at multiple locations and be affected by that? Pray it may be so!

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Witnessing Tagged With: 2018 OSU, attributes of God, God, Grace, Love, Mercy, Open Air, people, power, preaching, pride

Minnesota @ tOSU Ministry Report – Oct 13, 2018

October 14, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

For the second time this season we had back to back Saturdays with an Ohio State football home game. This was a particularly exciting week because I had 8 fellow evangelists who wanted to join me!

The clouds provided protection from the sun’s rays, resulting in very cold temperatures for an early October day. Pictured above is Kurtis preparing to preach with Jason Roberts and his daughter Miri in the background standing firm to pass out tracts.

A lot of folks don’t like to talk about “strategy” when doing ministry work. Employing strategy is considered a bit taboo because so many people have used man-centered and man-made strategies to try to attract people to churches.

But there is nothing wrong with using good wisdom to try to reach as many people with the gospel as possible — as long as the methods are biblically approved. And it is wise and caring to be sure that the folks you minister with are well taken care of.

Take, for example, the fact that 8 people were offering their time to get the gospel out at the Ohio State football game Saturday. In order to maximize the amount of time on the street engaging the lost, we need to minimize any wasted time. A big time waster on game days is “looking for parking.”

Praise the Lord for a man who was selling hats at the Ohio State game this weekend. I was very cold and unprepared for the cold and wind we would face!

Here is a description of our pregame activities along with an explanation of why we do what we do. I like to believe that my preparedness and organization is a blessing to those who join me (as long as they can put up with the pedantic nature of it).

Our first goal is to be at the preaching location 3 hours prior to kickoff. So, since the game was scheduled for noon, that meant we wanted to be there by 9am.

Nine people from 5 different vehicles all met at a location about a mile away from where we minister. Our goal was to arrive at 8:30. After meeting, as many people as possible piled into my van, while the rest walked the mile to the location. This amounted to the “young people.”

Then I drove the remaining folks to the location and dropped them off along with back packs, a box of tracts, etc. Then I went back and parked my car. 

Then I rode my bike back the location. The goal is to:

  • cut down on the total time spent trying to get from parking to the “corner of righteousness”
  • minimize any monetary spending on parking (we park so far away we don’t pay for parking)
  • reduce the amount of walking that people have to do — standing on concrete for several hours to preach and pass out tracts is actually already very tough on your legs!
I love this photo of Miri handing this OSU fan a gospel tract. 

So after meeting at 8:30, and all the shuffling back and forth, we were finally able to begin together by 9:08. You can see how everyone has to do their part for the team’s success.

By the time of kickoff, most of us have already been away from home over 4 hours without a meal or a break. I encourage my team to take care of restroom breaks before the crowd arrives. We have a window of about 2 hours where there is a consistent crowd, with a large concentration about 90 minutes to 30 minutes before kickoff. You don’t want to have to leave your post to use the restroom!

After the evangelism is over and we are all tired, we normally try to make time for a fellowship meal where we enjoy each other’s company, nourish our tired bodies and share stories of what we just encountered. I am very grateful to everyone who helps provide these meals, as well as the gospel tracts we pass out. This year so far we have already passed out about 5,000 tracts.

This week, because of the maturity of the team members who all arrived on time, we were able to sing Nothing But the Blood and pray together before splitting up to preach and pass out tracts. I am so thankful for Mike, Jason, Miri, Nick, Allie, Joe, Kurt and Adam who labored alongside me.

May Jesus Christ be praised by those who heard His Word preached or received a tract this weekend. He watched over us as usual, keeping us safe from harm, sending encouragement through the brethren, and sustaining us as we endured the elements. Praise His holy name.

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Witnessing Tagged With: 2018 OSU, attributes of God, God, Grace, Love, Mercy, Open Air, people, power, preaching, pride

Indiana @ tOSU Ministry Report – Oct 6, 2018

October 9, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

Kurtis preaching while Miri holds a sign. We gave away over a half a dozen Bibles!

Oct 6 was the first game this season where we arrived after the game began. For the first three games this year, we would normally arrive about 3 hours before kickoff, and minister to the crowds as they walk to the game.

This week’s game was 4pm, so we planned to arrive about 6pm. This gets us there about an hour to an hour an a half before the game ends. The evangelism is very different from before to after game.

Kurtis is almost 19 and is a college freshman at Cedarville University. He has been preaching for a couple years and the Lord is growing him. 

Imagine a simple scenario with simple numbers. Before the game, let’s say about 30,000 walk past us over the course of 3 hours. That is about 10,000 people per hour or about 1,600 people every ten minutes who walk past and hear the gospel or get a tract.

Post-game evangelism differs because instead of a few hours of people hanging around and making their way toward the stadium, the entire crowd is leaving the football game at roughly the same time. So that 30,000 people who are walking back to their cars makes their way in about an hour. So instead of about 1,600 people walking past you every 10 minutes, it’s more like 5,000 people every 10 minutes!

This makes for much larger crowds while preaching. Notice in this photo below how many people are within earshot of my preaching!

Additionally, it seems people are more willing to take tracts or Bibles because they are just on their way home. Very few people want to carry a Bible to a football game, but if you’re just getting in your car anyway, why not?

 

Jason and Miri

I’m thankful to Jason and Miri Roberts and Kurtis and Kenton Gould for going with me this week. We had a sweet time of worship prior to evangelism and sang A Mighty Fortress. Jason commented that this really got him in a spirit of worship and service to God, and he thinks it had a calming effect on Miri, too, who is only 9 years old, but is a baptized believer serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

Worshiping with hymns is something I hope to do every time we are out together!

We handed out hundreds of tracts, and Kurtis and I preached for almost a total of 3 hours. Many souls heard the Word of God. Our Lord kept evildoers away from us and sent encouragement, as always. I even received a $1 donation. Praise the Lord that someone desired to support us!

It was a night when we could see that a few more laborers would have helped us pass out thousands more tracts. Would you pray that the Lord would raise up more laborers for the harvest?

One highlight was when I was preaching after the game, Kurtis overheard someone say, “Ugh, I thought that guy wasn’t here this week.”

I actually wondered if people would notice we weren’t there for pre-game! It is nice to know that our consistency is noticed. This is one of the keys to returning to the same location every home game for a whole season. Sinners notice, and we hope God would use these means to draw folks to His preacher — that they might hear and believe!

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Witnessing Tagged With: 2018 OSU, attributes of God, God, Grace, Love, Mercy, Open Air, people, power, preaching, pride

Tulane @ tOSU Ministry Report – Sept 22, 2018

September 24, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

Instead of a long report in paragraph form, I’ve decided to post “quick hit” updates from our Saturday, September 22 day of ministry/evangelism at THE Ohio State University football game vs Tulane.

Dana Lewin

There is Joy in Serving Jesus

  • I was joined by 5 wonderful men of God: Caleb Davenport, Kurtis Gould, Adam Burd, Chase Vendley and Fred Triplett.
  • I don’t have a count of tracts passed out, but my box of tracts was significantly lighter when we finished!
  • We preached for at least 3 hours. For about an hour we preached on two street corners.
  • The after evangelism fellowship meal at Raising Canes was sweet fellowship, and, in my estimation, an important part of the endeavor.

Everyone Responds

  • Often we are asked if anyone responds to our “methods.” The answer is “Yes, everyone responds.” People either respond by believing in Jesus or rejecting Jesus.
  • While I was preaching, a man walked by me and gave me a fatherly disapproving look as I preached. He shouted, “Right message, wrong method.” I thought to myself but did not say, “I don’t appreciate the method he used to tell me that.” Let the reader understand.
  • The pornographers who had been passing out their garbage at our “corner of righteousness” did not show up this week. Were they finally driven away by the consistent witness of the Law of God and the Gospel of God?
  • Many Christians encouraged us with high fives, thumbs up or just little waves as they walked by. Thanks be to God for His people and their joy in hearing God’s Word preached.

Consistency Matters

  • I believe that being at the same location for years, and for every game has had an effect.
  • Other evangelists know us.
  • The pornographers may have been driven away by our presence.
  • The police are familiar with us, and they know we are there to do justice and to love kindness.
  • Team members have no trouble finding the rest of the team, because we are always in the same place. Folks who show up late do not lose the rest of the team, because we stay at the corner of righteousness.

Praise God for His good work this weekend. He is worthy to be praised, and we should thank Him for another chance to preach and teach His Word to sinners.

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Witnessing Tagged With: 2018 OSU, Christ, church, evangelism, Gospel, Open Air, people, Righteous

Rutgers@tOSU Ministry Report – Sept 8, 2018

September 11, 2018 by Michael Coughlin

Proverbs 28:1 “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

Contrasting Righteousness and Wickedness

Once again at the “corner of righteousness” we encountered a group of pornographers who were passing out their own “tracts” for admission to a local strip club. At the time they appeared, good brother Kurtis was preaching.

Kurtis preaching in the rain with his Waterproof Bible by Bardin & Marsee Publishing.

Kurtis didn’t actually see the folks peddling immorality, but he preached God’s Word with “the boldness of a lion.” I was slightly bothered, because, if you read last week’s post, you know that I intentionally preached against the immorality in order to drive away the evildoers.

But God, who can do exceedingly and abundantly more than I can even think, had plans to drive these folks away without my wisdom. Whether it was the rain, the godly preaching, or just a lack of response, these purveyors of sex, and abusers of women only lasted a few minutes at our corner and left!

God certainly didn’t need me or my best ideas to accomplish what I asked him to do in prayer. We can trust that the wicked flee when no one pursues, and that the preaching of God’s Word with lionlike boldness may be used by God to drive away evil, even when the specific evil isn’t being preached about! Praise the Lord!

The Just and the Unjust

God sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). This was a day where commitment was questioned, and love for God and the lost tested. Four people who were expected to minister along side of me canceled, as well as two others who normally help who could not make it. Thank God for Kurtis who recruited a friend from Cedarville to come and give out the gospel. It was great to welcome Adam Burd to our team and get to know him a little. It turns out this was his first time evangelizing!

We stood in rain for almost 3 hours and preached the gospel the entire time. Kurt and I took turns preaching, while Adam tracted the crowds. I noticed one lady stop to ask Adam questions and he was able to speak to her.

We try not to be fair-weather evangelists.

Adam and a lady with her daughter.

If God send rain on the Buckeyes game, the fans who bought tickets will still be there. We will be there too. But it is especially encouraging when a person will stop and talk to you in the rain. I was very impressed with Adam because he was not raised around street preaching, yet he seemed entirely comfortable with it. Truly we can trust this is a work of God’s grace in his life.

Around 30 minutes prior to game time, I actually went to another corner so that Kurtis and I were letting everyone who came near us hear the Word. Normally, we try to stick together, but we thought it important that the people on the other side of the street be given the gospel as well.

Some Apologetic

“That’s a form of sanity,” said a guy at the corner as I preached.

“Oh. Yes. To not believe the Bible would be crazy,” I replied.

“No. You don’t understand,” his buddy let me know, “that’s your personal truth, and as long as your good with it, it’s a ‘form of sanity.'”

It seems this “form of sanity” concept was important to him and his buddy. So I told them the reason that what I was doing is sane is that I was preaching {trigger warning} “objective truth.” They took exception with this idea. They challenged that the Bible was objective truth, raising the fact that Hemingway wrote stuff, too, “so why isn’t that objective truth as well.”

Ponchos kept us dry underneath, but we weren’t ready for how cold it was standing outside that long. Our hands stopped working!

These young men were in a hurry to be somewhere, so there wasn’t much time to get deep with them, but I told them their own philosophy was a failure because it couldn’t support itself. I told them that the mere concept of personal truth was just their own personal truth and thus easily refuted by me saying I didn’t believe in it.

Not understanding the point, one of the guys said to me, “your belief in Christ and the Bible is a philosophy, too.”

“Yes, it is,” I told him. “But it’s internally consistent. That is, it does not refute itself — like your philosophy which is self-contradictory. You believe in personal truth absolutely, so much so you project that idea onto me. You believe absolutely that personal truth exists.”

I was encouraged that as I was saying those last couple sentences, they had already started to cross the street to their destination, but they walked backwards, as if continuing to converse with me was quite important to them. Maybe when they crossed the street, Adam gave them a tract and they heard gospel preaching from Kurt? God knows!

Not Without Difficulty

Grateful for the gospel fellowship we shared afterward over a meal, and for young men who give up their Saturday to minister to the lost.

A note to all who follow the ministry and support us in various ways. We are forever under various trials, some minor some major. After we had our fellowship meal and departed, I stopped to buy some food for my wife which she needed to cook for our church fellowship meal the next day. This was around 5:30.

My car battery had died. After all was said and done with a tow truck and a replacement batter in the rain, I didn’t get home until 8:30, making for nearly a 10 hour day. Praise God for a godly woman who takes care of my home and kids and sends her husband out as her good sacrifice to Jesus for all He’s done for her. It isn’t just those on the street who are dying to self for Christ, we’re just the ones who get our pictures on websites for our labors.

Secondly, I met up with some other guys that day who are street preachers as well. I had some reservations about them due to encounters in the past with folks like they are and folks they associate with. But I didn’t want to judge a book by a cover so I was happy to give them some tracts and fellowship with them briefly. I was caught off guard the next day when one of them called me to accuse me of supporting idolatry because I wore an OSU football jersey. As he described me as participating in worldliness and the works of darkness I responded like I hoped Paul would; I gave him a sharp rebuke for his apparent legalism and unrighteous judgement and exhorted him to become an actual submitted member of a local church (which he is not). I warned him that I have seen guys like him come and go and make shipwrecks of their faith as they travel the USA with no accountability to anyone but themselves.

These are difficult situations to deal with and only by the power of God can we hope to come out of them without sinning against God and man. And I hope that you would partner with me in prayer, not only for God to send His elect to the corner of righteousness on tOSU game days, but that he would sanctify me and my team by His Spirit and the Word, that we might be prepared to honor Him in the day of battle.


P.S. As I sat in my dead car waiting for a tow truck, I said to myself, “Well, I guess God wants someone else to hear the gospel.” Thanks to the dead battery, I was able to speak to the tow truck driver about Christ, hand out a few tracts at the autoparts store, and give the gospel to one of the employees and really challenge his lack of commitment to the local church.

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Witnessing Tagged With: 2018 OSU, church, evangelism, Grace, Ohio State, Open Air, preaching

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