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Tulane @ tOSU Ministry Report – Sept 22, 2018

September 24, 2018 by mcoughlin

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.

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.

Rutgers@tOSU Ministry Report – Sept 8, 2018

September 11, 2018 by mcoughlin

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.

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.

2017 B1G Championship Outreach Report.

December 8, 2017 by mcoughlin

What an exciting day God had in store for us as we ministered the gospel to the good folks at the B1G 10 Championship Game in Indianapolis, IN for the fourth time ever out of the 7 total Big 10 Championship games which have been played.

Caleb, Josh, Joe, Kenton, me & Kurtis pictured Left to Right. The six of us filled nearly 6 hours of preaching and handed out tracts to hundreds of people who need Jesus.

We had a really bad experience with the police in 2015 which prompted us to get a lawyer to assist us prior to this year’s event. So we arrived with a letter from a lawyer outlining our legal rights. Around 2:30, Kenton was approached by the police and he motioned for me to come over and talk to the officer. I tried to record the conversation which started with me giving him a letter we had from The Liberty Institute regarding free speech laws.

Have a listen to my Conversation with the Police It’s less than 6 minutes long.

The real money quote from the whole thing though was when the police officer said this.

You know what, if they come up and complain, then I’ll just tell them it’s their…their freedom of speech. That’s why we live in the United States.

It took all my energy to not shout, “Yes! That is exactly what you should be doing!” I’m so glad he came to that conclusion. May this cause you to praise our glorious God and Saviour, Jesus Christ who graciously allowed us to continue to preach and tract the crowds the rest of the day undeterred.

Kurtis calling sinners to repent and believe in Christ the Savior.

We managed to fill almost 6 hours of preaching that day. We competed with a loud music concert and even a small two man trumpet and drum band. Hundreds of people received tracts and thousands of people heard the gospel preached. We left 3 hours before game time, we could reach thousands more if we stayed in Indianapolis!

We are grateful to good brother Chris Dean who showed up with 3 pizzas and 6 water bottles for the crew. This allowed us to stay on the mission without leaving for lunch.

You can get an idea of the layout. For perspective, we stood directly to the left as you look at this photo to preach. The city blocks off Georgia Street and the entire street for one block is a big party with a big screen TV showing other football games, a music concert and food and drink booths.

As always, we sang a couple hymns and preceded most open air sermons with prayer. Our team worked hard and enjoyed very mild weather. It was actually a little warm until the sun went behind a building. We were prepared with handwarmers!

Thanks to everyone who has helped. So many people have contributed in various ways whether it is encouragement, service, financial help or prayer. Thanks you for your faithfulness! And praise God that He is ever faithful!

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MSU@OSU Outreach Report

November 12, 2017 by mcoughlin

November 11, 2017: 12 evangelists gathered at the Ohio State University to read the lost with the gospel. We preached for 2-3 hours on two corners, so there were 2 preachers going most of the time. We had no less than 8 people handing out tracts at any time. I am grateful if only one person desires to accompany me on an outreach. And I agree that it is not about numbers, but the more laborers there are the more work we can get done.

For today’s post I want to look at some photos and talk about the human strategy surrounding out evangelism.

If you look at this photo below, you can see where our people are positioned (the 6 red arrows point to our folks). In the background, on the right side of the photo, you see Dan Carr and Alayna Hoop. They are standing on either side of a walkway which is a high foot traffic area. That walkway leads back to much of the parking to the north of the Ohio Stadium.

In the foreground, you can see Elaine and Rachelle Holman standing in the wide sidewalk area in front of the preacher in the maroon sweatshirt. This areas is where all the people from the West travel across in order to get to the game. Their location is also a blessing because they get to head the Word of God preached while tracting folks.

Kurtis Gould is the one preaching and next to him is Joshua Richards. We try to always have a person near the preacher. This is not only for protection if needed, but also so there is something there to give people a Bible or help in any way that the preacher needs.

If you traveled to the right from this photo, you would begin walking across a bridge toward Ohio State. On that sidewalk, but not pictured, were Alexandra Coughlin and Kenton Gould. Anyone who slips past Rachelle, Elaine, Alayna and Dan without getting a tract will still be offered a tract as they travel down Lane Ave to the east.

Looking below, we are now across the street from the photo above. So if you imagine in this photo you are looking Northwest toward the Schottenstein Center. The photo ABOVE this one would be across the street to the right from the photo below. As you can see, Kurtis is preaching about the Way, the Truth and the Life beneath a sign that reads “The Undisputed Way.” We love this.

As I pointed out, it would be very hard for people to walk past the northeast corner of this intersection without encountering my team, but people could bypass that corner by coming south and then crossing the street to the left of where Kurtis is preaching in this photo. By having multiple men preaching, we are able to ensure that no matter which route people take they will hear preaching. At this corner, we preach to the people on the left (across the street) until the light changes and then we preach as they walk toward us. After the people have walked toward us and are going past us (to the right), we turn and preach to them and then we preach to the people waiting to cross from the north. While Kurt preached I passed out tracts, but down the way to the east (the direction most people walk), Nicholas Coughlin and Chase Vendley were on either side of the sidewalk tracting.

So you can see that with a team of 12 people, we were able to have 4-5 full hours of preaching, and covered both sides of a major street with tracts. If you can imagine that we could easily cover 4 corners of the stadium with teams like this, you can see how many more laborers for the gospel could be useful to the ministry! My understanding is that Ohio State games attract approximately 200,000 people: half inside the stadium and half outside. That’s 2% of the population of the state of Ohio.

Think about that. 1 person out of every 50 people in Ohio has the chance to hear the life-saving gospel of grace on gameday. Yet I doubt we reach more than 30,000. Pray for more laborers!

So you see, we are spiritual minded people. We preach the Word and we give out gospel tracts, but we also try to be wise and strategic from a material perspective. Let me give you one more example.

When we go to the game, any parking anywhere near the stadium costs 20-25 dollars. With 7 home games that really adds up! One of the things I do is drop the team off, because with a large box of tracts and other equipment it would be very hard to walk! But they would wait a very long time for me to park my car a mile away and walk back to them. It really seems like a waste of time. So I began bringing my bike. Now I can park another quarter mile away and park for free on a side street, and ride my bike to the location much quicker than walking. So we are saving $20/week and some valuable time we can use for evangelism.

I want to commend my team and tell you a little of what it took this week to be there. First of all, my team ranged in age from 13 to 56. We had at least one person who it was their first time trying contact evangelism, praise the Lord!

We arrived and were ready to start about 9am. It was less than 30 degrees outside and the wind chill factor apparently made it feel like 16 degrees. I coached my team to do smart things, but to labor for our Lord without rest or complaining. We gave everyone a couple handwarmers, too. But it is hard to hand out tracts with gloves and it’s hard to hold a Bible and preach with gloves so many of us just get cold hands. No one on my team complained. I was so grateful for their kind spirits. It was funny because at noon I called my wife and one of the things I told her was it had “really warmed up.” She told me it was 32 degrees. But compared to what we’d stood in all morning, that seemed balmy!

The thing is, lost souls were out there braving the cold weather: some of them out of love for their team, some out of idolatry, and others just for the fellowship of being with friends or family. Vendors were making money selling tickets, buckeyes, wool caps and other OSU paraphernalia. Why shouldn’t a Christian be there for his God? Why shouldn’t a Christian stand and bear those elements for the sake of the elect? As I told the team, “we’re all going to be cold, we might as well get the work done.”

After the game, we went to a local fried chicken restaurant called Raising Canes and enjoyed some time together and some hot food. Here are a couple team pictures.

Nicholas, Kenton, Chase, Alexandra & Kurtis (l to r)

I want to thank my lord Jesus Christ for a wonderful day which was largely made possible by several dear saints from my church, some of whom donate large sums of money to pay for things like our gas and our meals, and also for Peter & Alyssa Wilson who loaned me their Honda Odyssey for the day so that I could fit a full load of people in it and also my bicycle.

Rachelle, Elaine, Caleb, Alayna, Joshua & Dan (l to r)

Preachers of All Ages – Maryland @ tOSU Outreach

October 9, 2017 by mcoughlin

The God we serve is infinitely amazing. He graciously gave us a wonderful day to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ before Ohio State ~~trounced~~ overcame a ~~tough~~ Maryland football team! Here is a photo of the men who joined me Saturday except for Mark Seward who had already left by the time the photo was taken.

We began our ministry at 1pm by singing a couple hymns together and then praying for our time. I really believe the corporate worship benefits each of us before (and after) the ministry time.

LtoR Kurtis Gould, Chase Vendley, Caleb Davenport, Joshua Richards, John Rataczak, Joe Conkle, Fred Triplett & Michael Coughlin

One of the neat things that God does here in Central Ohio is pull people together to this ministry from all ages and walks of life. On Saturday, Oct 7, 2017, we had a preacher in his teens, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties.

But what a joy it was to see so many people take turns preaching. One of my hopes is that for several hours there will never be a break from people hearing the preaching. With so many willing men, that’s a possibility!

Along with preaching, we handed out at least 1,000 tracts and held up a wooden cross

This day brought more vocal opposition than usual. A man came up to me as I was preaching and told me to preach about love, not sin. He said that’ll attract more people.

I cannot read another person’s heart, but his eyes and his spirit appeared haughty to me. It is impossible for me to say for sure, of course, but it was the impression I got. I told him to stick around and listen a little (because I do, in fact, preach the love of God demonstrated in the crucifixion of His Son), but he sorta patted me on the arm and said, “just preach love,” while smirking. I asked him if he was offering me correction, and he said yes, not seeing the irony in the encounter.

Another piece of new of note is that someone from one of the other church groups came up to Fred and told him no one could get saved from reading our tract. Fred asked why not, and he told Fred, “It doesn’t contain the gospel.” Rather than confronting the man, we chose to continue our ministry. Nevertheless, if this man cannot see the gospel in our tract, we are left to wonder what he thinks the gospel is, which makes us fear for his soul! Imagine showing up at Buckeyes games week in and week out, peddling a message to people, suffering shame, and not yourself being born-again! Pray for this man that his eyes may be opened.

While I was preaching a young woman approached me and engaged me. It is important to know that I was preaching the righteousness of God found in Jesus Christ, the sinfulness of man, and the exclusivity of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. This woman comes up to me and says, “All I hear is you’re [me] such a good person and we are not.”

What??? Is that really what she heard? Yet we are not surprise because the Word of God tells us

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
(1Co 2:14)

and

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
(1Co 1:18)

So we do not lose heart (2 Cor 4:1), but we continue! This same woman told me she wasn’t a bad person after I corrected her and told her we are all bad people, and then she proceeded to proclaim her own goodness (Prov 20:6). She told me she had never stolen or murdered anybody. I asked her if she’d ever hated anyone and she said she had not. So I asked her if she was pro-choice, and she replied yes.

Then I informed her that by being pro-choice she is approving of murder and is a murderer at heart. She immediately played the “what if someone was raped” card and tried to convince me that killing Hitler or Stalin when they were infants would have been a good thing. This is the irrationality of the godless worldview, nothing makes sense, so anything makes sense. She told me I had a blind faith and it was stupid to believe God talked to Abraham…then told me she was Jewish. I guess she meant that was her nationality? 🙂

Eventually, I chose to just keep preaching instead of let her distract me from preaching any longer. Like I said earlier I want someone on the box at all times, and I didn’t feel like getting off to talk to her would have served the mission. But my favorite part of the whole encounter was when she said

You’re just one of those preachers who wants to say what you want to say, but you don’t want to listen to what anyone else has to say.

Since I was already on the defensive with her a little, I was getting ready to retort, but then I just said, “Exactly. Yes, that is exactly my goal here. I’m here to proclaim the truth today.”

For many people that sentiment will seem wrong, or, at the very least, impractical. But that is the nature of preaching, is it not? Are we to be ashamed of the method prescribed by God for spreading His Word because his enemies loathe it? Shall ambassadors for Christ be concerned with the opinions of those with whom we are sent to command to make peace with our King? God forbid! May the Lamb of God receive the reward for His suffering! I am actively recruiting people to join me for the Super Bowl in Minnesota, click here to see how you can help!

Open Air Preaching from Home

June 10, 2017 by mcoughlin

I am sure you’ve heard of “working from home.” But have you heard of open air preaching from home? I want to share what I think was a singularly unique experience to me. Maybe you’ll think so, too!

My 3 year old son Wesley had just gone outside into the backyard. My teenagers were on the couch with my 9 month old and my wife was gone. All was quiet on our little street and then I heard the doorbell, or a knock. I looked over and saw a man in a suit with a young boy. I figured they were Jehovah’s Witness, and headed over to the door.

The young boy showed me a pamphlet and was trying to talk to me. You could tell it was taking some courage for him to do whatever he was doing. Had he been a boy scout or a basketball player raising money for a trip, I’d have bought popcorn or candles or whatever he was peddling to encourage him.

After I took the pamphlet I looked quickly at it to find the JW markings. The man was saying something about Scriptures and the boy was talking about love…and I told them to hold on, while I went and grabbed a tract.

I always try to give JWs a tract because I have been told they are not allowed to take them. It’s a test, in a sense. If they take it, fine. If they refuse, it opens the door to asking them why I should take their stuff and they don’t take mine, etc.

So I went out on the porch and started asking the boy what he thought. He kept saying they were walking around to ask people what “they thought.” I asked him if he believed Jesus died on a cross for sinners, and he mumbled yes and then the older man corrected me and said Jesus died on a stick. I repeated that He died on a cross and then asked if they believed Jesus is God. The boy just stared and the man said “No.”

I don’t intend to prove this here, but if you do not believe Jesus Christ is God, (and not just “a” god, but the God) you do not believe the saving gospel.

So I started talking to the boy and telling him that whatever the man he is with has been telling him is false and will lead him to Hell. I started explaining that Jesus had to be God to die in the place of sinners; that if Jesus was only a man that He would not have been able to satisfy God’s wrath for sinners!

The reason I did this is twofold.

I have found that JWs usually travel in pairs, (like Sith), and, like Sith, there is usually a learner and a ‘master.’ I believe all men who hear the saving gospel of grace and of Christ’s glorious resurrection can be saved, but I’ve found experienced JWs particularly hard to interact with. But a 9 or 10 year old child who was obviously nervous about whatever faith he had? I was sure I could get him thinking and maybe be used of God for his salvation.
As I mentioned, the context was that I had a 3 year old alone outside, a couple of teenagers watching a baby and no wife at home. I didn’t believe I had time for a friendly conversation where I slowly tried to lead them to the gospel. Nor, honestly, do I want to listen to their beliefs. I know many wonderful Christians who will sit and listen to pagans share their thoughts and many times blaspheme Christ. I do not believe it is my duty to allow them the privilege.

The man immediately recognized what was happening and saw he would get nowhere with me and said, come on, let’s go. And he led the lad away. So I quoted Matthew 18:6 to him. They, of course, kept walking, so I kept talking, louder and louder. Within seconds I was open air preaching from my porch to this man and this child as they met with one of their cohorts across the street. I continued to preach the necessity of the new birth, believe in the deity of the Christ and the truth of the resurrection for the justification for sinners. You could see the bewilderment as I do not think they expected this, nor probably ever encountered it.

I started to hope I had neighbors who would hear the preaching too! I saw a family walking toward the house who looked like they may be the young lad’s family and I started preaching in their direction. Finally, they all headed as far away as they could until I could no longer see them.

I am sure some (Christian) people would not feel comfortable with this story. But when was this young man going to hear the gospel if not from the preacher whose door he was brought to providentially? Do I know how many more days any of those folks had before they met their maker? Do you not believe that it is through the foolishness of what we preach that men are saved from the wrath of almighty God?

I am not saying that is the only way to interact with JWs (or anyone). But I am grateful to God for the opportunity to preach His Word today, even if it was only for 3 minutes. 6 people heard the gospel, my own children heard me preach the gospel and saw the importance of it.

Maybe the sweetest part was coming inside and praying with my children for the salvation of sinners and then singing hymns together as worship of Jesus Christ! May God be praised and may He have mercy on the men and woman and children who visited my neighborhood today.