Friday, October 20, 2006

Bullhorn Guys
the battle over how to evangelize

Recently (mid September), there was video that was uploaded to the Internet that was critical of street preaching. The specific targets were men who stand in a public area, grab a bullhorn, and preach about the coming of judgment. The video was aptly called “Bullhorn Guy”. Rob Bell, an emergent-style pastor, is the individual who is on screen to make his case as to why he doesn’t think that Jesus approves of bullhorn guys and their message of God judging people and sending them to hell. He then starts talking about how he thinks that evangelism should be done.

Well, not long after this video was posted on the Internet, another ministry made a response video (in pseudo-parody fashion) to give another idea, or to defend bullhorn guys. After setting up the video (so that there is no mistaking what the motivation for it was), the individual on screen in this video is Todd Friel, a classic fundamentalist preacher/apologist and host of Way of the Master Radio, who mocks the idea of “lifestyle” evangelism (i.e. that someone off the street will come up to you and ask, “Please tell me about the hope that lies within you!” when you have been saying or doing nothing explicitly to draw attention to yourself or your message) and then argues that true love is shown by telling people the whole message of the gospel. The bad, then the good.

Watch them both, and see who clearly gets the gospel across to people and by doing so, who is more loving. Regardless of the reception of the hearer (whether they receive Christ, reject Him, or are ambivalent), which makes the gospel clear?

Click here to watch Rob Bells’ Nooma video “Bullhorn Guy”


Click here to watch Todd Friel and the Way of the Master response to Bullhorn Guy

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

EJ, I totally enjoyed Todd's video. The other guy, yikes. I hate to think that is what a lot of big churches today are being preached. That is nothing. The Bible is so clear, and that is what people need to hear. Thanks for posting these videos. It's always good to remember that telling people the truth is the most loving thing we can do for them.

Copyright © 2005-2010 Eric Johnson