Open Air Preaching Part 1

Well at Chase today at 1 o'clock something out of the ordinary happened. There was a sermon preached in the back of the cafeteria by the big screen TVs. That somebody was me. I had wanted to preach in the "open air" for quite some time, but didn't know when and where to do it. Well since my last day at Chase is on August 1st (in two days) I figured why not? What is the worst they could do to me, ask me not to do it, or tell me to leave? I'm already leaving so I wasn't too worried. This is a rare thing that anybody preaches, in fact I've never seen anybody do it in my five years of working here. I've never seen so much as a Bible Study at Chase. So needless to say it was something that was WAY outside my comfort box, but if God calls you have to answer.


So I had planned on doing it today at 1 p.m. and had told some people but not advertised a lot since I knew they would have security or something there to try and stop me. I had a good friend of mine try and tell as many people as he knew that were Christians to come down. So he let them know the time and place and I let a few people know. We had been planning this for over a month and were very excited about it. I know several people were kind of questioning whether or not I would actually do it and one of the biggest doubters was myself. It was a bold move and you just don't see "open air preachers" anymore. I was not sure how the message would be received but I knew I had to do it. Besides, it's not job to convict, or make you receive the message, but rather to present it.


So as I woke up this morning I knew that it was the day and had been praying the night before for a divine movement of God. I wanted more than anything for Jesus to be seen and heard. While I was at work and watching the minutes turn to hours and the hours roll away I began to question whether or not I was really supposed to do this. I prayed, "God are you sure about this? I mean it is a really bold move, maybe we could do something more subtle but still get the message across. I mean some people are questioning whether or not it is the right thing to do..." I just kept getting the same feeling and response from Him, that I was not to concern myself with what men think or want, but rather to concern myself with what He wants.


My good friend and I went down in the morning and had scoped out what would be the best place to preach. We had said that the sides would more than likely be the best. I was going to get the pulpit that was there and pull it over to the side and start preaching. So the plan was set and I was ready to go. I went back upstairs and worked while watching the clock and it reached 12:30 p.m. and I headed down to sit and pray over the area I was going to preach at and make sure we got seats close to where the pulpit was going to be. As I went down there the cafeteria was packed and the TVs were turned up loud with the news. I sat there and opened my Bible to the text I was going to preach from and took out my sermon notes and looked over them one more time and prayed. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of those who were going to be there, my heart and for His word to be heard...