An Open Air Meeting: A Step of Faith

Sunday afternoon. Bright sunny day. Peter Hobbs, Scott Ellery, myself, Jo, Cpt. Stephen Court and some other "Prayer Warriors" joined us as we hit the streets in Melbourne at the Victoria Market.

I had the guitar, and we played some popular tunes, including "I still haven't found what I'm looking for", "I'm a believer", "Lean on me" and others. People listened and some tapped their feet. In amongst the songs we each got up and shared a quick gospel message. As people sat on the cafe chairs sipping their coffee, they uncomfortably pretended not to hear us too much. But we did have a response...

One guy from Bejing, who was not a Christian and on holidays, came up to us, and Cpt. Court gave him a bible and got his details, and he said he would read it all and email Cpt. Court later on. He was genuinly interested in the gospel message.

Here's a bizarre thing in Australian culture. We preached the gospel hardcore, and we said, to have life to the fullest you need Jesus... Just believe in him today. Following our songs, I went up to some young adults, just chilling and looking cool, and I offered them a Warcry. One guy said, 'Ahh yeah, I'll take it. We love the Sallies!' Even after going hard with the message of Jesus... Kind of weird, but I think that says a little about Australian culture. They have huge respect for TSA, and even when we've spent the last 30 minutes preaching the gospel, the reply is one of respect. We pray that people begin to connect with our message of Jesus, and for the community to realise, that they can become Salvos as well!

Bring back the Open Airs. Do them well. Be relevant. Preach the gospel. God can use it.