I tell you the following to in no way to boast. I humbly tell you these things only to inform, educate and encourage.
We all have a town that we live in or near. Depending on where you live, your town may be very Christian (those who have truly accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and are living as such) or it may be very secular (those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and live as such).
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it is your responsibility to do at least one of two things and really we should be doing both.
We will cover the first one in this discussion and the second at a later time.
First and foremost, we need to be sharing Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers to all people.
Mark 16:15
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Second, we need to help those that already have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to grow in their walk.
Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
So, let’s look at our first responsibility, to preach the Good News to all creation.
We can do this in many many ways, near and far. There are lots of ways to doing global missions without leaving your home.
We covered many of them in our August 14th Blog titled 7 Ways to do Global Missions Without Leaving Your Home. Which can be found here:
A quick note before we get started. I personally have done all of these methods many times, so this post is full of unique, individual experiences that can be found nowhere else.
Please share this post far and wide.
Now let’s focus on how to evangelize your hometown.
Gospel Signs on the Street Corner
Really the easiest way to share the Gospel with the most people in the shortest time is standing on the street corner of a busy intersection in your town with a sign that has a simple Gospel message on it.
You can see at the right some of the ones we have used.
I used to be part of a ministry called Church on the Street that used them
regularly and I used to think, what is up
with those signs? What good is just a little sign that someone sees for a few seconds going to do?
When I started a Church on the Street ministry in the small town that we moved to that has 11 million people pass through it yearly, I started by holding the signs at the busiest corner in town.
Sometimes it would get discouraging and I would think that I was not making much of
a difference and wanted to quit. God very
clearly told me, you know one of those almost audible and no doubt times, He told me, Bob, I used less than that to save you, get out there.
You get lots of responses, you get lots of thumbs up, you get lots of comments, you get lots of honks, and sometimes you get not so nice responses, which comes with the territory.
Those are the ones that we are out there for. Those are the ones that get prayed for immediately. It just may be the first time in their lives that someone has ever prayed for them.
I have had many times when I have been out there with one other person and sometimes as many as 8-10 of us.
However, the times I have been out there by myself are the times that can be the hardest, but the most rewarding. You really put yourself out there when you are the only one standing on a street corner holding a sign about Jesus Christ.
Those are the times you can really interact with the people in the cars and see some of the best responses.
When out there by myself, the time seems to go much slower, which is not a problem, but you start to do things to keep your mind going.
So, I have tried counting cars to see just how many people would see my sign in a one to two hour time period.
I figured going out about 30-35 times per year an average of one and a half hours per time, on the specific corner we stand on, on Friday afternoons, we can reach about 100,000 people per year.
A couple points about this.
First, in our particular town, we live about an hour and a half north of the Phoenix Metropolitan area at around 5,000 feet. So, the weekend traffic in the summer to avoid these 110-115 degree weekends brings people by the thousands our way and the vast majority of them come through town on Friday afternoon.
It may work different in your town. You may have a very busy rush hour traffic that you may want to be out for. Or maybe more people come to your town in winter.
Whatever reason, find when and where most people drive in your town and maximize your efforts by being out there for them.
Second, we need to remember to always pray. Do lots of praying before, during and after. Pray for salvation and the planting of seeds.
We may not see salvation immediately, or ever, holding a sign on the street corner. But never underestimate the power of planting a seed.
It is said that it takes someone 7-14 times, depending on who you talk to, to hear about Jesus before they are ready to listen or accept.
When they see our street signs, we don’t know if it is their first time or their 13th time hearing about Jesus and the next person that talks to them about Jesus can bring that salvation.
John 4:36-38 tells us
36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37 Thus the saying ‘One sows, and another reaps’ is true.
38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Wearing a Shirt or Ball Cap with a Christian Message
One of the easiest ways to share Jesus with others is to wear a t-shirt or ball cap with a short Gospel message on it around your town.
This may seem like it is just a fruitless way to spread God’s word. I can tell you first-hand, it is not.
First off, Isaiah 55:11 tells us that whatever we put out there in God’s name will not return void and He will use it for His purposes.
Second, I wear both t-shirts and ball caps with Gospel messages on them and they both have been effective in my town.
I like to give tracts and/or God 411’s Gospel of John with Commentary to cashiers at the grocery store (really any store). One particular cashier would never take one. I even had a friend who also passes out tracts mention that he would not take anything from her.
I was wearing my 10 Commandments t-shirt one day while checking out in his line. Sure enough, it got a conversation started with him.
On another occasion I was wearing my John 3:16 ball cap. I was volunteering at our local God 411 when a homeless lady came by and was kind of rambling on about this and that.
I just let her go on and listened to her for about 15 to 20 minutes and when she was done, sure enough, she said the whole time she was talking she was looking at my hat.
So, I know from personal experience, not only is this one of the easiest ways to evangelize, but it actually works.
Pass Out Bible Tracts
If you are new to evangelizing, it can be difficult to just hand someone a tract.
When I started passing out tracts about 20 years or so ago, I would just leave them around where I knew someone had to find them.
I would leave them in restrooms at grocery stores, any restroom in public. I would leave them in parks, on business doors, and many other places, but I did not hand people tracts in person.
It was just way too intimidating.
Handing someone a tract face to face? That seemed impossible.
After leaving tracts around discreetly for years, somehow, I managed to actually hand someone a tract, face to face without dying.
Imagine that.
The more I did it the easier it became and now hand them out to as many people as I can.
We have gone to events in town like Trunk or Treat or the Christmas Tree lighting at the Swiss Village, or the Christmas Parade and handed out hundreds of them at a time.
I have gone to Diamondbacks games and handed out tracts to people going into the stadium.
I have handed out tracts to Japanese tourists at the Grand Canyon (Chick tracts are available in Japanese).
I have handed out tracts to drunk college kids down by ASU. (We tell them to put it in their pocket and read it in the morning).
I have handed out tracts and Gospels of John to politicians and the editor of our local newspaper.
I have handed them out when we took our only out of country vacation years ago to Costa Rica.
I hand them out when we go door-to-door evangelizing.
When business was good, we supplied the Church on the Street Phoenix ministry with over 200,000 Chick tracts.
I have made my own tracts to pass out and almost never has anyone rejected them. (I hope to have some of them on God411.org some day).
I tell you these things in no way to brag, but just to let you know if someone like me can do this, trust me, you can too.
You do need to be forewarned, not just in the passing out of tracts, but in all forms of evangelism, there will be those whose demons you will irritate.
Don’t worry, those are the ones we evangelize for.
If you do get yelled at, laughed at, threatened, flipped off, or made fun of (if you do it long enough, you will), stop and pray for those immediately or put them on a prayer list.
Again, those are the ones we are out there for.
Here are some of my favorite places to get tracts:
Those are just a few. There are many other great resources out there.
Get Tract Racks in Local Businesses
In our town we have many seniors and many people in need of help, so we put together a Resource Guide.
This is our most recently updated copy. It has many resources to help those in need, but most importantly, it has the Gospel in it in many forms.
After we put together our first edition years ago, we took it from business to business in town.
I think we covered 95% of the brick and mortar businesses in town.
We would tell them that we put this together for those in need and ask if we could leave a copy with them. Pretty much all of them took a copy.
What we asked them then was one of two things. If they were not a Christian owned business, we asked if we could leave a stack of the Resource Guides for any of their customers to pick up.
Many said yes, as everyone wants to help those in need. Thus, even in the non-Christian owned businesses we were able to get the Gospel.
If they were a Christian owned business, we asked them if they would like a tract rack with Gospel tracts in them and we would supply them and change them out every few months.
At one point in our town of about 15,000 people we had 35 tract racks.
I would change them out every couple to three months and try and keep the tracts seasonal.
What we found out is when the two to three months would go by, some of the tract racks had none taken out of them. But some of them were almost all gone.
So, what we did is whittle them down to the places where they were getting taken.
When we had 35 and changed them out every few months, not only was it very time consuming, but it also got pretty expensive.
Either way, it is a great ministry and a pretty easy way to get tracts into people’s hands.
When you are thinking, Bob, I just can’t do some of these things you are talking about, remember Marlene.
When Marlene and I decided to take our first edition of the Resource Guide to every business in town, at the very first business, the ramp started about two to three feet before the railing. Marlene was walking up and before she could grab the railing her foot hit the ramp.
Right in front of me she took a pretty hard fall. She got up and said she was a little sore, but okay.
We continued on for two hours passing out the resource guides to businesses in town.
The next day, Marlene called me and said she was still sore, so she went to the hospital. Well, Marlene had broken some ribs.
I tell you this because Marlene not only did two hours of evangelism walking through town with broken ribs, but Marlene was 78 years old when this happened.
Now if a 78-year-old grandma with broken ribs can do two hours of evangelism, anybody can do it. No excuses.
Just remember to pray before, during, and after.
Town events
This brings us to a great way get out lots of tracts or other Gospel information to many people in a short period of time.
Many, actually most, towns throughout the year have many events that draw hundreds, if not thousands, of people to them.
In our area, in the main town, events include, two rodeos, Easter celebration in the park, Fourth of July celebration, Trunk or Treat, Tree lighting ceremony with Santa, Christmas Parade, and many more.
In the smaller town about 12 miles north, they have at least a half dozen events through the summer that draw hundreds of people out of the summer heat in Phoenix.
At the vast majority of these events, we used one of two ways to evangelize the crowds.
First, most of them, not all, but most, will allow you to have a booth or table, or “trunk” at them.
If this is the case, usually they are relatively inexpensive. Most of the ones we have been to are between $20 and $50.
If a booth or table is available, I would highly recommend getting one.
You can do so much more with a table or booth. Not only can you have tracts, but you can also have all sorts of other Christian materials.
You can pass out full Bibles (you can get a full Bible at Bibles in Bulk for about a buck and a quarter). You can pass out New Testaments. You can pass out Gospels of John.
You can become a Gideon and pass out their New Testaments at events.
You can get a bunch of Christian nick-nacks at Oriental Trading Company that have a short Gospel message on them for a very reasonable price per unit.
If you do get a booth or table, one of the things I have learned over the years is that you do not just put a couple chairs in it or behind the table, sit down, and wait for people to come to you.
You need to get out in front of the table and pass your materials out to people passing by. It gives you a better opportunity to talk to people.
You will have people turn you down, but the vast majority of people will take something you hand to them at an event.
Another way to evangelize at a town event, or any event, is to just bring a large amount of tracts (the most we passed out at one event was 960) and wander around the event handing people tracts.
Again, the vast majority of people will take something you hand them at an event, but you will have people that can be rude. That is just part of evangelizing.
Two of us recently passed out about 500 tracts in about an hour at our town Christmas tree lighting event where the kids and parents line up to see Santa.
We got tracts geared towards the kids and different tracts for the parents. We literally had a captive audience. I think three people out of hundreds turned us down.
We learned a great trick from the Gideons this year. Since this event is partially at night and it is the day after Thanksgiving, it can get pretty cold. They got a small portable firepit to put by their table.
It got people gathering around to keep warm and to hear about Jesus.
Trunk or Treat on Halloween is one of the best events to evangelize. Each year we have gotten a “trunk” we have passed out thousands of Christian materials in a three our period.
It is a night unlike any other. People will take things from you more on Halloween more than any other night of the year. We even got a Gospel of John into the hands of the very liberal editor of the local news paper.
On a night when many Christians hide in their homes and want nothing to do with it because, “it is the devil’s night,” bold Christians use it to go on the offensive and take some of the night back.
We put a large lit up cross in the back of our pickup truck so all can see who we are representing.
At Trunk or Treat, it takes four to five of us to do it properly. We make a line where the first one passes out the candy, the second one has a basket with a number of different types of Christian nick-nacks for the kids to pick from (from Oriental Trading Company).
Next, we have someone handing out tracts. Again, some geared toward younger kids, some geared toward older kids, and some geared toward adults.
Then we have had someone hand out our Gospels of John with Commentary to the older (maybe 10 and up) kids and adults.
It works really well when you have non-stop kids and parents coming for two to three hours.
I recently read something that really made me think.
The enemy never, ever, takes a day, a minute off. He is constantly on the attack. Always.
If the enemy never takes a day off, then never should we. Not even on Halloween. Not ever.
Door to door
Door-to-door evangelizing is one of the most effective ways you can evangelize your town.
Rather than repeating what has already been written about, I have written two articles about door-to-door evangelism.
Here is the link to the first one from October 2, 2023:
And here is the link to the second one from June 3, 2023.
They are very detailed and tell about the legalities, cost, tricks of the trade and much more.
Door-to-door evangelizing in your town can, at times, be easy, fun, and very rewarding.
Other times it can be difficult, frustrating, and discouraging.
Either way, it is one of the best ways how to evangelize your town.
Ministry within your interest area
God has all given us some sort of talent, interest, or hobby that we enjoy or are good at.
These hobbies and interests can be used to further God’s Kingdom in your own town.
As a matter of fact, I would not doubt that God has given you a certain talent for that very purpose. Just as He lets us go through events or even hardships in our lives so we can help others through the same thing later in life.
There are many instances, especially in the Old Testament where God gives someone a talent or gift, to build and make things
If you are interested in woodworking, build crosses to give to people to place in their homes, in their front yards, in their businesses, or somewhere else people will see it.
If you are in to quilting or gardening, teach a gardening class or have a quilting group and discuss the Gospel while quilting. Then donate your harvest or quilts to those in need.
In our town a few young Christian men who loved skateboarding decided to have a skatepark ministry where they would evangelize kids, teens, and young adults at a weekly skatepark outreach.
They would always have some food, usually grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, which always draws the younger crowd in.
They would even have competitions for various age groups and give awards.
It was a very successful hometown ministry.
The opportunities are virtually endless.
What are your hobbies or interests?
Sign in front yard
So, in the town we live there is a main highway through and out of town. Then there are many side residential areas off the main drag.
Most locals use these side areas, especially on the weekends when we get 90% of the 11 million people that pass through every year.
On the first residential main road off the highway, a wonderful friend of ours lives who has a yard sign in her front yard with scripture on both sides.
Probably 80-90% of locals know where she lives. Whenever we talk to someone about this wonderful lady all you have to do is say she is the one over on such and such road with the yard sign with scripture and most everybody will say, “Oh, I know her.”
She is outside much of the time and as people walk by, she witnesses to and prays with them.
She inspired my wife and I to put one up outside our home. We don’t get nearly as much traffic as her, but everybody that drive by gets a short gospel message and a new one every couple months.
These signs are available at the Bible Baptist Bookstore at:
They have well over 100 different signs with scripture on the front and back. They only cost $4.95 each, but you will have to get the holder initially.
The holders are not the sturdiest, but get the job done.
We have elk in our neighborhood and for some reason they like rubbing against our sign. They destroyed it a couple times to where I would have to get replacement parts.
For a while there I thought it was someone in the neighborhood that kept damaging it until I realized it was the elk.
We made our own sign out of much thicker PVC piping and as you can tell by the photo above it is not perfect, but the elk haven’t managed to destroy this one yet.
If you are creative, you can put together some of your own signs and make them much more colorful.
They will cost a bit more than $4.95, but you can really make something that stands out.
We even put a realtor info box with a longer Gospel message on ours for a while that really irritated someone’s demon who lived in or was visiting the area.
We would find the papers ripped up and thrown on the ground outside the box. No way the elk did that.
I wrote some messages specific to the one who was doing it and it continued until I put up a 24-hour surveillance sign and it stopped.
Start a God 411
A great way to evangelize your town and anyone that passes through is to start a God 411.
A good friend of mine started the one in our town about ten years ago.
We have really seen some awesome things for God’s Kingdom happen out of the God 411 in our town. And we have become very close friends with all associated with it.
Here are a couple links to our website where we talk about how and why to start a God 411 in your town and more about what we do.
Lifestyle evangelism
This brings me to lifestyle evangelism, or as I like to call it, “my excuse for not actually evangelizing.”
Many people think they are living a good life all the while they are living very secular lives that one would be hard pressed to tell the difference between them and an unbeliever.
I know many believers who will either in person or on social media be speaking of Jesus one minute and the very next be cursing like a drunken sailor.
Unbelievers, as well as believers, watch us like a hawk, just waiting for us to slip up in the smallest of ways. I have had it happen a number of times when the slightest indiscretion has been called out by both believers and unbelievers.
They are watching us.
Romans 3:23 tells us:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
“Lifestyle evangelism” is not evangelism and does not fulfill the Great Commission in any way.
Remember in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:14-16 when Jesus told us to let our light shine before men, to be the light of the world, to be that city on a hill.
He didn’t say to do that in lieu of the Great Commission. He told us to live a good life in addition to the Great Commission.
In conclusion
In my own experience, I never feel closer to Jesus than when I am sharing Him with others.
These are just a few ways ideas on how to evangelize your hometown. If you have other ways, please send me an email and share, or comment below. I would love to hear them so we can put them into practice in our town.
Evangelizing can become addicting. There have been many times after a couple hours of sharing Jesus with others in whatever way, I have been filled with a joy that not many other things can match.
Always make sure that when you evangelize your town, to pray before, during and after.
And bring a little notebook with so you can put any atheists on your list to pray for. To put any people that are questioning to follow up with. And to put those who already believe who need prayer in their lives.
Everybody needs prayer.
Again, I tell you these things in no way to boast but only to inform, educate, and encourage and to let you know if someone like me can do these things, I guarantee you, so can you.
Fellowship of the unashamed.
Before I close out, let me share something with you from One Heartbeat Away by Mark Cahill (One of my favorite evangelists). It is called the Fellowship of the Unashamed it is an African Martyr’s last words.
“I am part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I won’t give up, back up, let up or shut up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know and work until He comes. And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.”
God will take those who will go where the roads are smooth, but he’d rather have those that will go where there are no roads.
It’s said that King Phillip III of France’s last words were
“What an account I shall have to give to God! How I should like to live otherwise than I have lived.”
Let’s not end up like that.
If you have any question at all about evangelizing, please contact me at bob@vtaaz.com.
Thanks for the info
Good information. Good read.
Very good information. Worth the read!
Great Article