Street Preachers

Last night as I was reading and watching the SEC get embarrassed by Utah. I came across a section of This Beautiful Mess that reminded me of the street preachers I would often see on River Street in Savannah when I was in high school. They were present for different things that drew any size crowd, but they seemed more vocal and visible for events like St. Patrick's Day. Even then as a young Christian, zealous as I could be there was something that didn't quite sit right with my soul about the message and the messenger on those occasions. The Gospel is the beautiful story of God's desire to live in a covenant relationship with his creation, us. The Gospel is the way in which God accomplished that through the person and work of Christ...yet I couldn't find that in the midst of the shouts through the megaphone and the signs that these "evangelists" held high. I think the message was getting distorted and lost in that environment. It seems that a more effective way of sharing the love of Christ in that situation would be to have a water station for those who have intoxicated themselves, a rest area if you will just so they know that in the midst of the chaos there is someone who doesn't know them but still loves them. The shouts always seem to be more concerned with morality (drinking, etc.) than with relationship. Morality is a good thing, but it can't take the place of a relationship with the Living God. Besides, preaching to a bunch of drunk people just never made sense to me! If they made a commitment to Christ they would probably just forget it in the morning after sleeping off the hangover.