Winter Jam 2009 and Downtown Outreach

This past Friday night our group went out to the Winter Jam 2009 concert. I must admit I was a bit uncertain about how we would be received while we were out witnessing at a Christian concert. My plan was simple to ask the Christians there some basic theology questions and see how they responded. Some replied with some very simple yet firm answers to these questions, while a few of them could have used a basic introduction course in Christian theology.

Keith Higgins from SavedFromWhat.org came up from Atlanta to join us at the concert and also to participate in our downtown outreach.
Keith and I spent most of our time passing out hundreds of Gospel tracts out to the crowds and asking Christians that were in line some basic questions. Questions like…

1. Is the Bible inspired by God? Does it contain contradictions or errors?
2. Is Jesus God?
3. If I am a good Muslim can I still go to Heaven?
4. If you were going to witness to me how would you do that?

Most of the people took the Gospel tracts from us with a smile and said thank you. Keith was even able to do a few open-air sessions in which he asked the Christians to make sure their “calling and election was sure”. Afterward we had a few concerned people come to us and ask us why we were witnessing at a Christian concert. We assured them that we didn’t have any problems with the concert or the music but we have a concern that not all who profess Christ there were saved. Most people seemed to understand but still disagree with our method. One guy even asked Keith if he had heard of Way of the Master!

After most of the people flooded into the arena we took off and headed for the downtown area. One thing I have learned about living in the south is that just about everybody thinks they are saved. So many people that you talk to seem to have the right answers because they know the “Christian terminology”.

I spoke to many people while downtown that night. One group of teenagers claimed that they tell God they are sorry so it’s ok and they are saved. I tried to reason with them by showing how telling a judge you are sorry doesn’t do any good, because the law has been broken and justice must be served. Two of them stormed off, but they third stayed for another minute and told me he would think about what we talked about.

While Keith was preaching open-air downtown I noticed another group of young people that seemed to be getting a laugh as they walked by so I stopped them and we began to chat. As I took them through the commandments it seemed that they had a problem with the Sabbath. I’m pretty sure they were just playing “Let’s stump the Christian”. They all claimed to be Christians..only God knows their heart.

When talking to professing Christians I have found the following questions to be effective:

1. Do you know the Lord?
2. Is Jesus precious to you?
3. Do you read your Bible every day?
4. Are you born again?

Below are some pics of our outreach. God bless!