Hanging out at the mall is something that most people know how to do. Because of this, malls are a great place for evangelism. Most malls have "no soliciting" rules, which make handing out tracts a big no-no. Even though handing out tracts is not actually soliciting (you're not selling anything, the tracts are free and the gospel is free), most mall security people do not realize that and they do not have time to discuss the semantics of the English language as applied to the word soliciting. In any case, handing out tracts at American malls is generally not allowed. If course, since the issue of people going to heaven or hell is always more important than silly mall rules, I will never tell anyone not to preach the gospel in any circumstance. That being said, mall management usually does not like people handing out tracts.
The good news is that many malls offer "religious organization tables" (I have no idea what these tables might be called from mall to mall) where you can set up shop, hand out tracts and talk to people in a non-sneaky, obeying the mall rules kind of way. Last night our church did this for the first time at the local mall and it was AWESOME.
From 5 - 8 PM, we handed out hundreds of gospel tracts and got into many great one to one conversations with people. Once again I was reminded of the need for evangelism to strangers in our own neighborhoods, as well as the lack of biblical knowledge among church goers in America. In the following blog posts I will tell a few stories from the night, but for now let's just say that the mall is a great place for evangelism. Go to the management office at your local mall, tell them you'd like to have an information table for your church and see what they say. In many cases they will already have this going on and it will simply be a matter of picking a night you are available. At our mall, they actually set up the table and chairs for us, complete with a nice tablecloth.
If they don't already have an information table, kindly explain what you'd like to do. Ask God to make a way, and who knows, you might end up being the next Spurgeon of the Food Court.
Thanks for sharing this encouragement, Eddie! I think some malls refer to the table they provide as "Public Access" to get around not providing unlimited access outside for free speech on their private property. If I remember correctly, due to court cases, malls are required to provide "controlled" public access since they allow the public on their property.
ReplyDelete"Our" mall officially calls their table "Non-commercial Use of Common Area" but is limited to the one location they pick in that "common area."
Hopefully your article will encourage others to set-up at the mall; this is a good way to "fish for men" where the "fish" literally "jump into the boat" and a non-threatening way for new "fishers" to learn and exercise the Great Commission!
"...do something, do something, do something..."
-Charles Spurgeon
Eddie, thanks for the update. That's really fantastic! I had no idea that you guys were doing this. LOVE it! Heard from Stead this morning about how God is at work in that ministry & in & through you guys. I'm so thankful,
ReplyDeleteJohn