Erwin and I spent most of of yesterday in ministry meetings–networking with ministry partners. We boarded a G-Liner bus when it was time to head back to my place.
That’s where I had my first “bus preacher” experience. Some guy was reading his Bible out loud as we were seated. He got up and started preaching as the bus began moving forward. Soon after he passed out offering envelopes. He exited not long after finishing his collection.
Strangely enough, he got back on our bus a few minutes later. I guess traffic was slow enough for him to find us again (or maybe he rode another bus for a while–I don’t remember the exact time line). He stood up as if to preach again, but he left pretty quickly (maybe he realized he had already seen us and no one had asked for an encore).
This would not be the last solicitation of the day. Two young men boarded the bus a little later. One of them opened a folder with some pictures and started talking about some medical missions they were doing. Like the preacher, they passed out collection envelopes.
I’m not a fan of this kind of fund raising. What about you?
I don’t encounter “bus preachers” on bus rides to and from where I work. Where is that exactly?
I’m not a fan of them as well. I believe that it is first and foremost the responsibility of the body of Christ to pool the resources needed for mission work or church planting/building through tithing and offering. And if God’s favor is upon a church, the Holy Spirit will touch the people within (or in some cases unbelieving people but with a clear message from God that they are being moved to help financially) to let there be an increase in what they share.
And what they subliminally communicate when they “preach” and then ask for donations is essentially “Here’s the message about the gift of salvation (if they shared about it at all), now give us some money, if you please,” which only makes unbelieving people more averse to the Gospel.
We boarded right across from Robinson’s Ortigas heading into Manila. This was my first time to encounter this as well.
I agree with your assessment, by the way.
I am cool with this as long as no money is involved. My good friend in college and brother-in-Christ in Campus Crusade did this before when we were on our way to Manila from UPLB. 🙂
Collecting the offering is my issue. I have no problem with someone sharing, but I think this guy spent more time collecting his envelopes than sharing.
Looks like my first comment didn’t post but anyway…like I said,…
it makes “the sharing of the gospel” look cheap, collecting money afterward, to the non-believers. It makes it look like they’re making money out of it.
There’s a proper place to collect and give our offerings in, the church.
this is not new Kevin, this had been a practice for a long time now by some groups.
I agree with you 100%, Thess.
I’ve heard about this for quite some time, but it was my first time to see/hear it personally.
I don’t like it either. It makes it seem as though the purpose of preaching is to get money. The sense of the compassion of Christ for people does not seem to be there.
I have seen this happen a few times in my travels around the Philippines, but not in my experience in other countries. I don’t think such bus-preaching is allowed in some of the places I have been to, though.
I think that it was great for him to be bold…but money should not be a part of it…..at all…
Once again I agree with the comments. I’ve actually shared my faith more than once while using public transportation. But needless to day, I didn’t ask for money afterwards 🙂
JLTan,
As a foreigner here, I’ll make an observation: Filipinos seem to be very tolerant of this kind of thing. In some ways it is a good trait–it is a classic example of Filipino hospitality and it is a manifestation of the Filipino’s deeply spiritual nature. Unfortunately, some try to take advantage of this.
i definitely do not agree with this act because those people just wants to make some money but the problem is they are using the gospel for their own cause.
definitely not. it gives a different meaning to what Jesus Christ had done for free.
Hi Kevin,
People like these are reason enough why some people give preachers a bad name. I am averse to these kinds of preachers; they are no different from scamming in the strictest sense. Like these preachers use the name of Jesus Christ for money?
Will be discussing this in my multiply soon, and will cite this blog.
Christians must be in the world to BLESS PEOPLE.
Not to ask for blessing from people who could care less. 🙂
If we are to win the world for Jesus, we have to start to be the SOURCE of the blessing.