June 2003
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July 8, 2003 Dear Family and Friends, The real good news from last month is that I was able to lead two LDS teenage guys to the Lord the last day of the Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant. Ryan and Skylar approached me not long after I began witnessing. They were dragged to the pageant by their friends, and told me that they were sick of all the rules in their church. They were also sick of their parents grounding them if they didn't go to church. As I presented the gospel to them, they were agreeing with everything I was saying. I finally asked them if they wanted to pray to renounce all their sins, including Mormonism, their god, Jesus, and prophets, and accept the true Jesus into their lives, trusting Him alone to make them perfect before God. They both agreed, so I asked another Christian girl (Cat) to come and witness the event. They both audibly repeated the prayer after me. I then talked to them about the assurance of their salvation. Later, one of them defended me to a group of angry Mormons that were surrounding me. Ryan and Skylar told me they were from the Salt Lake City area, so I asked them if they wanted to come to church with a friend and me the next day. They gave me a cell number, and told me that they would come. That same night they introduced me to another friend who wanted to come as well. But the next day when I called, I just got a voice mail. I hope their folks didn't ground them. The pageant happens annually for about a week and a half in June. It dramatizes the early beginnings of Mormonism as well as some stories out of the Book of Mormon. It draws crowds on a single night up to 25,000. The gates open at 6 p.m. every night, the LDS line up to get a good seat, and then there are about 3 and a half hours to kill before the pageant starts at sunset. So many LDS will come out to talk to all the Christians on the street just outside. (We had about 150 Christians on average per night from all over the country witnessing on the street.) All together, there were around 15 people that we know of that gave their lives to the Lord. Check out http://mormoninfo.org/v-web/gallery/album10/07_G. There, and the next two pictures to the right, you will see me preaching on the streets, and being harassed by the local police. They were actually dragging and pushing me off the public sidewalk for preaching! The sheriff finally came and broke us up. He told the other cops to leave me alone, and that I was doing nothing wrong, so I went back to preaching up until the pageant started. The LDS people also harassed other Christians and me. Many Christians had their tracts ripped up and either thrown at them or on the ground. A couple LDS guys kept spraying me with water as I witnessed. One of them actually poured a bottle of water on me, and that just got me motivated to preach all the more. Blessed for being reviled and persecuted (Mt. 5:10-12),
Rob Sivulka |
Brian Sharpe and Nate Champneys are with Rob. Rob's pants were sprayed with water by an LDS guy (it wasn't because he was scared! :>P).
Rob with Conor Anderson at the Manti Pageant
Glenn Hendrickson, Dave Whitsell, Jamin McKeever, and Rob at the Manti Pageant |
****PRAYER LIST****
- For Skylar, Ryan, and the rest of those who made commitments to the Lord during the Manti pageant
- For God to use me in training the Emmanuel Faith College group in Escondido, CA--they are planning on coming to Salt Lake City the second week of August.
- For financial provision
- For a refreshing time with my family this month in CA
****MAILBAG****
Rob, I am praying for your protection and for encouragement also. You are such an encouragement to me, I just want you to know that. There are many people here ...who are interested in knowing more about the Mormon stuff, so I will fill them in and encourage them to maybe come out to SLC sometime and maybe we can coordinate. It's a long shot right now, but we'll see if God has plans with it. Take care Rob.
[From a former Mormon friend of mine that I led to the Lord last year:] ...Rob, if you do jail time, then it is God's will. Paul did it, so did Stephen. I remember reading recently that Paul, with the Holy Spirit in him, gave a remarkable testimony to King Agrippa. Still the King was just "almost persuaded" to become a Christian. I liken you to Paul in many respects. I was pondering the other night on just how large of a problem Mormonism is. It is one that I never fully realized until a few days ago. ...Just remember this Rob, if you are in jail, you are simply following in the footsteps of the Lord himself. Not a bad path to follow.
Hi Rob! Thanks for all the E-Mails. Wish we were there with you! Sounds like an awesome time, & sounds like you're doing an awesome job! Glad your teaching went so well, as well as your witnessing! {Sorry about your unscheduled baptism, however!} We'll continue to pray for you... Anyway, know our hearts & prayers are with you Rob, & that we're blessed by you & the work you're doing! Love ya man!
Wow, sounds like you had quite an evening, Rob! We're proud of you, & your boldness for the gospel's sake! To God be all the glory! Now I REALLY wish I could be down there with you! Love to see the video sometime! There's no doubt in my mind that God will use your preaching efforts mightily! {& already has!}. ...YOU bless us! As I've mentioned, I consider it an honor & a blessing to be yoked together with you, in ministry, & in the heart. ...Anyway, GREAT JOB preaching Rob, we praise the Lord for His faithfulness in protecting you, & tending to His word you delivered. We thank Him for the boldness He's imparted to you by His Spirit. Love ya alot!
Hi Rob... First of all, GREAT JOB leading Ryan & Skylar to the Lord! That makes it all worth it, just for their sakes! We'll definitely be praying for them. I know the Lord used you to plant alot of seed as well! ...Second of all, I listened to the tapes you sent us on God's nature, etc. It was the best teaching I've ever heard on the trinity! Thanks for sending it! ...We all greatly appreciate you, & your faithfulness to preach the Word, come revival or riot. {& it sounds like you had a little of both!} Love ya Rob, have a great time in CA, send our love to your family, & stay in touch!
Rob, it's not the street preaching that bugs me or anyone else (that I know)- its how you go about street preaching. I think street preaching is and can be an extremely valuable tool to witness to anyone, even the LDS (as some may argue otherwise). But the shock and scare method that you use I don't think is the most effective use of your time.
[In reference to my signs that I use on the streets--JosephLied.com/ConcernedChristians.org and UTLM.org/MRM.org:] I think you understand how offensive this is to those that see it and as far as I understand that is the desired effect of why you use methods like this one. It gets people shocked, a lot of people notice, and it spurs conversation- and in this case it allows for other Christians to talk with others while you are gathering a large crowd while preaching. But the thing that erks me Rob is how I don't think the LDS really view this shock and scare method as a sign of love, as something they might want to pursue to question. They can easily write it off as the crazy angry man who yells obscenities about our faith. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking street preaching, what I am however saying is that people are more willing to listen and to change if someone that is street preaching shows an honest sincerity in caring about who they are preaching to, and is respectful of the things that might offend them. Perhaps you disagree with this, but I do think it is worth considering in how you go about trying to make the most significant impact for Christ. I am interested to hear your comments on the subject.
[So I responded:] Thanks for writing and letting me know your concerns. OK, so let me see if I get your point. You think that only the "shock and scare method" is not an effective use of my time and that LDS don't perceive it as loving. Right? And from what you've written, the only thing that I can surmise that you think is "shock and scare" is my sign that I use. Right?
I don't see how "shock and scare" is ineffective. I don't even like this caricature, since it seems to paint me as someone who simply shocks and scares. I don't think that's fair, since anyone who has heard me preach and dialogue with people who will listen knows that I'm all about presenting what is relevant for a person to come to faith in Christ *AND* reasons why an individual should come to faith. The latter isn't simply apologetic issues, but existential issues like how it's not pleasing to God to follow a lying prophet and there's hell to pay for rejecting the God of the Bible. When the truth of the Word is preached in its gospel totality, it's effective as seed in bringing people to faith. Remember how Scripture teaches that God's Word won't return void, but will accomplish what it has set out to do and that some plant, some water, but God gives the increase? (By the way, the last night of the pageant I was able to lead 2 teenage Mormon guys to the Lord. They were drawn to me because of my sign. Obviously some will be repelled by it, but many others won't be, since I was the one drawing the crowds by the sign.)
Now there is no one method that will accommodate all people. People are different, and they require different bait, not unlike fishing. Further, I'm not doing anything that Christ or His apostles didn't preach. Do I really need to cite all the biblical passages for you in which they called people "liars, hypocrites, white washed sepulchers", etc.? Were they making an "ineffective" use of their time too? The law is a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ as Colossians says. If you don't preach how people are lawbreakers, you are inadequately preaching the gospel and individuals will never beg Christ for His mercy. Because I tell people the "whole" truth, I'm somehow being ineffective?
If Christ and His apostles were hated and put to death, why are you so concerned to insure this won't happen to you? Christ said that if they hate Him, they'd hate us as well. How many people hate you? Christ also said woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, since that's what is done to the false prophets (Lk. 6:26). Do any LDS not speak well of you? Our job is not to win popularity contests. It's the love of Christ that constrains me to preach "the whole counsel of God" as Paul taught. I'm so in love with LDS that I've spent the last 21 years of my life devoted to winning them to Christ. I love UT so much that I moved up here to convert it to Christ. I've led more LDS to the Lord than I can count, and if you persist in not declaring the whole counsel in street preaching, I can guarantee you that you will never lead as many of them to the Lord as I have.
I'm confident that by definition I will have won more LDS to Christ than those who simply do relational evangelism, and I will have won more to Christ because I am preaching like Christ preached. I'm not minimizing truth, and it seems to me that's exactly what you want me to do to pacify a bunch of unbelievers who hate God to begin with. I'm not bragging in myself; these are simply the facts of reaping what you sow. How many LDS can you name that you've been able to lead to the Lord?
Now what about the "appearance" of being unloving? If you use this as a criterion, then realistically you shouldn't street preach at all. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't do any street/confrontational evangelism. And perhaps this is why I don't see you doing any. Any confrontation is automatically taken by "blind" people as unloving, and avoiding this is as silly as a parent not disciplining her child due to fear that the child "might" perceive this as unloving. Finally, are you saying that Christ and His apostles were totally out of line for calling people out as they did? Why didn't they bend over backwards and compromise their speech when they preached to the blind?
As I've said before, if you're into relational stuff, great! God bless your ministry. I do it too, but not as much as others do. But as a member of the body of Christ, I've been gifted to preach on the street, and I'm going to do it to the glory of God in not compromising the truth. Peace, Rob