In my book Tony Miano is one of the better Open Air Preachers out there. In some ways, he is refreshing to hear especially with his desire to be Biblical and his love for the local church. Apparently a few days ago while he was in Canada he was physically assaulted during one of his open air preaching campaign as the picture indicate (Source of photo).
His facebook page has many comments with some supporting Miano while some were critical of Tony Miano’s method of evangelism. While I think there is room for one to ask how one might engage differently in Tony’s situation, it is hard not to notice a much larger theological problem among some criticizing Miano. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday responding to some of these comments.
Some objections seem to forget who is the victim and who is the one who inflicted harm; my response to such comments was the following:
Don’t you think there’s a certain level of irony in which the man who sinned was a victim and the victim who was physically attacked is the one you put blame on? What makes your kind of logic different from those physically abuse their victims and blame it on them? That is frightening!
Some of the guys who were complaining needed to study the way Jeremiah and Jesus preached in their ministry. Some thought it was wrong to say to someone that they were murderers at heart. But we must remember the Word of Jesus:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matthew 5:21-22 )
To those who think it is never right to say someone is a murderer in their hearts, we must ask the question: Are you better than your Savior?
We must remember: “Name calling is a horrible display of Christianity” –Things Jesus never said (John 8:44, Matthew 12:34, 23:34)
In general I thought there were comments that were frightening spiritually to read as a Pastor: there were people with an attitude of self-righteousness almost if they were saying, “God, I thank you that you did not make me like that open air preacher! I love so much more than he, and speak more gently and graciously than he did to those who are angry with me.”
The one person I had the longest exchange with is a guy name Sean Gates. The dialogue went as follows:
“Sean Gates Way to go!?!? You pushed that person completely away from Christ. He may never give his heart to the Lord bc you preahing out out hate. Wake people. Ministry is to be done with love.“
My Response: Sean you are pushing Tony Miano away when you approach Tony Miano like that by preaching against him so hatefully. Ministry is to be done with love and because of your tone and what you said I’m afriad now Tony will completely be pushed away from the softer, kinder, gentler, New Evangelicalism Politically Correct, Wierd Animal loving-VBS kind of Christianity.
Sean Gates And then you boast about your “injury” which you could have avoided by not being a moron.
My Response:I imagine you are responding to Tony Miano’s “name-calling,” among other things; don’t you think it’s kind of ironic that you called him a Moron?
My Response:How many came to Christ when Jesus preached Matthew 23?
Sean Gates You never answered my question tho. This day this event how many people were led to the Lord!? I’m starting to think none. So that must mean this style of evangelism doesn’t work and maybe offends people who aren’t saved and getting called a murderer on the street. So maybe this pastor had what was coming him. Bc he is publicly judging people he doesn’t know. So for all this effort was for nothing. But he great news article pastor. Glad you are getting attention
My Response:In logic a question that’s a complex fallacy can’t be answered before the faulty presuppositions are addressed (see Jesus in action in Luke 20:1-8); My question to you that addresses your question still stand: how many came to Christ when Jesus preached at Matthew 23? Or how many came to repentance in Jeremiah’s ministry?
My Response: I also think it’s incredibly ironic Sean Gates that you charge Tony for judging people he doesn’t know; you called Tony a pastor more than once when he’s not one which reveal you don’t know him; yet you judge him for getting attention (something you don’t know from his heart); I’m using your own reasoning here to point out that you’re doing the same thing you are charging Tony of doing.
Sean Gates Look here is my point. Non saved people aren’t getting reached effectively by methods like this. This comes across as aggressive and they won’t even give you time of day. Evangelism its kinda like chess. You have to be strategic and spend time doing it. It’s not just something you stand out in public and yell at people through a mega phone. It’s not just something you check of your daily to do box and day well I told them about the Lord. People don’t trust any more. Spend the time and get to know the people who you are ministering too
My Response: What is “effective”? Before I came to Christ I reacted violently towards His message; but it got to me deep and later I repented; true effective evangelism is FAITHFUL to the Bible’s way of doing evangelism. again, your criticism is problematic when it goes against the ministry that Scripture commend of God’s men such as Jesus, Jeremiah and Noah.
But why would out concern? Question the methods of how you are witnessing! You need to know if you are being effective or not. It concerns me that you guys are ok with this guy who may now never come to the Lord and in his mind this will be something that pushed him further away.
My Response: Again, read my words carefully; I think you are getting so worked up that you are slipping with self-refuting statements and other fallacies (complex questions, ad hominems, etc); I never said I didn’t care about being “effective;” note my comment earlier: ” true effective evangelism is FAITHFUL to the Bible’s way of doing evangelism.” I care about being faithful to the Way God wants us to evangelize; my dispute with you is that your criticism of Tony Miano is Biblically off the mark
Sean Gates You’re right I don’t know him. Neither does he know this murderer. Dude can keep doing this, but you can’t tell me this was effective and that he was right.
Jesus called people murderers in John 8:44 and Matthew 5:21-22; are you going to be Jesus’ evangelism consultant and tell Him it’s not effective or right? I trust you don’t have that much pride and self-righteousness; again, read your Bible.
Sean Gates Not saying God isn’t sovereign. I’m saying you’re method didn’t work. Think about what happened logically. Took called him a murderer trying to minister to him he got offended and hit you bc of what you said. God can change his heart even tho our the events that happened for sure. But you didn’t help him. You did nothing for him
Again, Jesus’ method didn’t work right? He too got rejected after His confrontational preaching in John 6, after Matthew 23 and after Luke 20. This is a great hubris if we are to evaluate evangelism by pragmatism rather than faithfulness to the Bible and the content of the Gospel and confronting sin.
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Reblogged this on Christian Heritage News.
And thank you for re-blogging this!
I’m always astounded when Christians devour their own. IMO, those on the streets are serving the Lord as closely as the early disciples did and at great a risk to their personal safety.
I am in agreement with you here Angela…I think its sad to see how some Christians automatically assume the Christian is wrong if nonbelievers reject the truth.
Reblogged this on Snyderssoapbox's Blog.
Thanks for re-blogging this!
No problem Brother.
Good on you, Tony. Jesus didn’t say lurv your neighbour but love your neighbor, which, by the way, does not exclude calling him or her a fool. There are at least two kinds of fool: a hard-hearted and a thick-headed. Jesus did call two people a fool. See my http://onedaringjew.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/you-fools-what-kind-of-fool-are-you/
It is biblically correct to call someone heard-hearted but not use the word fool in this context. And it biblically correct to call someone a blockhead or a fool in this latter sense. You are heard-hearted and a fool! Tony is imitating Christ. Repent otherwise Christ will damn you forever.
Thanks for your comment–and you sharing the link to your post!
Have you hard? Hard not heard hearted
I think many people hardly hear what you have to say because of their heart condition
Hi, Slimjim!
Open-air preaching is Biblical and listeners will react in some way. Violent reactions to it happen all the time. I greatly admire people who follow the Lord in doing this.
That said, I’m new to your blog but have a suggestion, and I hope it will be helpful. First, let me tell you a little bit about myself, and then go from there. I’m a published novelist whose novel flopped (and is no longer available), but I do know a little about communicating. Just one thing… when you interact with brothers and sisters, you may want to let words like “pragmatism” and “hominems”, etc., go. These won’t help the person, for they may mean nothing to him. The challenge for all of us is to state the same things in clear terms, in our own way. This is not to say you should never use these kinds of terms – they’re explicit and useful – they have their place, but…
I like your blog – and I LOVE open-air preaching. May their tribe increase!
Maria
Ah good point, I didn’t even notice my use of the term pragmatism and “ad hominems;” I tell my wife how i find it distracting when I read theology books and people use Latin phrases when they could have just used English terms instead but alas I’m guilty of the same thing. Good point sister, your point is taken I’ll try to be more conscious of this. I’m also working on being more conscious of my grammar when I write which is also very terrible.
Yes, it’s frustrating to find foreign language in the books we read – Latin in theology books makes sense. Kindness dictates a footnote or two.
Thank you for the way you answered – graciously. God bless you as you work for Him! You guys are passionate for the truth – you’re young – there is much to do.
Maria
I appreciate the encouragement!
Good responses brother! It bothers me that Mr. Gates thinks that if one is preaching the truth, it can negatively affect whether another frok from coming to faith in Christ.
Your comment moved me to pray for Mr. Gates
Amen brother…
Reblogged this on A True Faith.
Thanks also for re-blogging this!
If people understood the depravity of man, they would not criticize biblically solid open-air preachers. Depravity of man spans a fallen mind, which consists of a self-righteousness attitude and a hatred for God. It is one reason why that man attacked Tony Miano. The message pierced his mind.
The second problem I see with people who criticize biblical open-air preachers is that they assume that these evangelists are not loving because they are confrontational with sin. It takes love to deal with sin. To deal with sin you need to be confrontational. Self-righteous people need to hear the bad news.
The third problem I see is that people see success with numbers rather than with faithfulness to the Word, which is illogical.
Amen
so then i take it you are a fan of Miano? I mean alot of people critize him for “e-begging” and you dont think as a lot of other christians do that he is too bombastic and hateful when he preaches
I don’t know if I would describe myself as a “fan” of Miano. I’m sure he’s not perfect but what do you think of the post specifically here?
but didnt you claim Tony Miano is one of the better OAPs? and about the post i am not sure what exactly happened, what did he exactly do to the guy that attack him?
Claiming Tony Miano is one of the better OAPs don’t make me a fan of Miano per se. Nor does it mean he’s always right.
I’m sure you can find something that you don’t like of Miano and you would say he’s hateful. I’m not here to defend all the actions of Miano.
Concerning the specific situation that is the topic of this post, if you said, “not sure what exactly happened,” and asked “what did he exactly do to the guy that attack him?” I hope there’s not the basis for your conclusion for your claim of Miano.
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Atheist here. Don’t like preachers but one shouldn’t attack anyone
Remember to share the Gospel graciously
There’s a lot of haters of Gospel preaching out there…they are so wrong
These are dark days where there are opposition to the Gospel