SFOI ARCHIVE

Preacher Profile: Ryan Denton

June 15, 2017

Ryan Denton

Meet Ryan Denton

Ryan Denton founded Christ in the Wild in 2016. Since then he has been engaged in gospel proclamation in the “wild” on a daily basis. Ryan was saved by Jesus Christ at age 22. Until then he’d been living with a woman out of wedlock. He was using whiskey and marijuana regularly. His cussing would’ve humbled any sailor. But then a friend died. The Lord used DEATH to show Ryan that he too was mortal. He realized his bones would one day be plunged into the earth, regardless of what he accomplished in this life. He realized how vein it was to trust in his own strength, “whose breath is in his nostrils.” God started giving him a hunger for the things of Him. Ryan moved out of his girlfriend’s house. He stopped partying. He began to read the Word of God.

One night Ryan took a walk in rural New Mexico and looked at the stars and saw that “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” The scales fell out of his eyes. The majesty of God had pummeled him. The beauty of Christ’s death and resurrection had clenched him. The Holy Spirit sealed him. “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8. The Love of God had been shed abroad in his heart. Christ’s presence became warmer and more tangible than any drug or woman he’d ever known. Convicted of sin, the outward ones began to vanish, the boozing and the smoking and the whoring and the cussing, but he became aware of an even fiercer battle between sin and holiness that was taking place in his thoughts and heart.

This warfare continues today, as each day he labors to become more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and as each day his flesh attempts to resist him. Yet one thing he tries to do, “forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” he seeks to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus. He can say with Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.”

Shortly after this Ryan graduated from UNM in Albuquerque with BA’s in Philosophy and English, then St. John’s College in Santa Fe with a Master’s degree in Classics. The whole time he was resisting God’s call on his life to preach. It was after Santa Fe when he gave up the world’s pursuits for good. The repulsion and futility he felt towards academics and the world’s ambitions catapulted him into the sole pursuit of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which he’s done ever since, through the grace of our Lord. Ryan married his wife Tasha shortly after. They live in El Paso, TX.

Ryan proclaiming Christ, while a heckler tries to stop the preaching.

Ryan Preaching Christ and Him crucified to the masses

Ryan preaching at Super Bowl Outreach.

Police officer prays with Ryan

Ryan preaching. Policeman tries to prohibit free speech.

Preacher Profile: Kris Hudson

June 2, 2017

Kris Hudson

Meet Kris Hudson

Kris Hudson is an open air preacher who does street evangelism in Fargo, North Dakota. He has evangelized outside of Newman Outdoor Field (minor league baseball stadium), North Dakota State University (NDSU) football games, various kinds of parades, stoplights, street fairs, and on the NDSU campus. Kris grew up in a home where both of his parents loved Jesus. They raised him and his siblings in the way of the Lord. When Kris was in first grade his mom led him in a sinner’s prayer.

At the time Kris said that prayer he didn’t understand how serious God viewed sin nor the necessity of repentance from sin. From first grade up until his freshman year in college Kris went through youth group, camps, Vacation Bible schools, and AWANA but he was a false convert during that time in his life. He never had a desire to live a holy life, share the gospel with the lost, nor to read the Bible. In July 2008 God used a message that was preached at a large denomination’s youth convention to get Kris to think about how holy God was.

A few months later God started to remind Kris of the reality that Kris was going to die one day. For the next few months after that God was working on Kris to get him to think about his eternity. It was an unenjoyable period of time for Kris but God used that as a step to bring Kris closer to salvation. In July 2009 God used a worldview conference as a reminder to not be a part of the church drop out rate statistic.

During Kris’ first semester of college (Fall 2009) God used a church’s bible study and preaching to draw, convict, and bring Kris to rethinking his sinner’s prayer experience. There was a lot of pride (in saying the sinner’s prayer as a kid) that Kris had to repent of during that semester. On December 30th, 2009 God granted Kris repentance and faith. After doing a door to door outreach during a conference Kris talked to his driver about salvation. God used that conversation to bring Kris to true repentance and faith. Ever since that moment God has used the Bible to sanctify Kris. In July 2011 Kris attended Ambassador’s Academy #20. God used that academy as a launching point to bring him on the streets to share the gospel with people in Fargo.

Currently Kris is attending (and soon to be member) Metropolitan Baptist Church in Fargo, ND. He also has a blog called “Lefty for Biblical Evangelism” (lefty4be.blogspot.com). There are papers and posts about various evangelism endeavors that he has done. After June 15th (when Kris takes his actuarial exam), there will be more papers and evangelism on his blog. Also, Kris has open air and handing tracts audio at the website

https://soundcloud.com/kris-d-hudson

Kris tracting at Superbowl in San Francisco

Kris Witnessing to his neighbor in love.

Open Air Preaching: Do you ask questions?

While engaging a lost soul do you believe they have a similar understanding of the Gospel as you? How would you know? Is it important to know the depth of their understanding of the Gospel?

Evangelists often lose sight of how much they have grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus and thereby assume, perhaps unconsciously, that the lost have a similar understanding.

Of course the lost don’t have a similar understanding. How could they? While they know God exists through creation the depth of that understanding is very limited. Seasoned church goers often have a limited understanding of Scripture and unless someone has extensive interaction with lost souls and thereby a real experience with the nature of unbelief they probably don’t have a similar understanding as the evangelist.

Also, often the lost use words evangelist use, like grace or love, but have a completely different definition since the evangelist’s definition is derived from the Bible and theirs from the world.

So yes it is important to know their understanding of the Gospel if the lost talk to you and you gain that understanding by asking questions. In fact, if you can get them to talk about their beliefs and keep them on track they will clearly confess their views. Then in light of that confession you can address their views.

Information and false teaching is overwhelming and rampant. It’s unrealistic to perceive that lost souls simply living life can sort through it all, develop a clear, in-depth understanding of what they believe and thereby be able to coherently articulate their religious position.

Asking questions allows them to confess this reality to you opening the door for the evangelist to bring clarity to the situation.

MLB All-Star Celebration: July 8 -11

The Florida Marlins are hosting the 2017 Major League All-Star Celebration Saturday, July 8 – Tuesday, July 11. The games are played at Marlins Park and the daily FanFest is held at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

SFOI is looking for eleven men who believe they are called to evangelistic work or who have a passion for souls to hear the Gospel to spend four days proclaiming the Gospel to the MLB All-Star fans whether they are coming and going from the FanFest, Marlins Park, South Beach or another location in Miami.

The team will stay in the same house from Saturday – Wednesday morning; there’ll be an hour of prayer each morning including an hour of devotions led by a local Pastor or Professor; we’ll travel together to and from the ministry location(s) for the day and we’ll operate in two teams of six once we arrive at the ministry location.

The daily schedule is below.

To give you an idea of the ministry at work you can look at these pictures from last year in San Diego, MLB ’16, and Cincinnati in ’15: MLB ’15.

If you have a desire to spend four days fellowshipping and laboring with other evangelists so the MLB All-Star fans can hear the Gospel and be provided the opportunity to respond then plan to join us today. The details are below including the link to take you to the registration page.

Accommodations: 220 Beacom Blvd. Miami, FL 33135

Airport pick up: You will be picked up at the airport if you fly into Miami. Simply email your itinerary to Hannah at: info@sfoi.org

Meals: Meals are not provided in the cost. However since the accommodations are a home there is a kitchen. You can bring food, drinks and snacks and keep them in the kitchen. What typically happens is that everyone rises early for prayer and during that early morning time everyone eats breakfast. Lunch is eaten at the ministry location at a nearby restaurant and dinner is back at the house. The benefit to this plan is you can eat what you like when you want.

Speakers: Pastor Nathan Parker, Pinelands Presbyterian Church. Pastor Jamid Jimenez, Granada Presbyterian Church.

Costs: $199. Includes accommodations and transportation. Make payments here: MLB All-Star Payments.

Registration Information: This event is for men only. Limited to twelve total.

Next Step: Register by clicking on the SFOI logo below. Once you register and are approved you will receive further information including but not limited to an event waiver and payment information. You will also be asked to submit a bio and picture to be posted on the event pages.

Questions about how SFOI works: If you have not previously participated in an SFOI outreach then visit these pages to help you understand the work of the ministry: SFOI Distinctives; the goal of SFOI; what to expect at an SFOI event; SFOI Vision and Mission statements; Registering for an event.

Daily Schedule

Saturday, July 8

Check in: Arrive at the house by Noon

Ministry time: 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Sunday, July 9

Prayer: 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Teaching time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Ministry time: Noon – 8:00 PM

Monday, July 10

Prayer: 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Teaching time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Ministry time: Noon – 8:00 PM

Tuesday, July 11

Prayer: 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Teaching time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 Am

Ministry time: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Ministry Team

Bill Adams – Chattanooga, TN

Bill Adams was raised in the church, Baptist and Methodist, and has never in his life not known of or considered God in his life. In 1988 upon graduation from Belmont University’s Masters in Business program the Lord personally entered Bill’s life and called Bill to follow Him. That began a 29 year journey of following Jesus Christ and growing in the grace and knowledge of Him.

In 1995 the Lord called Bill to begin to go into the highways and hedges to preach the Word and in 2000 Bill became a full-time evangelist.

In the early years Bill preached at seemingly every concert, sporting event, parade and festival in Atlanta and simultaneously the Lord led him to travel to major sporting events like the Super Bowl, Final Four and Olympics to preach.

In 2007 Sports Fan Outreach [SFOI] was born as an effort to bring more Saints with him to preach at these sporting events and now through the SFOI’s George Whitefield Program Bill is seeking men who believed they are called into full-time evangelism to join him to saturate the Western World with the Gospel.

Over the years millions of souls throughout the Western World have heard the Word through Bill’s preaching and the great delight of his life is knowing and preaching Jesus Christ crucified.

Bill is married and has four children. He is a commissioned evangelist of the Diocese of the Central States of the Reformed Episcopal Church and is presently enrolled in the Masters of Theology program at Union School of Theology [UST]. You can read Bill’s frequent theological thoughts at his blog: Bill Adams’ Theological Writings – Views from an Evangelist.

DJ Caswell – Gastonia, NC

My name is D.J. Caswell. I’m 28 years old. I was born again as a child. I’ve been married to my wife Katelyn for almost 7 years. We have 3 beautiful daughters; Stella, Haddon, and Neally. We are expecting our first son in November. We live right outside of Charlotte NC where I direct an open air Evangelism ministry, Reformation Charlotte. I’m a commercial driver by trade. I graduated from Fruitland Baptist Bible College with a degree in Theology.

Andy Schmelzer – Summersville, WV

Andy grew up Catholic but at a very young age knew something was missing. As a teen, siblings shared the good news in an ask Jesus in your heart way. This, he embraced and lived as a false convert until the Lord granted him repentance about the age of 35. He and his wife learned biblical evangelism in 2004 stumbling across WOTM TV show. Since then evangelism for them was forever changed.

He with his wife started Fishers of Men Medical Ministries and did overseas evangelical/medical missions from 2003-2011 and has since then focused on local evangelism in the immediate area and around the US. He looks forward to serving Bill and the team members that the Lord will put together through prayer. Lately the U of Oregon has been Andy’s weekly fishing hole and when school is out the weekly local farmer’s market. May God rise up more laborers to join the harvest.

As of September Andy and Victoria moved to Summersville, WV and are looking forward to being closer to their grandkids. Andy has joined up with Jaycen Saab who is nearby for ministry and looks forward to growing that friendship and doing summer festival ministry as well as getting involved in preaching at WVU and Marshall campuses. He has preached at some Mountaineer football games and found the stadium to be a fruitful place to preach Christ and will look forward to the same at Marshall games.

Andy is looking forward to being closer to other ministry opportunities in the east and southeast at some NASCAR speedways as well as joining SFOI for Kentucky Derby and other events that are located closer to his new home.

Daniel Sterkel – Coconut Creek, FL

Having been raised in a Christian home, I left Christendom in my youth but came under deep conviction of sin a few years later. I cried out to God in my backyard for at least a week, until God saved me. Now it has been six years since I became a new creature. I was baptized shortly after and joined a big local church. Since I was converted, I have had a greater burden than most Christians to witness. God answers my prayers to engage people one-on-one with the gospel almost daily. Since I first heard about and watched open-air preaching videos, I have a had a growing desire to do that as well. May I live out 1 Corinthians 2:2 on the streets of Miami this July!
I am 27 years old and currently live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with my wife and two daughters. We are in the process of moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee where I am enrolled at Covenant College for this Fall!

Zoe White – Tickfaw, LA

Hi, my name is Zoe (pronounced “Zo”) and I’m 31. I reside in Tickfaw, Louisiana with my wife and 3 kids. (Lord-willing, we’ll bring home our next baby in April 2017!) I was raised Catholic in south Louisiana near New Orleans. By God’s grace, He saved me at the age of 14 at a youth retreat in Florida. Sadly, I wasn’t really taught the Gospel and the beautiful doctrines of grace until I went to college. Through collegiate conferences, I was introduced to the reality of unengaged, unreached people groups with little hope to hear the Gospel in their lifetime. Missions has gripped my heart ever since. A couple years ago my wife and I were offered internship positions with a missions agency reaching South Asians in London, but that fell through. I’m thankful now that God changed our plans, because this year, God has introduced us to the ministry of Ray Comfort at Living Waters. God used their teachings on biblical evangelism to convict me of how little I shared the gospel and how unbiblical my methods were. I hand out tracts regularly now, have many fruitful evangelistic conversations with folks (including the scary talks with family members!), and I’m preparing to open-air preach for the first time. I am now working to complete my college degree so that seminary is an option in the near future. All glory to God for His grace! It is such a joy to proclaim to others the Good News that God is reconciling sinners to Himself through Christ!

To receive email updates on this event and others click on the link below:

Get in the Game: You have to get experience

God made life so that you have to have practical experience to grow in your ability to accomplish a task. Ministry is the same: you have to get experience to get better at your work. That means you have to begin to work or volunteer in a ministry to gain that precious experience.

In other words you can’t wait for 5 years to begin because in those five years you would have gained invaluable experience to be more fruitful in your work for the next five years. You would have lost those five years which you cannot get back. There is no reason to wait to begin at some level of activity.

Life is but a vapor. You don’t have time to waste. Commit today to being to work or volunteer for a ministry.

Open Air Preaching: Are you defensive?

When you are challenged while you are preaching is your response to become defensive? If you are telling others about your evangelistic work and they challenge you on its effectiveness do you become defensive?

Defensiveness brings forth an attach on the one who challenges you. For instance let’s say a pagan said to you that Jesus was a myth. There is no proof of his existence. What would be your response? One of defense where you attack the pagan or is it one intended to draw forth further comments from the pagan to gain a deeper understanding of his perspective?

If a Pastor passes you and says open air preaching is pushing people away what would be your response? One to attack him for his lack of evangelistic effort or to query him for further discussion.

The point here is that defensive remarks are faithless. They might be accurate but they are faithless.

You are an evangelist and as such you are to bring faith to the people. In other words, like Jesus in the temptation with Satan, you are to use God’s Words in response to people’s attacks upon you.

Our belief in the sufficiency of Scripture means we believe the truth of God comes from His Word and therefore we as evangelists point people to His Word in our work.

Again, Acts 6:4 is the key verse for the fundamentals of our work: “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Know God’s Word and be a man of prayer if you are going to engage in the evangelistic work of open air preaching.

Preacher Profile: Jeff Padia

May 18, 2017

Jeffery Padia

Meet Jeffery Padia

God mercifully saved me out of a background of cheap grace, easy believe-ism, “Americanized” Christianity. I had walked an aisle during a church “revival” and was baptized at age 16. I quickly proceeded to prove myself a false convert, succumbing to the worldliness and sin that my flesh craved. I found myself in a prolonged downward spiral, increasingly wallowing in the dregs of my wickedness and rebellion against God, all the while believing I had punched my ticket through the pearly gates! I pursued every worldly thing that I thought might make me happy. I spent several years as a drunkard, regularly driving home intoxicated after nights of bar hopping.

But God, being rich in mercy, opened my eyes to see how patient and kind and merciful He had been to me in preserving my life, even though His justice could have fallen on me like a hammer. In the misery of my lowest depths, I became dreadfully aware that I was not owed another day of His mercy. It was then that God granted me eyes to see His beauty, and grace to believe in Jesus as my only hope. The riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience had, indeed, led me to repentance (Romans 2:4)! By His grace alone, I’m thankful to be His servant.

My retirement after a 26 year career as an Air Traffic Controller here in Atlanta has allowed me to focus more of my time toward evangelistic endeavors. As a member of Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, GA, I’ve enjoyed regularly proclaiming the glories of Jesus Christ and His gospel along with our nursing home visitation team. Over the past year, the Lord has enabled me to start an abortion outreach ministry within our church, Rescue the Perishing (RtP). More and more of our congregants are becoming involved in this ministry, to the praise of His glorious grace!

My first outing with Sports Fan Outreach International was at the 2016 Kentucky Derby. I was also blessed to participate in SFOI 1000 through preaching at the Atlanta Falcons home games this past season. Lord willing, I’ll be attending the 2017 Derby outreach!

Jeff and others pleading with mothers at the murder mill.

Jeff tracting at the Falcons game

Jeff being interviewed by wretched’s Todd Friel about SFOI.

Jeff preaching at the Falcons Game

Preaching at the Falcons game

Preacher Profile: Michael Corral

May 11, 2017

Michael Corral

Meet Michael Corral

I am layman evangelist and open air preacher in Washington DC and member of and under the authority of the Pastors and Elders at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC). I have been a supernaturally born again Christian since around 2004, found out I was a Calvinist around 2008 and was re-baptized and became a member at CHBC in 2011. I started studying and practicing evangelism mostly online starting around 2005. After witnessing to a cousin-in law, now a pastor in Florida, he started open air preaching on the streets of DC, and after many invitations, I finally joined him in 2007, and haven’t stopped since. I have personally spoken / witnessed to thousands upon thousands of people, and handled out tens and tens of thousands of Gospel tracts. I have open air preached to all kinds people, always preaching a Calvinistic Gospel and Expository Preaching, with an evangelistic message, hundreds and hundreds of times.

I am married to a young wife, for one year as of May 1, 2017. We don’t have children at this time, but we are working on it. I work full-time in the commercial real estate industry, I also work part-time in the retail industry (marriage is expensive). I try to go out of my way to do evangelism on Saturdays, the rest of the time, whenever the opportunity presents itself. I collect antiquarian books. I would like to plant a Church in a busy city someday, and hope to be a pastor and author, when it is the Lord’s will and those doors are opened.”

Michael Reasoning with a Heckler

Preaching to the lost at Gay Pride in D.C.

Michael on the box Preaching

Get in the Game: take the first step & schedule a trip

While you can be impulsive in certain aspects of life when it comes to missions you are making a commitment that exceeds impulsiveness. You have to plan where you are going, what you are going to do, pay for the trip and take off from your work. All of these are obviously possible but they probably will not happen for you unless you schedule a trip. Get it on your calendar.

Then you can follow up with the other aspects of the trip. But the first action is to get it on your calendar. Make the the commitment to schedule it. Pledge to not surrender to the temptation to cancel the trip. Make it a firm commitment. Then you can move wholly into your preparations.

Open Air Preaching: How many minutes per day do you pray?

Paul says in I Thessalonians 5:17 to, “Pray without ceasing”, to, “Give thanks in all circumstances” in I Thessalonians 5:18 and in I Timothy 2:1-2 to, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

So how many minutes do you pray daily? What about prayers for those who persecute you [Matt 5:44], your family, etc. You have 60 minutes of prayer time in that list alone.

The bottom line is the Lord has given us the gift of prayer and in fact that is the fruit of our salvation: Immanuel God with us. Prayer is acknowledging that God is with us. He purchased your ability to come to Him in prayer with the blood of His Son our High Priest. Did you know under the Law of Moses only the high priest could come before God and that was once a year [Hebrews 9:7].

Yet we’ve been given the opportunity to pray without ceasing.

All Christians should be people of prayer. Why did Jesus overturn the money changers at the Temple? He said the Temple was a place of prayer for people of all nations [Mark 11:17].

More so for Gospel ministers. Peter says in Acts 6:4 when he establishes the role of deacons by appointing Stephen and the others to serve the people and he about the Apostles as he sets them apart, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

You must be a man of prayer if you are going to open a Bible and preach before other men. The Bible does not give us the license to not be men of prayer. To that end ask yourself, “How many minutes do you pray daily?” Set a goal of at least 60 minutes. Once you set the goal search the Scriptures for verses on prayer. Then find a quiet place to sit or lie down to pray before the Lord.

What can you do to fill the time:

#1 Make a list of ministry and family items to pray for and begin to pray.

#2 Get on your knees and pray aloud over Scripture.

#3 Listen to Lord’s voice as you pray.

Remember Paul says in I Corinthians 2:4-5, “and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” and in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “ 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ..”

In other words Gospel work is a spiritual work and the power of that work is prayer.

Set a goal today of praying for 60 minutes daily.