Amid downtown clamor, Christ’s message reaches young soul

A group of downtown evangelists learned recently that while their music couldn’t be heard in the din of the city, the Word of God rang out clearly and found willing listeners. Five Southwestern students with a heart for street preaching shared the Gospel with many and led a young boy to invite Christ into his life.

“We have only been out to Sundance Square a few times to evangelize,” says Jonathan Baldwin, a Ph.D. student in evangelism. “We had two musicians—Chris Stone [a Master of Divinity student] and myself. Our job was to play worship music in order to draw people.” 

The other three members of the group—students Jeff Wingard, Jenny Kim and Shawn Kirk—shared the Gospel with those who gathered to hear the music. “It did not go quite as planned, but praise be to God, for it always goes as He plans,” Baldwin says. 

“We had hoped that the music would attract a crowd. However, the guitars and vocals were hard to hear in the city. A few people would gather at any given time, and most of these people heard the Gospel from Jenny and Shawn.”  

Although a crowd did not gather around them as planned, the people at Sundance Square were still only an earshot away, Baldwin says. “With love, Jeff began to proclaim from the street with a powerful voice the full Gospel. Many heard the Gospel that night. And by God’s grace, Jenny Kim led a little boy to Christ.”

As Baldwin and Stone played guitar and sang worship songs, a family paused to listen to the music—a mom, a dad and a young boy, about 7 years old. “I saw that the mom was about to give tips to the guys, so I went to her to explain that we were not doing this for money, but that we were sharing the Gospel with others,” Kim says. “As I told her, I saw that the young boy was holding Gospel tracts of John Piper and Billy Graham.” 

Kim says that the young boy had apparently heard another Gospel singer nearby in Sundance Square and was interested in guitar. As they spoke about playing guitar and about the tracts, Kim found an open door to share the Gospel with him.

After outlining the path to salvation, Kim invited the family to accept Christ into their lives. The boy, Landon, hesitated, but his mother, Azure, was enthusiastic, and she encouraged Landon to make the decision to follow Christ. 

“I explained further about the meaning of being saved and following Jesus,” Kim says. “That Jesus Christ can forgive our sins, and that we can live for Him as a follower. When I made an invitation again, Landon made a profession of faith and prayed for forgiveness of his sins and to follow Jesus Christ.”

Kim gave Landon another tract, and she talked with Azure about the importance of baptism following a profession of faith. The family attends church, Kim says, and Landon expressed the desire to learn even more about salvation. 

“It was very interesting that Landon, who has been interested in knowing more about baptism, ran into two different street evangelism groups and responded to the Gospel,” Kim says. “… I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will guide Landon’s family and their church family to minister to him.”