Evangelist Ray Comfort is known for boldly sharing the Gospel through movies, social media, and other creative means, but the Living Waters founder also has a passion for in-person, one-on-one dialogue with young people.
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“I go out twice a day to a local college, and then I go to Huntington Beach on Saturdays, and we film for our television program and for our YouTube channel each time,” Comfort said. “I [also] go on to the local college on an electric bike with my dog on a platform.”
His dog, who dons sunglasses during these excursions, is a great tool for opening conversations with students, breaking down barriers, and sparking Gospel conversations.
“I love it each day,” Comfort said of these interactions.
The evangelist has spent the past five decades open-air preaching and released a book last year titled “Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I’ve Learned,” revealing everything he’s learned and experienced along the way.
Comfort spoke about his approach to talking to young people. He’ll often ask if they believe in an afterlife. If they say they don’t know, he’ll ask if they’re afraid of dying.
“And they look at me and say, ‘A little bit.’ And I say, ‘A little bit? Are you kidding? Someone’s going to put you in a box and bury you six feet down in the ground. It’s horrific,'” he said. “And you can see their eyes widen.”
The conversation often progresses from there, with Comfort engaging them on an “intimate level of their deepest-rooted fears.” He’ll then ask if they’ve read the Bible, and he’ll proceed to use the issue of death as a foray into a conversation about eternal life.
“I say … so, did you know that the Old Testament tells us that God promised he would destroy death?” he said. “And in the New Testament, we’re told how He did it. … So would you like to hear about that?”
Comfort said even atheists are curious to hear what he has to say on the matter, opening powerful doors. Ultimately, he believes these topics apply to everyone and that there’s natural intrigue.
“Human beings are not dogs, cats, horses, or cows — they’re human beings made in the image of God, and God has placed eternity in their hearts,” he said. “So, there’s a longing in them for life and a cry of, ‘Oh, I don’t want to die.’ So I find many, many young people who would be antagonistic if I addressed their intellect, but because I addressed their conscience, it opens them to the Gospel.”
One of the lessons Comfort has learned is not to engage the intellect for too long, as it’s a “place of conflict.” Instead, he goes into deeper and more unrestricted arenas.
“Learn to engage the conscience as Jesus did because it’s a place of harmony,” he said.
Comfort’s tactics have worked one-on-one and through the Living Waters YouTube channel, which has logged hundreds of millions of views with its evangelistic content.
The evangelist also spoke about some of the global examples we’ve seen of late of people being punished for sharing their faith. From buffer zones in Europe to Päivi Räsänen, a member of Finland’s parliament who has been on trial for sharing a Bible verse, these incidents are troubling.
“I do have concerns about the future that people are trying to stop us from having freedom of speech, but it’s not going to stop me,” Comfort said. “Look at the book of Acts. The disciples said, ‘Take a hike…we obey God rather than men.'”
His point? He has no plans to stop spreading the Gospel. Comfort also pointed out that we’re privileged right now in America to be able to share the truth, pointing back to his daily evangelistic efforts at a local university.
And to those who say they could never open-air preach the way he does, the faith leader has a message.
“People ride on rollercoasters, risk their lives, jump off planes, they bungee jump, and with great joy — Christians do that,” Comfort said. “Well, I say, if you’re going to risk your life on something as dumb as bungee jumping or skydiving, why don’t you risk your life by going to the local college and preaching the Gospel? That’ll scare the living daylights out of you, if that’s what you want.”
Comfort also offered other useful tips, like using trivia to grab audience attention; he sometimes hands out dollar bills to those who get it right. All of this helps make people receptive to the Gospel message.
The evangelist is hoping people read “Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I’ve Learned” and take away tips they can use in their own ministry. At 75, he knows his time is limited and he wants to equip others based on his sweeping experience.
“I want to pass the baton on to the next generation and say, ‘You can do this,'” he said. “The key is to obey the Great Commission and go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Watch the above video to also learn why Comfort believes the Sinner’s Prayer is unbiblical.
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