TAKING
JESUS TO THE STREETS

Topics: Boldness; Evangelism; Gospel; Israel; Jesus Christ; Judaism; Messiah; Missions; Testimony; Witnessing

References: Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 9:19–23; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11; 1 Peter 3:15

In the summer of 2006, two hundred missionaries with Jews for Jesus worked the streets of New York City, which has the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel. They distributed a million tracts and collected contact information for more than five thousand people.

Members of Jews for Jesus, who are evangelicals with Jewish lineage, began the campaign by sending the Jesus film in Yiddish to eighty thousand Hasidic homes in the city. The organization also advertised in newspapers, on radio stations, and in the subway. These missionaries then worked the streets, trying to spark conversations by asking passersby who they thought Jesus was before explaining that they were both Jews and Christians.

“The bottom line is we’re saying Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. What could be more Jewish?” David Brickner said. “My Jewish heritage is secondary to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah.”

By mid-July, 157 Jews and 164 Gentiles became followers of Yeshua, mostly through street evangelism. Jews for Jesus is now working with a number of local evangelical churches, including Calvary Baptist Church, Brooklyn Tabernacle, and Christ Lutheran Church, to integrate the new believers into church fellowship.

—Sarah Pulliam, “ ‘Volcanic’ Response,” Christianity Today (September 2006)