{"id":45459,"date":"2008-08-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/reaching-out-to-witches-warlocks-satanists-and-vampires\/"},"modified":"2008-08-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T00:00:00","slug":"reaching-out-to-witches-warlocks-satanists-and-vampires","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/reaching-out-to-witches-warlocks-satanists-and-vampires\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching Out to Witches, Warlocks, Satanists, and Vampires"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his book Organic Church<\/em>, Neil Cole describes a number of missional communities that go where the people are, rather than have the people come to them. Such church communities meet in various places, including pubs, community centers, and simple living rooms. One particular church Cole describes meets in a coffeehouse. After the small band of people experienced some growth, they immediately decided to send out their own missionaries to start a church in another coffeehouse called Portfolios. Cole describes Portfolios as "a coven for witches, warlocks, Satanists, and vampires [people who have decided to live life according to the typical vampire narrative—sleeping in coffins, filing their teeth to the point of being fangs, and only coming out at night]." Despite the darker setting, Portfolio's soon became the site of surprising kingdom growth. Cole writes:<\/p>\n\n

\n

The first person to become a Christian at Portfolios was Manuel. Tim, one of our team members, was an excellent evangelist. He sat across the table from Manuel and opened his Bible to Romans 6:23; he gave it to Manuel to read for himself. Just then, Joey, a recruiter for the occult and part of the coven, came and sat next to Manuel. Joey likes to talk and has a foul mouth, so Tim prayed silently, "Lord, keep his ears open and his mouth closed." Joey didn't say a word.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Then Jack came and sat on the other side of Manuel. Jack is an atheist philosopher who loves to talk but doesn't ever get very far. Tim prayed the same silent prayer, and Jack didn't say a word.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Finally, "Psycho Saul" came up behind Tim. Psycho Saul is the leader of the vampires. He is tall, thin, and pale, and he dresses all in black with a long black trench coat and long frizzy hair down his back. Saul leaned over and whispered to Tim, "I just want you to know that I have my sword with me." Tim answered, "Oh, that's nice; I have mine, too," pointing to his Bible. "Manuel is reading it now." Then Psycho Saul leaned over again and said, "No. I really do have my sword." And he opened his trench coat and there, handing from his belt, was a double-edged sword. Tim prayed silently again, "Lord, keep his ears open and his mouth closed, and don't let him cut my head off." …<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Manuel glances up from his reading at that moment with a confused look on his face. He read it again, and suddenly the lights went on in his eyes and a smile came across his face. He understood that the wages of his sin was death, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord." At that moment, Joey got up to leave. Jack rose from the table and walked away, and Psycho Saul took his sword and left.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

From that moment, Portfolios became holy ground. Manuel was baptized at a beach within a week. Within a few weeks he was baptizing his first convert at the same beach. He baptized another convert a few weeks after that. Within a short time, a second church was started from converts from Portfolios. Then, a short time later, a third was started out of the rich, dark soil of this pocket of people.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3450,3512,3538,3592,3640,3701,3749,3776,3794,3897,3955,4085,4096,4470,4476,4477,4480,4555,4573,4579,4602,4696,4748,4767,4821,4884,5069,5284,5300,5302,5316],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,382],"class_list":["post-45459","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-boldness","tax_ctp_tags-calling","tax_ctp_tags-christian-life","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-dedication","tax_ctp_tags-devotion","tax_ctp_tags-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-false-teaching","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-great-commission","tax_ctp_tags-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-mission","tax_ctp_tags-mission-of-church","tax_ctp_tags-missionary","tax_ctp_tags-occult","tax_ctp_tags-ordination","tax_ctp_tags-outreach","tax_ctp_tags-passion","tax_ctp_tags-preparation","tax_ctp_tags-purpose","tax_ctp_tags-readiness","tax_ctp_tags-responsibility","tax_ctp_tags-satanism","tax_ctp_tags-st-patricks-day","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing","tax_ctp_tags-world","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness","tax_ctp_tags-zeal"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nReaching Out to Witches, Warlocks, Satanists, and Vampires - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/reaching-out-to-witches-warlocks-satanists-and-vampires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reaching Out to Witches, Warlocks, Satanists, and Vampires - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book Organic Church, Neil Cole describes a number of missional communities that go where the people are, rather than have the people come to them. 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