Open Air Campaigners
Encyclopedia
| Basics | |
|---|---|
| Denomination: | Interdenominational |
| Main office (USA): | Nazareth, Pennsylvania Nazareth, Pennsylvania Nazareth is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The population was 6,023 at the 2000 census.Nazareth is located seven miles northwest of Easton, four miles north of Bethlehem and twelve miles northeast of Allentown... |
| Year established: | 1892 |
| Established in: | Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people... , Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
| Staff members: | ca.100 (2006) |
| Branches in: | 23 countries (2006) |
| Website: | www.oaci.org www.oacusa.org |
Open Air Campaigners (OAC) is an evangelistic ministry
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
of preaching the gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
to non-Christian people and mobilizing the body of Christ
Body of Christ
In Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two separate connotations: it may refer to Jesus's statement about the Eucharist at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in , or the explicit usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in to refer to the Christian Church.Although in general usage the...
primarily through open-air preaching
Open-air preaching
Open-air preaching, street preaching or public preaching is the act of publicly proclaiming a religious message to crowds of people in open places...
. This international ministry includes meetings in urban areas, at camp sites, beaches, residential and anywhere people can be found. For many people don't go into the local churches to hear the Good News, OAC goes out to where the people are.
OAC works as an outdoor arm of the church, assisting local churches in reaching out to their local communities and beyond. Seminars and outreaches take place daily in over 20 countries around the world including Central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Northern
Northern America
Northern America is the northernmost region of the Americas, and is part of the North American continent. It lies directly north of the region of Middle America; the land border between the two regions coincides with the border between the United States and Mexico...
and Southern America.
History
The roots of Open Air Campaigners go back to AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. On 10 March 1892 the “Coogee Open Air Mission” was founded. Quickly the open air meetings became regular arrangements on the beaches and in the inner city of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
With the first “Gospel Wagon” the ministry got a new name: Open Air Campaigners. At the beach of Coogee an open air Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
was created and the Goulburn Street became an “open air cathedral” for Sydney’s inhabitants.
When visiting an exhibition OAC evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
Jim Duffecy discovered a huge wall painting. By using a so called ladder lettering an artist made advertising for an ice cream company. Duffecy took up this idea and developed the “sketchboard evangelism” which has been a characteristic trademark of OAC through the years up to an including today.
In the year 1954 the first overseas branch was founded in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Jim Duffecy became a pioneer of the work of OAC. In North America he started the ministry in 1956 and later became the first president of OAC International. The first branch in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
was Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1963.
Branches
Today OAC International contains independent branches in over 20 countries having about 100 full-time evangelists and additional half-time evangelists. Short term mission outreach teams work in additional countries. For example, OAC Germany is working not only in Germany, but in the Slovakian RepublicSlovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, and additional countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Methods
OAC evangelists prefer using visual aids like gospel object lessons, mimeMime artist
A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...
, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, sleight of hand
Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
and “sketch board evangelism” (preaching with brush and paint on a sketch board). A further aim of OAC is to equip the local churches by assisting them with practical training and open-air seminars.
Literature
- Alan Bailey & Ulrich Hofius, Die beste Botschaft farbig erzählt: Ein Praxisbuch für missionarische Arbeit unter Kindern, Neunkirchen: Open Air Campaigners, 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-025108-5.
- Jim A. Duffecy, The Truceless Warefare Advances: The Story of Open Air Campaigners International, Daniels Publishing, 1983.
- Noel C. Gibson, The Fisherman's Basket: Open air and other methods of evangelism, Lawson: Mission Publications, 1984, ISBN 0-9591100-0-3.
- Ulrich Hofius & Dorothee Kluitenberg, Praxisbuch Open-Air-Arbeit: Das ABC der Evangelisation im Freien, Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hänssler, 1996, ISBN 3-7751-2633-3.