About us

When the Lord Jesus looked upon the crowds who followed him, the Bible tells us, ‘He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd’ (Matthew 9:36).

Today, there are still vast crowds of lost people who will never walk through the door of a church to hear the good news of the gospel. For over 170 years The Open-Air Mission has been going out onto the streets to bring the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection to those who may never otherwise hear it.

OAM has a team of evangelists and associate workers who run regular open-air outreaches across the UK and further afield. We work with local churches to share the gospel in town centres, in schools, on beaches, at fairgrounds and in many other venues. We also seek to support and equip local churches in open-air evangelism.

We exist to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the open air and to support the church in open-air evangelism.

14 staff evangelists
50 associate workers
2,000+ outreaches per year
100+ open-air locations
5,000+ John’s Gospels distributed to enquirers each year

To find out more about the work of OAM, why not download our free introductory booklet, How Shall They Hear?

Mission & values

We exist to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the open air and to support the church in open-air evangelism.

As a mission we seek:

To be connected to the local church. We believe in the importance of the local church and all our evangelists and team members belong to Bible-believing churches. We seek the support of local churches in each area we operate in. We put enquirers in contact with local churches and equip churches in evangelism by providing training in open-air work and helpful evangelistic literature.

To be engaging in our preaching. Our desire is to connect with people. We rarely use amplification in the preaching and often use visual aids to help attract the attention of those passing by. We want to draw people to listen to the preaching and then into conversation with us, not to drive them away.

To work with teams of believers. Most open-airs are supported by men and women from local churches. Their support is invaluable. Not all are preachers. Some listen, some hand out literature, whilst others are able to engage in personal conversation with those who have stopped. We encourage believers to work together in reaching out with the gospel.