The Big Gospel in the Small City – Wells Evangelism
It isn’t every day that one gets to share the gospel in England’s smallest city. As I made my way past medieval buildings, I found the outreach team set up in the shadow of Wells Cathedral. The weather was cold and windy, but still, there were a number of people walking around. I had been told that Wells is quite a religious city, but sadly it is a dead religion; a religion of works and self-righteousness. In reality, it wasn’t that much different to most other places.
Paul was the first to preach. He spoke on the topic of “What Does it Mean to be a Real Christian?” As he spoke, all the other team members handed out tracts and looked for conversations. One older lady took a tract from me and began to chat. She told me she had crossed to my side of the road to avoid the other team member who was handing out leaflets, but then she ran into me. She said this may be a sign that she should take a tract and read it. We had a brief gospel chat, where she was exhorted to seek Jesus.
At this stage, a professing Christian began to engage Paul as he preached. We don’t know if this man was a true Believer, but Paul made sure that he heard the gospel, and that he left with some good material.
In all my years of evangelism, I have never encountered a Quaker, but today, I met two of them. One spoke to another team member, but the other engaged me. She wasn’t very interested in talking too much, and she wouldn’t take a tract. Instead, she wanted to tell me how she has been a Quaker all her life. I encouraged her to trust in Christ alone, and she said that she’d consider what I said. With that, she hurried on her way.
It was now my turn to preach; since this is a very religious community, I thought it best to preach on “The Way to Heaven” as in this message I address three wrong ways that people think will save them (works, religion and being good). As I preached, one gentleman in a wheelchair stopped to listen. He was paying attention to everything I said. However, a challenge arose as I was transitioning to the gospel. As I began to speak about Jesus a sudden gust of wind came up from behind me and blew the open-air board over. With a loud crash, it fell face down on the ground. I decided to ignore the board and keep preaching as this man was paying attention. I figured the board could wait; this man was far more important.
Members of the team picked up the board as I preached, and as they did so tracts began to blow across the street. This sent them on a mad scramble to collect all the literature. I think the chaos of the board falling and the tracts blowing away attracted more attention, which meant even more people got to hear the good news.
After I had finished preaching, and all the tracts were collected, Paul preached again. This time I stood behind the board to hold it as we didn’t want a repeat of what just happened. As the day finished, we were greatly encouraged by the number of tracts that had been handed out, and by all the conversations which took place. In this small city, the big gospel of grace had spread.
SDG!