From Anger to Friendship – Reading Evangelism
It was great to be back in Reading for an open-air outreach. This is only the second time I have visited this location. As I drove to Reading, I listened to a podcast discussing evangelism and the sovereignty of God; in that audio, the speaker stressed that sinners need God to open their hearts, so my prayer for today was, “Lord, open the hearts of the lost.”
Today, we had five on the team, which included three pastors from different local churches. It is always encouraging when Ministers lead the charge in evangelism. If we want our churches to be outward-focused, then the Shepherds must lead from the front.
Upon arrival, we set up the Free Bible and Literature table, and immediately people stopped to talk and take literature. One thing I love about Reading is the multicultural nature of the community. Through open-air evangelism, we can reach the nations without leaving the UK. Today, we distributed material in English, Spanish, Romanian, and Ukrainian.
The first preacher today was Pastor Jamie from Argyle Community Church; he preached on “Why should you bother with Jesus?” In this message, he explained who Jesus is, and what He has done. A few people stopped to pay attention, which then lead to one-to-one conversations. Pastor Rich from Carey Baptist Church had a long chat with a lady who listened to the preaching; she seemed quite engaged and happily took material to discover more about Jesus.
I chatted with a man named Mike, who listened to the preaching. He told me he came from a Church of England background, which meant he believed everything Jamie had said. I asked him, “Why do you think God should let you into Heaven?” Mike replied, “Well, I hope I have lived a good enough life.” Mike is like many people in our nation who think the way to Heaven is through our goodness and religion. I shared with Mike about sin and how only the Saviour could rescue us. As we finished chatting, he said, “It makes sense. If I could save myself, then why did Jesus need to die?” He left with a copy of John’s Gospel and “Why Christianity?”
Pastor Trevor from Whitley Wood Reformed Baptist Church was next to speak. He opened the Scripture and told people the good news of Jesus. A couple of young lads stopped to mock; we pray the snippet of the gospel they heard would take root in their hearts.
I was the final preacher for today, so I decided to use the “Good Person Test” and see if anyone would engage. It was then that I met Pagan Shane, and he certainly engaged!
Shane’s opening salvo was about December 25th and the allegation that Christians stole Pagan celebrations. Shane was angry and direct in his heckling, so I engaged his arguments. As I addressed one issue, he would dart to another. At one point, he claimed that people must pay to attend church. I told him that wasn’t true, but he maintained his position. So, I turned to the pastors with me and asked if people must pay to attend their churches - all of them said NO! It was clear that Pagan Shane didn’t know what he was talking about, but he was being used by the Lord to draw a crowd.
There is no use staying on the apologetic argument, so I looked for an opening to present the gospel. The way that came about was when I said to Shane, “You don’t understand what Christianity teaches, so how about I define what Christians believe, so we can at least understand what we are talking about.” Shane agreed and fell silent long enough for me to present the gospel to the crowd. By the end of the gospel presentation, Shane had calmed down to the point where we could laugh and banter together. He agreed that we could be friends, shook my hand, and then took a copy of John’s Gospel. Please pray for my Pagan mate, Shane; may he come to worship the Creator instead of the creation.
It was a good day in Reading. Please pray the Lord would open the hearts of those who heard the good news, and may they come to love Jesus.
SDG!