“I don’t know anything about Jesus.” – Andover Evangelism

As a lover of Christian history, I found it rather intriguing to be informed that I was preaching in roughly the same location where John Wesley preached 263 years earlier. Mr. Wesley states in his journal about his visit to this little town in Hampshire, “I preached about nine at Andover, to a few dead stones.” (3rd November 1760). It was interesting to know that Wesley found open-air preaching difficult in this community because I’ve heard from other gospel workers that they’ve had the same experience. Yet, even on the hard ground, the seed of the gospel finds good soil.

The weather wasn’t pleasant, and it appeared today would be a challenge. But the Lord was gracious. He allowed us to have many good gospel conversations, and we gave away ten copies of John’s Gospel and one full Bible to those who wanted to learn more about Jesus.

My first conversation was with three young men who stopped to take a tract. I began our chat by asking, “What do you think comes after death?” Two said they believed in Heaven, and the other said he wasn’t sure. However, they all stated that the only way to get to Heaven was to be good - but then they said, “We aren’t good people.” I went through the Law of God to reveal the depth of their sin, and then I pointed them to Jesus. As I explained the gospel, one of the young men said, “I don’t know anything about Jesus.” He had never been to church or read the Bible; no one had ever spoken to him about Christ. This young man had grown up in what many call a “Christian” country, but the gospel was foreign to him. I shared with the three of them about the gospel - all took an in-depth gospel tract before heading off.

While I was speaking with the young men, Paul was preaching on “What’s the Greatest Danger?” After talking with me, the three young men walked away but returned to engage Paul in discussion. I didn’t hear all that was said, but I found it encouraging when they all took copies of John’s Gospel.

After Paul finished preaching, we spent time handing out tracts and trying to engage people in conversations. It then came time for me to preach. Today, I thought it’d be good to speak on “Who Will Be King?” I wasn’t sure how many people heard the message, but five people at the end received the Gospel of John (including a man who then sat in a café to read it!)

Paul preached one more time, and as he did so, a man named Richard began to ask questions about the Big Bang and atheism. The preaching stopped, and a conversation developed between Paul, Richard and I. At first, Richard was antagonistic towards Christianity, but as we talked he warmed up. By the end, he was very friendly. Richard took a copy of John’s Gospel and said he would read it.

 As we began to pack down the outreach, a lady named Nikki stopped to talk. She is a professing Christian but is struggling with church and belief. We shared with her and gave her resources to help her.

When John Wesley was here, he described Andover as having dead stones – today, we found it to be the opposite. There was an openness and a willingness to engage. Please pray for all those who heard the good news!

SDG!