Mixed Reactions to the Gospel – Southampton Evangelism
It was a beautiful, sunny day in Southampton, and surprisingly, it wasn’t freezing cold – maybe spring is nearly here! The pleasant weather meant the city centre was busy with people enjoying the sunshine – all of whom needed to hear the good news.
As the outreach began, I was concerned about my voice, as I had been battling a cold for the past week. I was hopeful I’d be well enough for today’s evangelism, yet I knew my abilities would be limited. As it turned out, I could only open-air preach once – but at least I was able to do something.
Once everything was set up, I started preaching on “Lessons from the Boomerang.” This time, as a little extra to my message, I was able to show a real boomerang. I explained how, just as a boomerang goes out and comes back to us, so our sin will return to us. From there, I proclaimed the gospel and emphasised that Jesus alone is the One who pays for all our sin. At the end of the message, one lady took a copy of John’s Gospel. My voice was finished after this – there would be no more preaching today, just tracts and one-to-one witnessing.
The team was kept busy as many people were taking tracts. Zoe had a conversation with a homeless man who was interested in hearing the good news and reading a tract. Other team members were also engaged in conversations about the Lord.
I spoke with a man from the Philippines who was in Southampton working on a cruise ship. Like many from his country, he was nominally Roman Catholic. We had a gospel discussion, and at the end, he took a New Testament and a tract.
The second and final preacher of the day was Jeremy, who spoke on “Warning: Six Deadly Lies.” As he preached, a man listened for a while before walking off. Before he got too far, I was able to engage him in conversation.
The man had taken issue with Jeremy’s certainty about the truth. We explored the nature of truth for a little while, but then we got to the heart of the matter. Sadly, this man had previously been told that if he became a Christian, God would bless him with material prosperity. But when trials and tribulations inevitably came, he concluded that the Bible must be wrong. I spent time undoing the damage caused by the ‘prosperity gospel’ and explained the true biblical gospel. The man said his questions had been answered, and he took a tract.
The final ‘conversation’ (if it could be called that) was absurd. A man stopped to speak to Nigel, but before long, others were drawn in as well. He claimed that nothing exists and that there is no truth (a statement he paradoxically affirmed as true). He was not reasonable and didn’t seek answers, so we simply made the gospel clear and called on him to repent. I stressed to him that he knows God exists (Romans 1:20-21), but because of his sin, he doesn’t want God. He didn’t like this answer, so we decided not to continue much further. As he walked away, he blamed God for evil – which only revealed that, deep down, he hates the God he knows exists.
The nature of evangelism is that we encounter all kinds of people. But the wonderful news is that even those who openly hate God can be rescued by the Lord Jesus. Please pray that all who heard the good news would come to repentance and faith.
SDG!
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Josh Williamson is a full-time evangelist with The Open-Air Mission. Since 1853, OAM has been sharing the good news on the streets of the United Kingdom. To stay updated about the work of the Mission, please sign up for the free quarterly magazine and monthly prayer notes.
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