Newquay Evangelism: Hecklers and Heat
It almost hurts to admit this, but today I found the British summer to be hot! As I think back to outreaches in Australia, which in the height of summer could be in 40’C + heat, I am embarrassed to say that I thought 25’C was hot. But, despite the British heat, we went out to the Newquay town centre to share the good news of Jesus.
A team of seven from Newquay Baptist Church gathered for prayer at 1pm, then we made our way down to the high street to make much of Christ. Upon arriving, we noticed that the town was extremely busy. Everyone was out enjoying the hot, sunny day. Along with all the people walking around, there were also several street performers trying to make a few quid from the crowds. The usual location we’ve been using for preaching was occupied, so we had to find somewhere else. The Lord was good, in that He provided an open space in front of a closed shop for us to set up.
Today, I took the “Good Person” flipchart and also our Gospel Cart out with us. We set these tools up and then began to hand out tracts. Soon a drunk man stopped to chat, at first he thought I was South African (wrong!) and that I was a Pentecostal (wrong again!). It was very hard to chat with him, but he took a tract, and then insisted all his friends take one also. Towards the end of our conversation (if it could be called that), he asked to give me a hug. As he went in to hug me, he snuggled into my neck and sniffed me. The outreach was off to an ‘interesting’ start…
We handed out tracts for about thirty minutes before starting the preaching at 2pm. My plan today was to use the flipchart to explain the gospel, as I worked through the presentation a few people stopped to listen… then came the hecklers.
The first heckler was a man who had heckled me a couple of weeks back. He was drunk, but he decided it was his job to try and silence the preaching. His arguments made no sense, but they did allow me to keep swinging back to the gospel. Eventually, he wandered off, but something I have learned in open-air work is that hecklers beget hecklers. Before too long there was another heckler raising objections. This time the heckler was a young man, who was quietly spoken but he asked good questions. He asked about how we know if the Bible is true, and the nature of truth. As he asked questions the crowds began to grow. I reasoned with him for a while, then at the end of our chat, he took a New Testament. The challenge I issued him was to read it for himself and to test to see if it is true. He said he would, and that he would be back next week to ask more questions.
(Video clip of my first heckler)
At this stage, a group of young ladies began to heckle. All of them would have been around thirteen years old. Their heckles were silly, but still, they provided opportunities to proclaim the gospel. They denied the existence of God but then claimed to be God. They said there was no truth, but then said I wasn’t speaking the truth. Whenever I answered their questions, I would address the young lady as “Miss,” which resulted in one of them raising an objection; the young lady then began to announce her preferred pronouns. Clearly, there is a system of indoctrination occurring in the school system; foolish thought is being taught. Before she could list all her pronouns, I interrupted by saying, “I don’t care! Gender is what you are born with. God decides if you are a boy or girl. You are a girl, so you are a Miss.” The girls seemed shocked, but this direct answer opened a discussion on the nature of truth.
For some time, the young ladies continued to heckle, but they were friendly. At the end of our conversation, they all asked for a copy of the New Testament, and one of them took an apologetic booklet about dinosaurs.
While all this was happening, a lady was standing at the back of the crowd listening. She spoke to James telling him that she was of a Roman Catholic background. She was encouraged by the preaching and was considering coming to our church. James was able to give all the details of the church and invited her to attend. We never know what is happening in the open air, while I was dealing with hecklers, the Lord seems to be working on someone listening at the back of the crowd.
By now it was approaching 3pm. After I had stood down from preaching, James stood up and began to preach for about 5-10 minutes. He spoke about the gift of salvation freely offered to sinners, but the sad reality is that people won’t take the gift. People listened as he explained Romans 6:23.
The Lord was very good to us today. Let’s pray that all the gospel seed would fall upon good soil and that the Father would draw many to the Lord Jesus.
SDG!