Questions Gather a Crowd – Southampton Evangelism
We had a smaller team today; we started off with just three of us, but by the end there were five on the team sharing the good news. The city centre was busy, and from the outset people stopped at the literature table to request material.
One encounter at the table made me feel lukewarm. A lady from Africa stopped, pointed to the Bibles, and said, “Are they really free?” I assured her they were, and she became very emotional. She shared that she wanted to learn more about Christianity, so she had prayed that if the Christian God is real, He would let her be given a Bible. Then she was providentially guided to us in Southampton. As she picked up the Scripture, she handled it with great care – for her, this was the most precious book in the world. She gently hugged the Bible, then kissed it. She was so overcome that God had answered her prayers.
Here was a woman who had never read the Bible, and she was overjoyed to have a copy. How many Bibles do you own, and are you overjoyed when you open the pages and hear God’s voice? I certainly feel convicted!
While this was happening, Jeremy was in discussion with a pagan man and his daughter. Both were open to hearing the good news and said they would consider the message.
I thought that Jeremy and I would preach several times today, but the Lord had other plans. It turned out we would only have two open-air messages, with Jeremy going first.
Jeremy preached on “Bridging the Gap.” As he proclaimed the gospel, I noticed an old fellow who has been antagonistic to the gospel sitting nearby, listening. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen him several times. Despite his confession of hatred towards the gospel, he keeps being drawn to hear the Word. Please pray that the Lord would save him.
After Jeremy preached, we handed out tracts for a while, then I decided I would preach. My message was going to be on “Hope for a Broken World.” As I started preaching, no one stopped to listen. Team members were off talking with people, so it felt like I was speaking to the air – but the Lord was about to move!
As I spoke about the brokenness of the world, a young atheist (who soon backslid to agnosticism) asked a question. I replied and challenged him by asking what hope he would offer to Southampton, considering the brokenness of the world.
The young atheist wasn’t sure, so we began going back and forth on different apologetic questions. As the questions were asked and answered, a crowd began to form. Hecklers beget hecklers, so before I knew it, I had several people waiting to ask their questions.
I abandoned my planned message and instead engaged with the questions people were asking (I prefer this method of preaching). Even though I wanted to answer their apologetic questions, I knew that I had to keep bringing it back to the gospel.
The open-air ended up lasting for over an hour, with questions being asked on the topics of atheism, other religions, the veracity of the Bible, evolution, suffering, and justice. The initial hecklers stayed until the end and then continued speaking with team members.
Throughout the open-air, I kept circling everything back to the gospel. The crowd would listen as I explained who God is, our sin, and the grace of God shown at the cross. Then they would ask more questions.
What really encouraged me was seeing people go from listening in the crowd over to the literature table, where they took further material or copies of the Scripture. The Lord truly was at work!
At the end of the open-air, one of the friends of the hecklers told me it had really challenged his thoughts, so he took a copy of John’s Gospel, saying he needed to consider Christianity further.
Praise God for the opportunities we had today! Please pray that many will come to know the Lord Jesus.
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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