A Heckler Gathers a Large Crowd – Portsmouth Evangelism

I wasn’t sure how today’s outreach would go in Portsmouth. The weather was grey, and there was a low chance of rain. We were also limited in team numbers. Thankfully, the Lord allowed three of us to share the good news, and the rain was light and didn’t interfere too much, though it did prevent the literature table from being set up.

We set up the open-air board and began to hand out tracts. Sarah was busy on one side of the street, while Nigel and I covered the other. Lots of people were open and willing to receive literature. Our prayer is that these simple gospel leaflets will be used by the Lord to bring many to salvation.

At midday, I decided to preach. By now, the weather had fined up, even though it was still very grey. My plan was to preach on ‘good news’ from John 3:16, but that wasn’t God’s will. As soon as I began to speak, a homeless man from Italy approached and began to heckle. I engaged him, and before too long, the man was sharing the sad story of how his Roman Catholic mother had died last year, even though she prayed to the Saints and Mary. This man now denied the existence of God due to the death of his mum.

The heckler was loud, and he had a little lubrication from alcohol to keep him going. He’d ask a question but wouldn’t always allow me to answer. Thankfully, I had built enough of a relationship with him that I could tell him to be quiet and let me speak. Friends of his soon stopped to listen, and they told him to keep quiet so I could give answers.

The man spoke about suffering and pain; then he pulled up his shirt to show numerous old stab wounds. Then he asked about God’s existence, and how I could trust the Bible. I answered his objections and kept pointing him back to the gospel. Something wonderful happens when you get a good heckler – a crowd gathers! We probably had the biggest crowd we’ve seen in Portsmouth stop to listen. Young and old – people from many backgrounds – all stopped to hear. This meant even more people got to hear the wonderful news of the Saviour.

Hecklers beget hecklers, and soon I had another man asking questions. This man was wearing a John Lennon t-shirt, and he decided his question would relate to violence done in the name of Christianity. He mentioned Roman Catholics killing Protestants, and Protestants killing Roman Catholics. He then tried to argue this proved the Bible wrong. I countered by pointing out that his question carried an assumption – he had assumed all those religious people were true Christians. I then asked him, “What is a Christian?” It was agreed a Christian is a follower of Christ, so I pointed out it stands to reason that if someone goes against what Jesus says, they are not true Christians. At this point, the man showed he wasn’t interested in answers, so he tried to talk to others in the crowd and cause distraction.

Thankfully, the crowd did want answers, so I quoted from John 16:2–3 to show that Jesus said if someone kills you in the name of God, they are revealing they aren’t Christians. The man who asked the question didn’t like the answer, so he walked away; but the original heckler remained.

By now, the open-air had been going for quite some time, so I thought it best to wrap it up. Numerous times, people had heard the gospel, and a number of those who had listened took tracts. At the end, my original heckler gave me a big hug, thanked me for preaching, and apologised for being difficult. He also took a copy of John’s Gospel. Two of his friends also received copies of the Gospel.

Later in the day, two university students who had been listening came back to talk. They told me that the open-air had caused them to think about the claims of Jesus. We had a brief chat, and both took copies of John’s Gospel.

For the rest of our time, we handed out tracts and tried to chat with people. The day hadn’t gone as we expected, but the Lord was at work. Please pray for all those who heard the good news – especially the hecklers!

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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