Operation 513 London: Leicester Square & Tooting Broadway (23rd -24th May 2008)

On Friday night the team came together once more for another weekend of ministry. Arriving at Leicester Square a little later than usual Philip and I were met by Carl, Virgil and Andrew. It wasn’t until about 9:30pm that we had grouped together before praying for the evening. Due to the events of the previous Friday we debated amongst ourselves as to what would be the best location for us to use that would be compliant with the authorities. We decided to stand against the railing, to the right of the artists. We concluded that there was sufficient space between them and us. We did not know how things would go but we had prayed and were trusting in the Lord. Before stepping up to preach Phil pointed to the other side of the square where some form of entertainment had drawn in a large crowd. It was interesting to note that the police had not stepped in to break up their crowd like they had done with us.

After stepping up to preach I drew in a reasonable size crowd. There has been much in the news lately concerning the events in China and Burma. The question of why there is suffering in the world is a common objection that is often thrown at Christianity so I decided to begin by talking about why we have suffering in the world. I explained that suffering and sin cannot be separated; it is because sin has come into the world that we have disease and suffering and crime, etc. I must admit that the crowd I had was fairly placid compared to recent weeks. After opening up the law of God to make clear the standard of God’s justice I did a call out to a man named Julio. I asked him if he would be deserving of heaven or hell, after being found guilty of breaking God’s law. I reasoned with him that if God’s standards are higher than human standards would it not make sense that God must punish sin, especially when you consider that according to our own laws a guilty criminal would not be allowed to go free. I never really got a straight answer from him and it was made a little trickier when his friend George also added his comments. They were trying to say that you cannot compare our justice system with that of God’s justice system but I explained that it is only because we are created in the image of God that we have laws in the first place. Our sense of morality comes from God. I continued to explain why we are all deserving of God’s punishment and that without a Saviour there is no hope for anybody. This allowed me to explain why Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), since a substitute for our sins can be found no where else, except in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ . (Acts 4:10-12)

Towards the end of my preach I spoke of the certainty of death and that we must consider the value of our soul in preparation of where we will spend eternity. At this point a man cried out, “I’m a sinner! I love death!” To this I replied, “Does that mean you would like to die right now?” I never heard another word out of him after that. After coming down from my ladder I was pleased to see that the team were all involved in one-to-one conversations. We continued to speak to the people who had gathered and spent the rest of the evening handing out tracts and talking with people. We were very grateful to the Lord that He had used us once more to preach to the people gathered at Leicester Square.

Saturday morning came around and it was back to Tooting Broadway. We arrived at 11:30am and opened in prayer. I decided to have the team spend a good half hour or so doing one-to-one’s before I got up to preach. The team consisted of Philip, Antonio, Andrew, Joanna, Joe and I. I did a bit of filming as well as they all set about handing out tracts and talking with the people. I continue to be greatly encouraged by Antonio. Still a young Christian, it was awesome to see him engaging with people in a one-to-one conversation. It was also wonderful to have Joe join us, who is from Nigeria and is often back there due to business. Below is an interview I did with Andrew after a one-to-one conversation that he had with a young couple.

As time went on I decided to step up to preach. A number of people stopped and then moved on, only for others to then take their place. This is quite common for Tooting Broadway. As a busy intersection it is harder to get a crowd but many people are coming and going and so they do get to hear the Word of God as they go their way. I noticed as I was preaching that there were a few listening quite attentively. Speaking with them afterwards I noticed that they were Christians. It was encouraging speaking with them and I could see that they too had been encouraged. Part of this ministry is to also motivate and inspire other Christians to step out and take the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to this lost and dying world.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with another great weekend of ministry.

Soli Deo Gloria!

An Encouraging Report!

My good friend and ministry partner Phil sent me this the other day. I found it very encouraging and I am sure you will too.

On Friday evening at Leicester Square a man who (I think his name is Alan) was walking past as you were preaching was convicted and came back. He got some excitable girls to ask you a question about backsliders, and was encouraged by the answer you gave. He started talking to me and shared how he used to be a very committed Christian who was very involved in his church, and used to do evangelism out in the street including preaching. Since a marriage break up he had "back-slidden" but he couldn't resist the Holy Spirit calling him to repent and turn back from his backsliding. He shared that he wanted to repent but was finding it impossible to do so, so I encouraged him to share how he felt with God, and to cry out for repentance. We later prayed, and he immediately went over to some policemen in the crowd to share his testimony and give them some Gospel tracts. He then went about talking to people.

Operation 513 London: Leicester Square & Tooting Broadway (16th -17th May 2008)

This past weekend we were once more back on the street to proclaim the gospel. We arrived at Tooting Broadway a little before 7:30 pm and set about handing out tracts. I did not intend on preaching as I knew I would be preaching later at Leicester Square and also the following morning at Tooting Broadway. We spent about forty minutes or so handing out tracts and talking to people. I managed to talk with three young teenage girls who stopped to talk when I handed them each a million pound note gospel tract. As we got talking I shared the gospel with them as I would any other. However, it became apparent that they were Christians and that they were on the way to a prayer meeting! I don’t make it a habit of not trusting in people but I have seen all too often how quickly someone can say they are a Christian when in reality that is not the case. I asked them if they spoke to their friends about Jesus and they said that they did. I emphasised to them the importance of speaking about sin, righteousness and judgement and that the gospel makes it clear we are to repent of our sin and turn in faith towards the Lord. They seemed a little surprised by this and as I continued to share with them the essentials of true biblical evangelism I could see that they had not received solid teaching concerning the gospel. This is so typical of churches today. Before they left they each received an in-depth gospel tract. I handed to the girl who had been the most responsive a Ten Commandment coin gospel tract, which has the Ten Commandments on one side and the gospel on the other, and told her to use it to start a conversation with one of her friends. She seemed quite excited by this. Just then their bus arrived and so we said our goodbyes. I received a hug for my efforts but the greatest reward will be to see them all in heaven one day. Please pray that will be the case.

We arrived at Leicester Square at about 8:40 pm. Carl was there to meet us; he’s been a real blessing. We had a new face join us as well. My friend Dale from Workington had contacted me earlier in the week to put me in contact with Virgil, a friend of his now living in London. After some brief introductions we made our way over to where we had preached the previous Friday. The artists that line the railing had again said they preferred we did not preach in their “spot.” Carl was first up to preach and he preached for about 15 minutes. He is still developing as an open-air preacher and I am sure that the Lord will use him as he continues to step out and preach. He does not use a loud voice when he preaches but he still attracts listeners and a few hecklers too! I have learnt that you learn the most through doing. After he finished I stepped up to preach. It was not long before a sizeable crowd formed. My first heckler was a man named Richard. When he heard me speak of intelligent design and how it proves there is an intelligent Creator, he scoffed. He worked up the crowd to say that the amazing complexity of the human body is not evidence of an awesome Creator. The people cheered in his favour, however it was not long before he had moved on and the people were still standing there listening. A question was asked concerning the crusades, during which time many “Christians” did terrible things in the name of Christianity. I told the crowd that a true Christian is known by his/her fruit and that if someone claims to be a Christian then his/her life must be in accord with what the Bible says. I was really encouraged as I could see this impacted the people’s understanding of what a true Christian is.

It wasn’t long after this that I was heckled by some young girls who insisted that there is no evidence for God. They were quite forceful in their arguments and appeared even angry. They also appeared well versed concerning the subject of God. It is quite likely that they'd had some encounter with religion or the Christian faith at some stage in their life. If this is indeed so then it is also quite likely that they have been presented with the “modern gospel.” This is the terrible result of modern evangelism that seeks to water down the message in such a way that you no longer hear words like sin, righteousness and judgment. The call to repent is rarely heard these days, instead we are told to simply “ask Jesus into our heart.” Christ came preaching repentance. So did John the Baptist. So did the apostle Paul. Study church history and you will see it there too. Much of the church today seems to have discovered some new way to preach the gospel. Yet in the book of Galatians we read, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9).

As I was answering their questions and objections a man dressed in civilian clothing approached me and showed me his badge. It was clear he was a police officer. He wanted a word with me and so I stepped down from my ladder to talk with him. His objection to what we were doing centred on the fact that we had accumulated quite a large crowd (to my knowledge probably the biggest I have had so far) and since Leicester Square is a “hotspot” for pick-pocketing crime it makes their job harder to have to deal with a crowd of this size. He also mentioned that we were blocking the thoroughfare with the crowd that we had gathered. I asked him if there was not some other place that we could go and he said no. He was making it appear that he was trying to be helpful but in reality he wanted us gone. I found out later that Leicester Square is his spot and so clearly it was more a case that we were an inconvenience than anything else. He did not say that we were breaking the law and actually said he was not telling us to move but was rather asking us to do so. I had with me an article written by The Christian Institute, which details the law related to street evangelism. I regret that I did not use this to my advantage. I must admit that my experience with the police is not that great and so I was rather accommodating to their wishes. I did protest, but thinking back on it now I could have defended our position much more strongly. The issue that concerned me the most was that it seemed to be coming across that we would not be allowed back to Leicester Square ever again. This is something I am in the process of looking into. I have contacted The Christian Institute, who are helping me in this regard. This Friday we will be trying a different venue, but only because we want to clarify the legalities and the rights that we have. I had been preaching for about 27 minutes before I was stopped so I praise God for the time that He gave us. It was just passed 10:30pm when we were stopped and as we leave around 11:00 pm anyway we decided to spend the next half hour or so handing out tracts and talking with people. The events with the police had shaken us up a little and we were not quite ourselves afterwards. This was somewhat new territory for us and one which we knew would come eventually. We need to learn from this so that we will handle it better in the future. Please pray that the Lord would help us and that He would give us much wisdom.

Saturday came around and it was back to Tooting Broadway. Antonio met myself and Phil at 11:30 am and not long after Barney (another member from my church) joined us as well. We began by handing out gospel tracts and speaking with people first. I approached a young girl who had dyed pink hair as well as a great amount of makeup on. As we got talking she mentioned that she was homosexual. Her name is Kitty and she is just 16. She was quite willing to talk and said that she enjoyed conversations regarding God and life after death. She mentioned that she did not see her homosexuality as a sin and that she was simply born that way. This can be a challenging objection to have to deal with. We need to emphasise that God has created both male and female and that the Bible does not allow for homosexuality. This can be a sensitive topic and we need to be careful when talking with people who are engaged in this kind of sin. This does not mean that we agree with them that their homosexuality is not a sin. The Bible clearly says it is very much a sin in God’s eyes. However, so is lying, theft, blasphemy and idolatry. I spoke to her of how we can know that there is a God, that the Bible is a true and trustworthy book (click on this link to see why) and that if the Bible is indeed true then we all have to give an account of ourselves before Him one day. I was able to share the gospel with her and leave her with a couple of tracts. Please pray for her. Another chap I got to speak with was Zeff. It was not a long chat but I was able to share the whole counsel of God with him. He thanked me but I sensed that he was simply being polite. I stressed to him the importance of thinking through what I had said. He left with a gospel tract and so do pray for him.

After we had all handed out a good number of tracts and spoken with quite a few people I stood up to preach open-air. Some people did stop to listen; this prompted Barney to whizz about handing out tracts to them. Towards the end of my message I was approached by a man named Keith. He began by heckling me and speaking against the veracity of Scripture as well as the Christian faith itself. After a little while I came down off my ladder and spoke with him in a more personal way. It turned out that he does believe in God and it was clear that he is searching. He told me that he was an alcoholic and that he struggled to give it up in his own strength. He asked God to help but the help never seemed to come. I had a real heart for this guy. I told him that in our own strength we will fail but if we put our trust in Christ we can overcome. I shared the complete gospel with him and urged him to turn from his own strength. He still seemed convinced that he could save himself if he just tried hard enough. I helped him to understand that salvation is a free gift. If we try and “buy” the gift then it is no longer a gift. When we try and earn our salvation we are in affect trying to buy the free gift that God offers to all who repent of their sin and trust in Him alone. This really helped Keith and he appeared most grateful as he left. I invited him to church and he said that he would come, unfortunately he did not come that Sunday and so it is my hope and prayer that I will see him again, hopefully at church! Praise God, we’d had another great weekend of ministry!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Designed And Not Evolved

Do you need a designer in order to have design? You would have thought so! I overheard a colleague at work today talking about a lady in our accounts department who is heavily pregnant at the moment. He was talking about how she needs to take things easy at this advanced stage. He concluded by saying, "Her body may be designed to carry a child but it is not the norm to have to do so on an everyday basis." Isn't it interesting that he used the word "designed." Notice that he did not say "...her body may be evolved to carry a child." When you drop your presuppositions and really think it through you conclude that it just makes common sense to speak of life as being designed. We can recognise intelligent design. If you were to see a machine one day, a machine that clearly did not occur in nature, you would not put it down to having formed randomly. You would rightly conclude that it had been designed. When it comes, however, to the human body basic logic is asked to take a back seat.

Quite remarkable.

Operation 513 London: Leicester Square & Tooting Broadway (9th -10th May 2008)

Last night I joined up once more with my good friend Phil for another evening of street evangelism. Unfortunately events of the day meant that we arrived too late at Tooting Broadway to spend any time there ministering. We hopped on the tube and headed for Leicester Square. Arriving just after 9pm I was excited to see the throngs of people who were out to party and have a good time. Leicester Square really is a great spot for street evangelism.

We made our way over to the spot that we have been using for the last three weeks or so - opposite the Empire Theatre against the railings. Artists line these railings doing portraits of people and caricatures. Up until now we have simply slotted in between them when a space has opened up. Last night we attempted to do the same, except this time a very disgruntled artist came up to us pleading with us not to do so, since that would cause a crowd to form, which would affect his business. This seemed ridiculous to me. I explained to him that we did not wish in any way to affect his business and that it was our right to stand there. I also explained that we have had no problems with the authorities in this regard. Just then a police officer headed our way so our artist friend approached the officer to complain. “Oh brother!” was my first thought. I went over to the officer and introduced myself. I presented our case and explained that we had not had problems before. The officer actually stood up for us and said there was nothing stopping us from preaching. However there was nothing that was going to deter this artist and he persisted to such an extent that the officer asked whether there was not some other area that we could use. We agreed and moved to another part of the square. I was feeling frustrated and annoyed and I confess that it did have me a little rattled. Still, I realised that we needed to learn how to handle these sorts of things, as we know that resistance will come.

My brother James arrived soon after and so we got ready to begin ministering the Word. Carl, who had also come through to join us, was still in a one-to-one conversation that he had started before we had arrived. I let him know where we would be so that he could join us when he had finished. Heading back to our “new spot” I stood up to preach. At first only a handful of people stopped to listen but as time went on more and more people began to take interest. After about ten minutes or so a group of young Muslim men entered into the fray. I knew things would now get interesting. As is the common practise the Muslims fired at me the typical questions. They were aggressive and forceful and very domineering. This is to be expected. It can be frustrating as they don’t allow you to get a word in when they are like this. However one young man, who called himself Adam (I discovered later that this was not his name) was far more reasonable than his friends and repeatedly told them to show me some respect and allow me to speak. I was grateful for this and I knew that God was working. It does seem that the majority of the Muslims I meet are simply out to attack Christianity in an aggressive way. Yet there are those who are more reasonable and willing to listen. Adam was one of those. (Let me point that we too want to attack Islam. The point I am making is the aggressiveness of their approach and the fact that they refuse to be reasonable. They ask questions but really their minds are already made up. Please pray that there will be those like Adam that will listen).

The majority of their questions and objections were aimed at attacking Christianity; again, this is common practise. I will in later posts tackle these objections in more detail. I will say this. For all their efforts to shout me down they succeeded in bringing in a greater crowd. I was greatly encouraged by this and turned to preaching the gospel more earnestly to the crowd.

After preaching and answering questions and objections for close on an hour I came down off my step ladder. It was funny because Adam wanted me to carry on preaching! I told him that my voice would never be able to handle it. At this particular point I noticed that a young man was motioning for my attention. As soon as he started talking I noticed he was from Australia. He seemed quite keen on talking with me. I discovered that he was most displeased with what I had been talking about. He said that he did not discount that there is a God but did not see how I could say that the Christian God of the Bible was the one true God. He felt that me saying Jesus is the way, the truth and the life is discriminatory. I tried desperately to reason with this young man but he seemed to have only one agenda. He was quite strong in his approach and I felt that his mind was already made up before he even asked a question. It was clear that he had some sort of Christian background, since he spoke of a verse in Leviticus that says a man who commits a homosexual act should be killed and that if we are true to the Bible today we should go round killing homosexuals. I pointed out to him that the Old Covenant has been replaced by the New Covenant. This led to him saying, along with the Muslims who were standing near by, that the Bible had been changed and altered. I struggle to understand how they come to that conclusion. Jeremiah prophesied that God would make a new covenant with the house of Israel, a new covenant that surpasses and is far greater than the old covenant. (Jeremiah 31:31-33) God chose to do this, not man. It is recorded in the Word for us. Nothing has been changed by man, man has simply written down what God has directed him to write down.

As time moved on I got to speak with a Muslim from the group. He was quite a young man and one who had been quite vocal when I had been preaching. Now that it was just the two of us things were a little different. I told him that God’s standards are infinitely higher than man’s standards. This he agreed with. I told him that God is just. This he agreed with. I then said that if a human judge could not let a criminal (who was clearly guilty of a serious crime) go free, but rather must execute justice, how much more must God, who is the Just Judge of the entire universe?? For a brief moment I could see on his face acknowledgment that what I was saying is true. I could see that he clearly understood what I was saying. I think he realised that I had exposed the holes in his argument because he came back at me again with an explanation of how Allah is just yet at the same time is willing to let the guilty go free. You see, if God is just He must punish sin. The Bible tells us that, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.” (Proverbs 17:15) Without a sinless, perfect substitute to die in our place, we would all end up in hell. Since we are guilty God cannot justify us, unless our guilt is passed to another. And this is why the Christian rejoices. “For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The genius of God's redemptive plan is that both His justice and grace are satisfied. His wrath is poured out. His grace is extended to the guilty. God is both loving and just. Christ drank His wrath and suffered. But death could not hold Him and on the third He rose from the dead, defeating death.

There was another chap who had been listening quite intently whilst I had been preaching. His name was Paal. As we got talking I discovered that he had issues with the fact that if all we need to do is believe in Jesus and in so doing earn eternal life, then that means we can sit back and sin knowing that we’re saved anyway. I explained to him that when the Christian repents and puts His trust in Jesus, he is made a new creation. God changes the disposition of his heart. The sin he once loved he now hates. Christians still sin, but there is now a wrestle that takes place inside them because of the Holy Spirit that has filled them. He seemed to understand this. I gave him a gospel tract and my contact details and he left shaking my hand. Please pray for Paal!

It was now gone 11:00pm and so it was time to head on home. My brother James was just finishing up a conversation with a couple of people and Phil was handing out tracts. Carl had already left a little earlier. As the three of us headed for the tube station we praised God for using us once more.

It was just myself and Antonio today at Tooting Broadway. Antonio is still a young Christian and so to see him on the street each week is a real blessing. He is not quite at the place where he is approaching people to talk with them but he is faithfully handing out tracts to the passerby’s. When we arrived this morning a pastor from an Evangelical Anglican church, along with people from his church, were at the tube station ministering the gospel. I had met them once before and it was great to see them again. When we arrived the pastor was preaching and the members of his church were handing out tracts so we went about handing out tracts as well. I got talking with a young man named Nester. He listened as I shared the whole counsel of God with him. He understood what I was saying yet did not seem moved at all by the gospel. As he left he handed back the tract that I had given him. It is heart breaking to see this but God’s Word does not return void and I can only pray that the Holy Spirit will work to convict him of his sin so that he will turn in repentance and faith to the Lord. I spoke briefly with the pastor from the Anglican church before he left. He couldn’t really stop to chat but we exchanged contact details and I hope to speak with him some more. I stood up to preach and there were people who did stop to pay attention to what I had to say. It is a completely different setting to Leicester Square but even if only a few people stop to hear the Word I will still rejoice in the Lord.

Once more a great weekend of ministry. As long as we have breath we must go on preaching God’s Word.

Soli Deo Gloria!