Our Thursday Street Outreach with Grace Church Brighton turned out to be the most intense yet. At one point it looked like turning into either a riot or a revival. In the end it was a bit of both!

It all started quite quietly, Julian and I set up a literature table and preaching point just outside the Churchill Square Shopping Centre. We began to preach and encourage listeners to talk more and take a gospel or Bible. It was all fairly quiet – a few conversations here and there with some interested unbelievers. A couple of church leaders stopped to listen and encourage. One young man who had walked away from institutional religion interrupted my message and told me he had heard much better preaching – I could do a lot better! We had a good dialogue about Jesus at the heart of the Christian faith.

But it was about an hour and a half in that things began to ramp up. It all happened so quickly!

During one of Julian’s messages based on Isaiah 53 a lady came close, telling me she really needed to listen. When I encouraged her to do so, she moved to sit on the pavement almost at Julian’s feet (!) hungry to take in what he was saying about Jesus.

That’s when the first heckler arrived. He began to mock and verbally attack Julian for believing in God and thinking Jesus was a historical figure. Julian did a great job of responding with gentleness and respect, but the guy wouldn’t allow him to finish his sentences.

That’s when another heckler joined him.

The lady on the floor asked them to stop so she could listen only for the first heckler to turn on her.

By this time a crowd began to gather. Some mocked, others filmed, others listened with seriousness as Julian testified to Jesus. But the hecklers gave him limited opportunities.

That was when another lady stepped forward and told the two men off! “Look, I’m an atheist through and through, but you’re not giving him a chance to speak!” She was dismissed by the first heckler who continued to angrily mock.

The crowd grew to around 30. I honestly didn’t know if it was going to get out of control

Thankfully a few friends arrived and over the next few minutes they were all ministering, sharing the gospel amongst the crowd

The lady on the floor pulled away from the trouble and shared some of her story with me. I took her to John 10 and spoke to her about Jesus the Good Shepherd and how his sheep hear his voice. She was visibly moved and explained how she was beginning to follow Jesus. The message Julian had preached as well as his demeanour under pressure had left her even more sure that Jesus was the right way.

In the middle of this conversation the main heckler moved on and as things calmed down a bit one of the groups that had been listening/watching came over. A young lady asked for a Bible “because I think I want to become a Christian.” I beckoned my friend Bruno over to talk to her. She wanted to know more, but her two friends were more inclined to mock.

At the same time our friends were having a long conversation with a man from another nation and religious background and after this a group of lads who had been hanging around.

After Julian finished his messaged he offered a Gospel of Mark to a lady who was sitting out of the way. She explained that she had sat at a distance to avoid the hullabaloo but she had been listing to our messages and really wanted to find a church.

Then the police arrived! But thankfully everything was calm. And they just walked by

As we packed away we shared our stories of how we had seen God at work. In the end it was neither a riot or a revival but a bit of both.

Please pray for
– the lady who came near to listen.
– lady who sat at a distance and listened
– the man from another country
They were all keen to know more.

It was an intense end to a great opportunity to publicly proclaim and counsel people personally about Christ. Our experience was similar to Paul’s in Athens:

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” So Paul left their presence. However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Acts 17:32.