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| The evangelistic newspaper of the modern Jesus Army | 2001 |
Touching hearts, touching lives
"You don't need superstars to share the gospel!" Kevin explains what he meant by these cutting words during the Jesus Army's campaign in Liverpool.
In the summer, the Jesus Army Gospel Roadshow stopped in central Liverpool for a week. We backed up the double-decker coach team by putting up the giant marquee in Sefton Park. I came up from Birmingham to help as co-leader.
I sensed at once that there was something special about the week. There was a real humility coming from the motley crew that made up the team, which was drawn from many parts of the church, as well as Liverpool. There was the sense that it was not us but God who had to be the instigator of people finding salvation.
When you're reaching out to people with the gospel, the last thing you need is superstars on your team! When a team doesn't have any massive superstars, it carries that sense of God's power and that sense of 'family'. You can get tied up with all the 'doing' - the admin, the fliers, the catering, the street dramas, the singing scenes etc. People you're trying to reach see the stress and anxiety on your face and they say 'Whoa!' and back off.
But when people come onto the bus or into the marquee and see a relaxed and happy 'family', then there's a good chance that they will also see God and be interested in knowing Him more. Humility breeds humble souls.
Prayer was a very important ingredient of our evangelism - after all, prayer is simply 'evangelising on your knees'. But again, it was not something we screwed ourselves up in knots doing. As well as praying for people on the streets and going for prayer walks round strategic areas of Merseyside, we had a 'prayer-zone' in the tent. This was a simple circle of a dozen chairs. On one chair was left a notebook and pen so that people could leave requests on behalf of people they had met during that day.
Several times each day, the intercession team, lead by Pauline, one of the spiritual mums from Liverpool, would ring a cow bell to call together anyone that wanted to join in a burst of intercession. This was a mixture of prayer in tongues and singing as the requests were prayed through. It was only a few minutes and very homely - so no one saw it as a burden. It carried joy and helped us to be centred on God, not ourselves.
During the week we made many new friends, praying with scores of them. Eight people were baptised. A hundred people sat down for our farewell banquet and I think the catering team must have prayed over the food as they were only expecting sixty!
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