The best way that I can answer this one is to copy and paste something that I wrote yesterday:
I remember back in 1980, someone asked me if I’d give my testimony in church – a short talk telling how I came to commit my life to Christ. I said “no” because I was nervous about speaking in public. But I did it about a year later and went on to speak in many churches around Ireland. I spoke in London too, but only in a couple of little mission halls 😀. And I did it back in 1988 when our Baptist church was chosen for the Sunday service radio broadcast on national radio. Someone told me that about 100,000 listened. I got little feedback. A friend told me that his friends in Wales heard me and found my accent amusing 😀.
But you can also lose your confidence. I remember speaking in a small church once and feeling strangely dizzy. I lost my concentration. After that, it took time before I was confident enough to speak in other churches. But again, it’s better to face your fears. As a listener, I’ve heard amazingly great speakers, but I also heard ordinary people who struggled. But they were all a blessing to be. When you think of the people that your warm to, how many of them are full of self-confidence? Some perhaps, but confident people can be a little annoying too 😀
And I resisted street preaching too. But on the night that I was baptized back in 1981, I felt so exhilarated that I agreed to give a quick talk in our church open air meeting, which we did outside Cudmore’s (now gone) in Cork after our Sunday evening service back in 1981. And I became confident enough to continue for many years. I even preached on Tower Hill in London a few times.
Some evangelicals used to tell me that street preaching was a too old fashioned, but I used to like listening to street preachers before I became an evangelical Christian, so I enjoyed spreading the good news. I don’t like preaching or protests that come across as loud, nasty, or confrontational. It’s fine if it’s friendly. But it seems old fashioned to me these days because so much can be communicated on the web. Still, I do respect those who do preach or distribute literature etc.
Back in the mid 1990s, I remember two teen girls jokingly giving us a poster advertising a Manic Street Preachers concert in Dublin. I knew little about the Manic Street Preachers back then. But in 1997, I saw them on the Brit awards singing Design for Life and I quite liked them. They were atheists, but from Wales. And they had the sort of passion that I identified with Welsh preachers. And in later years I grew to like their music. They got their name from a homeless guy who was annoyed at their lead singer busking in Cardiff. He called him a “manic street preacher”. I hope and pray that a day will come when they’ll be converted and they’ll do some real street preaching. I can understand people rejecting their cultural heritage and wanting to work things out for themselves. I did exactly that myself. But you can reject a heritage without rejecting Jesus himself.
They were good enough to record a song about the grace of God, though they’re atheists (unless things have changed since I last investigated). Design for Life is meant to be about working class pride. I like the feel of the song, but I don’t understand the lyrics. Though “There by the Grace of God”, from 2002, is lesser known, I love the song and video. It’s strange how a song about God from a atheist can touch me in a deeper way than many songs by Christians can. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is provoking me to pray for them and all who hear the song 😀.
Hibernia Gospel 