305 My Story Talk 18 Ministry in Basingstoke 1968-78 Part 3

My Story Talk 18 Ministry in Basingstoke 1968-78 Part 3

Welcome to Talk 18 in our series where I am reflecting on God’s goodness to me throughout my life. Last time we saw how, during the years we were there, the church in Basingstoke grew as a result of the consistent and regular preaching of the gospel by means of Sunday night gospel services, evangelistic missions, personal evangelism and door-to-door work, and ministry among children and young people.

And the fact that God graciously confirmed the message by miraculous signs according to his own will was undoubtedly a significant factor as the supernatural gifts of the Spirit were regularly in evidence in our meetings. But our years at Basingstoke also saw a significant widening of my ministry beyond the local church not only in preaching but also in writing, both in the UK and further afield.

Ministry beyond the local church

Speaking engagements within the UK

With the exception of my ministry in universities and colleges as Travelling Secretary of the Students’ Pentecostal Fellowship, the vast majority of my speaking engagements were at the AoG Bible College or in AoG churches or conferences.

The invitation to lecture at the Bible College, which was then in Kenley, Surrey, came in 1970 from the newly appointed Principal, George Jeffreys Williamson. Kenley was a couple of hours’ drive from Basingstoke, and I went on a fortnightly basis staying overnight and giving lectures on the Major Prophets, Comparative Religion, and New Testament Greek.

Apart from the Greek, I had little or no prior knowledge about the subjects I was teaching and so the lecture preparation time was considerable. But I enjoyed the challenge and added to my personal education in the process. I could not have possibly known it then, but my time at Kenley turned out to be the start of over fifty years of teaching in Pentecostal Bible Colleges around the world.

I was also receiving invitations to minister at large conventions and national conferences. Despite the charismatic renewal that was happening at the time in some of the other churches, Pentecostals, having been rejected and ostracized for decades, were still rather suspicious of what was happening, and tended to keep pretty much to themselves, gathering together in large celebrations, especially at significant times of the year, when there was a public holiday – Easter, Whitsun, August, Christmas and New Year.

These were amazing times of blessing as people, hungry for the word of God, gathered for fellowship, worship, and to hear specially invited speakers. Some Easter Conventions, like the Cardiff City Temple (Elim), where I was privileged to minister on more than one occasion, would last from Thursday evening until the following Tuesday, very often with two speakers in each meeting. In the mid-seventies, when I would sometimes be booked for up to five years in advance for Easter, I preached at conventions in Preston (72 and 74), Tunbridge Wells (73),  Bishop Aukland (75), Peckham (76), and Coventry (77).   

 

Apart from these popular events which were arranged by local churches, there were also national events like the AoG Annual General Conference, attended by thousands, and the Home Missions Conference organised by the AoG Home Missions Council. In 1969 I was asked to speak at the HMC Conference in Coventry on the subject, Preaching the Gospel in the 1970s. And in 1973 at a similar conference in Weymouth, I spoke on the importance of team leadership in the local church, about which I will say more next time.

Even more significant, however, was General Conference which in the late sixties took place in Bognor Regis and from 1971 to 1989 was held at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Minehead reaching a record high attendance for the AoG Jubilee Conference in 1984. I was a speaker on one of the main celebrations (back then referred to as ‘rallies’) on several occasions, the first of which was in Bognor in 1969.

But perhaps the greatest privilege was for many years being made responsible for speaking at the receiving meeting which was held every year for people who were seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Over the years we saw hundreds begin to speak in tongues, some of whom told me that they had been seeking for years but had never heard it explained so clearly.

Other events at which I ministered regularly were youth rallies organised either by local churches or by AoG District Councils, and the National Youth Rally. I was a member of the AoG National Youth Council (1973-76), who were responsible for organising this annual event at which I would usually either lead or preach. I suspect that the reason I was elected to the NYC was partly because people had come to know of the work we were doing among young people at our youth camp.

That may also have been the reason for the evangelistic missions I was invited to conduct. On two occasions Colin Whittaker, who was then the AoG pastor at Luton, asked me to conduct an eight-day youth mission. For one of these I was assisted by members of the Students’ Pentecostal Fellowship who sang and testified in the evening meetings but also did a great job in distributing invitations to the young people as they came out of school. The other time, I was alone, but part of the week’s programme was to preach in one of the schools where I was supported by a Christian band and where dozens responded to the appeal at the end of my message.

Another time I was asked by the Christian Union at Chester College – now Chester University – to do a five-day evangelistic mission for the students in the college. When I arrived just after lunch on the Monday, a member of staff conducted me to the bedroom they had allocated for me.

I hope you don’t mind, he said, we’re putting you in a room that was occupied until recently by a student we have had to expel from the college. He had been practising witchcraft .

I was rather surprised by this, to say the least, but I put a brave face on it and said, as casually as I could,

Oh, that’s fine. No problem!

But when I entered the room, I confess I began to wonder what evil presence might be lurking there. The half-burnt candle on the windowsill didn’t help . Had that been part of his devilish paraphernalia? Or had they just had a power -cut recently?!

Then I remembered what Jesus  had promised to his disciples as he sent them out on the task of world evangelisation:

Surely, I will be with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

I reminded myself of other Bible  verses like      

Behold I give you power  over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19)

and I began to take courage. I settled into my room and started to prepare myself for the meeting at which I had to speak that evening. After a few minutes there was a knock at the door. Two men stood there. They had seen the light on in my room and wondered who it was that was in there.

Are you a new student? they asked.

No, I replied, I’ve come to conduct a mission for the Christian Union.

That’s interesting, said one of them. It’s strange they should put you in my old room.

It was the man they had expelled for practising witchcraft ! He had come back to visit his friend. Of course, I invited them to the meeting that evening and the ‘witch ’ said he might come. And sure enough, when the time for the meeting came, there he was sitting in the audience.

I preached the gospel  and I would like to be able to say that the man gave his life to Christ, but he didn’t. Instead, he came and argued with me! This went on for some time after the meeting had closed, and after about half an hour, feeling that we were getting nowhere by arguing, I decided to invite him to come to the meeting the next day.

I think you’ll be particularly interested tomorrow, I said. The subject is Jesus  the way to power . How real is the supernatural ? Is it safe?

I don’t think you know the first thing about the supernatural , he replied.

What a challenge to a Pentecostal  preacher!

Well, I don’t know much about what you get up to when you practise your witchcraft , I said, but I will tell you one thing. When you come under the control of a familiar spirit , you can’t say Jesus  is Lord, can you?

I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me! I had said this on the basis of my understanding of 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, but I was not prepared for the effect it had on this young man. He went visibly pale and said,

How did you know that?

Taking courage by his reaction, I said,

Because the Bible , which is God’s word tells me so. And I’ll tell you something else it says. You may not acknowledge that Jesus  is Lord now, but the day is coming when you will have to, whether you like it or not. For the Bible says that one day at the name of Jesus  every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ  is Lord to the glory of God the Father !

As I quoted these verses from Philippians 2:10-11 to him, he retreated out of the room!

I went to bed at around 11pm and fell asleep straight away, sleeping soundly until about 7 the next morning. While the students were having their breakfast, I went down the corridor to the washroom to shave. While I was shaving, I saw in the mirror the face of the ‘witch ’. He was standing right behind me.

            Good morning, he said. Did you sleep well?

            Yes, thank you, I replied.

Are you sure?

Yes, perfectly sure. I went to bed around eleven and slept soundly until about seven.

            Really? I can’t understand that!

Why? What so unusual about having a good night’s sleep?

Well, you see, he confessed, I was so annoyed with what you said last night that I stayed up all night practising my witchcraft . I was trying to get a poltergeist into your room to disturb you. I’ve done it many times before and it’s never failed. That’s why they expelled me from the college. I can’t understand why it didn’t work this time.

Oh, I said, I wish you had told me. I could have told you not to waste your time. Don’t you know that Christians are immune to such things?

 

Later that day he was seen leaving the college with his bag packed.

Leaving? said one of the Christians. Aren’t you coming to the meeting today?

No, he replied, that fellow knows too much about the supernatural.

What a sad story, but despite the satanic opposition, during the course of those five days over 40 students made a decision for Christ.

But finally, before we turn to the speaking invitations that began to open up for me overseas, which I’ll tell you about next time, a word about those I was receiving from within the UK apart, of course, from the things I’ve already mentioned – teaching fortnightly at the Bible College, preaching in universities and colleges, serving on the National Youth Council, and ministering at conventions, conferences and missions. In addition to all that, looking back at my diaries I discovered recently that between 1972 and 1976 I was ministering on average over twelve times a year in churches other than Basingstoke.

Why do I mention this? Because with that amount of ministry there is always the danger that the family may suffer as a result of it. I am so grateful to Billy Richards who spoke to the ministers in our district about pastors who discovered that their kids had grown up before they knew it and who regretted that they had spent so little time with them.

On hearing that, I was determined that that would not happen in our family, and so, whenever I returned from a trip away, Eileen and I would make sure that we all spent extra time together, like going for a drive or walk or picnic in the beautiful Hampshire countryside and followed by a favourite meal for tea.

And we made sure that we always had good summer holidays too. Apart from camp, which was a holiday for the kids, but hard, though enjoyable work for Eileen and me, we always tried to make sure that as a family we had two weeks away together. At first these were always in the UK in places like North Wales and Cornwall, but our most notable trip by far was in 1976 when we went to L’Auberson, a small village just a mile from the French border in the Jura region of Switzerland.

Back then holidays abroad were far less common and far more expensive than they are today, and such a trip would have been financially impossible for us had it not been for the inheritance Eileen received from her father who had sadly died from a heart attack in 1975.

We travelled by car stopping overnight just once en route at a hotel – the children’s first experience in one – in La Veuve, a small village near to Chalons-sur-Marne and arrived at L’Auberson early in the evening.

Actually it was earlier than we thought. We had put our watches on an hour when we entered France and assumed that the time in Switzerland was the same, but, as we found out later, in those days the time was the same as in England, so when we went to bed at what we thought was nine o’clock, people were rather surprised that we were going to bed at eight!

And when we arrived at church the next morning in time for the ten o’clock service the door was still locked because it was really only nine!

The pastor was Willy Droz – more about him next time – and I had not told him we were coming and had tried to time our entrance just in time for the service so that he would not ask me to preach. After all I was on holiday! So, of course, I ended up preaching after all – in French. But that brings me to the next subject – speaking engagements abroad, which we’ll talk about next time.