The Lord Said Go North 4

Gary and Matthew sat on some old chairs on the bare concrete floor of their living room. Barnabas sat with them.
"The Lord has called me to join your church," said Barnabas. "He spoke to me through a story we had in a book at school. Mr. Blenkinsop was an extremely kind man. He gave £100 to a poor family. He saw a chimney about to collapse and a man was standing underneath it. He rushed up to the man because he didn't want him to die alone."
"Thank you Barnabas," said Matthew. "And you saw us in that."
"I have the gift of prophecy. It's a feeling you have in your spirit that something is going to happen. Have you ever had a strange dream, written it down in a notebook and looked at it a few years later and said to yourself, that's exactly what happened?"
"That sounds fascinating," said Matthew. "Are there any other churches in Inverness we could attend tomorrow?"
"There's the Methodist church on the main road."
"Barnabas," asked Gary, "did you join the Methodist church because it needed your encouragement?"
"Yes. They need a lot of encouragement. There are not very many left there now and they're old."

The next morning Matthew and Gary arrived at the Methodist church for the Sunday morning meeting. Matthew sat down next to an old man.
"Hello," said the old man. "Have you come to our Sunday morning meeting?"
"Yes," said Matthew.
"Well, it won't be much of a meeting. We'll just have to do the best we can. I can't play the piano anymore. I've got arthritis. We have to sing everything acapella."
"Ken used to be a great pianist," said Barnabas. "You could set up a video screen and watch the hymns on YouTube."
"What's YouTube?" asked Ken. "We haven't got a pastor either. Poor Alec was our part-time pastor for many years after he reached retirement age. Now he's house bound. I look after him. I look after the rest of the parishioners as well."
"What a faithful soldier of the cross of Christ," said Matthew. "Looking after your elderly house bound pastor and doing his job as well."
"Oh, hardly. Alec just needs a little bit of shopping and cleaning done for him. The church is tiny. I'd have more to do if I was a house group leader." One of the old ladies picked up a hymn book.
"Can we sing number 212," she said. "Crown Him With Many Crowns." The small congregation began to sing without any musical accompaniment but with some enthusiasm and in tune.
"Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own." After a few more hymns, Matthew felt the urge to stand up and start preaching from the Bible.
"Do you mind if I share some thoughts from the Scriptures?"
"Not at all," said Ken. "If you don't, no one else will. Preach Brother, preach."
"Isaiah 53," Matthew began. "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has gone his own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus loves us. Oh, how he loves. Jesus died for us. Oh, how he died. Oh, how he suffered for us." Matthew continued preaching for a good 15 minutes.
"That was excellent," said one of the old ladies. "Can you come back and preach like that again next week?" Matthew wondered if he was dreaming. In fact, he was so happy, he wondered if he had died in his sleep and gone to Heaven.
"Yes, yes, indeed I will."

On the way back to the flat, Matthew explained to Gary why he was so excited.
"I've wanted to be a church minister all my life. This is my big chance."
"Matthew, that's not how it works."
"Isn't it?"
"Remember the song, 'When I look at the blood, all I see is love, love, love. I can't see self importance, I can't see empire building."
"Well, how come those American preachers got as big and important as they are? Like that guy on the news last week. 'I need a private jet because I fly to Africa and Peru six times a month.' I want to be like him."
"But you're not like him and you never will be."
"Why not?"
"Well, why do you want to be like him?" At this Matthew felt a sense of deep conviction in his conscience.
"It's all about me," said Matthew. "It's just something I want to do because I would enjoy it. It's not about God. It's not about helping anybody else. Still, if I start in a small place and preach to half a dozen old ladies, an arthritic pianist and a young Christian who mistakenly thinks he has the gift of encouragement, God will honour that. Start small. At least I've started somewhere. I'm sure I'll be discovered eventually."
"What do you mean, Matthew, when you say you will be discovered?"
"The way pop stars are discovered when they're busking in the underground station and the manager of a big record company passes by. One day the manager of a big American television station will hear me preach. He'll realise what a brilliant preacher I am and he'll sign me up with his television station. David Watson and Billy Graham are dead now so they're looking for talent."
"Matthew, you are either the greatest undiscovered preacher who ever lived or you are deceived."

The next Sunday Matthew returned to the Methodist church. He stood up, right at the beginning of the service, and opened his Bible.
"Let Susan open in prayer first," said Ken. An old lady stood up.
"Lord, thank you for bringing us here today and thank you for this young man who has come to preach to us. Now open your eyes that we may see wonderful things in your law. Amen."
"Was Wesley truly converted?" Matthew began. "Why did Wesley have so many doubts about his own salvation? 'I am as sure as Jesus rose from the dead that I am not a Christian. A Christian is someone who is full of the Holy Spirit and who loves God.' Why do you think this was?" One of the old ladies had an expression on her face which was somewhere in between killing Matthew with a knife and having a heart attack. "In the New Testament preaching wasn't monologue, it was dialogue. I would like an answer from the floor. Why do you think Wesley felt like that?"
"You can say something bad about God if you want to," said Ken, "but Wesley is sacred."
"I don't think there was anything wrong with Wesley," said Gary. "He just spent his whole life trying to please God and he could never be good enough for God. Nobody can."
"Wesley keeps saying that his heart was strangely warmed, on more than one occasion, his heart was strangely warmed. Why did this happen more than once?"
"Wesley came from a deeply religious background," said Ken. "The Holy Club were trying too hard to earn their salvation. He could never get out of that mindset. That's why he had so many doubts about his salvation. That's why he needed to have his heart strangely warmed so many times."
"Wesley didn't come under conviction of sin when he was converted," said Matthew. "I was physically shaking when I heard the gospel and realised I was a sinner for the first time."
"Wesley had spent his whole life under conviction of sin," said one of the old ladies. "When he finally realised that God loved him and could forgive all his sin, it was a blessed relief. His heart was strangely warmed. Is that not genuine conversion, just as much as your experience?"
"For the next six weeks, l would like to take a look at Calvinism."
"And I would not," said the old lady whose face now looked as if she was killing Matthew with a knife and having a heart attack due to the sheer excitement.
"I don't think that's a good idea," said Ken.

"What's wrong Matthew?" Gary asked, as they had a cup of coffee back at the flat.
"I wish I'd been run over and killed by a car on the way home."
"Oh, come on."
"I do. I just want the pain to end."
"What pain? The pain of having offended a few old Methodists in a dying church?"
"You don't understand, Gary. I'm not a gifted preacher. I'm not the undiscovered next Billy Graham. I'm not going to be a famous man of God all over the world. I can't preach."
"Maybe you can. Maybe you just need to have more sensitivity."
"I can't lead those people. I can't be their pastor. I don't have enough sensitivity. Even if I can preach."
"Do you really want to be their pastor?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I've wanted to be a church leader since I went to school in short trousers. Because I'm ambitious. Because I want to stand in the pulpit and watch all those people looking up at me and smiling while I tell them how it's done."
"Matthew, you're just another brother and you're just sharing what's on your heart."
"No. A great preacher is not just another brother. A great preacher is a professional apostle. A great preacher is not just sharing what is on his heart. A great preacher is producing a great work of literature that will be remembered in a hundred years time. I want to be a great preacher."

The next day Matthew showed Gary a leaflet he had designed on his lap top computer.
"I'm beginning to think our approach to evangelism might be wrong," said Matthew. "We've been standing on the street corner, trying to make friends with people and talk to them about Jesus. So far we've had one friend, Barnabas, and he was a Christian already."
"We've only been here 2 weeks," said Gary.
"I still think that we could be more fruitful. Evangelism is about getting people into a meeting. I've thought of the ultimate meeting. 'Come to our Indoor Winter Barbecue.' We go out and do our evangelism on Saturday and invite them to the meeting on Saturday night. It must be the same day."
"What will you do when you get them to your meeting, Matthew?"
"Make friends with them and tell them about Jesus."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"You're forming a congregation. That's where the body life is, Gary. We're friendly, we're approachable. People can be drawn into the church through close friendships."
"No need to preach the gospel, then? No need for anyone to be really converted. They just make friends with us."
"Gary, that's how most church growth happens. We're like the Society of Friends. We just want to make friends with people. They will hear the gospel eventually. Getting them into the church is the best way for them to hear it. It's so much easier to witness to people who are in a church meeting."

The next Saturday Matthew was standing in the high street playing his guitar when a group of people walked up to him.
"Are you Christians?" a middle aged man asked Gary.
"Yes. Are you a Christian?"
"We are a Christian family."
"Which church do you go to?"
"We've been to lots of different churches. We don't like any of them. We call ourselves the street church. There's only us in it and we meet by walking down the street together."
"You need to find a proper church," said Gary. "A church you can call your own. A spiritual home."
"We could be the answer," said Matthew, looking at the family while he continued playing a hymn from the 1980s on the guitar in a style that was somewhere in between punk and new wave. "And his banner...over me...is love," sang Matthew, playing rhythm on the bass guitar in a manner that might make you wonder what Sid Vicious would have been like if he hadn't died tragically but had found Jesus and started a pop gospel band. Gary handed them all copies of the leaflets Matthew had printed using his lap top and a cheap printer.
"Come to our meeting tonight," said Gary. "Our indoor winter barbecue." The middle aged man shook hands with Gary. It was time for Matthew to sing an old Rebecca St James song, doing a good impression of what Jimmy Hendrix might have sounded like if he had lived long enough to be in her band.
"It's God, truly God," Matthew sang, "can you see, can you touch, can you hear, can you feel."
"I'm David," said the middle aged man. "David Stain. And this is my wife, Suzie."
"Hello," said Suzie.
"And these are our children." 
"Hello, l'm Sarah." said a woman in her twenties with long brown hair and a duffle coat. The other child wore a brightly coloured cardigan, a bomber jacket and jeans and had permed hair. It was hard to tell whether they were a boy or a girl.
"Hello, I'm Nicky," said the child in a dark brown voice. "I'm pangender."
"And this is my brother Kevin, his wife Jennie and my sister Rachel."
"Hello," said Kevin, on behalf of himself and his wife.
"Hello," said Rachel.