On track to reach travellers in London
Elim evangelist Kristian Lythe heads up M16 Revival which bases itself on Jesus’ words in Mark 16:15-20. This year they’re aiming to preach the gospel in 100 tube stations in London. We asked Kristian to explain
Kristian, M16 Revival has a pretty ambitious vision for evangelising London. Tell us about that.
We run a series of evangelism training conferences in London throughout the year called Revive London, where we mobilise evangelists and train believers everywhere to evangelise London and the UK.
Earlier this year we spent three days mobilising churches in east London where we sent 100 evangelists to preach the gospel at 16 stations on the Elizabeth Line, which runs from Reading and Heathrow right through to Brentwood and Shenfield. Sixty people received Jesus and we saw healings and miracles on buses, trains and street corners.
The thing is, though, while large stations are great to evangelise at, what about the small stations? We wanted to go where the gospel isn’t being preached.
Since that time, we’ve launched a new missions project called Operation 100. Our target is to reach 100 London stations with the gospel by the end of 2024.
Your teams evangelise in McDonald’s, Starbucks, on tube trains and on the streets. How do people react to them sharing so publicly?
There’s actually a real hunger to talk about Jesus right now. I was talking to a Muslim guy yesterday – a bit liberal and angry – but he was so hungry for the truth.
When a Revive London team went to Whitechapel it was during Ramadan. Muslims were saying “What are you doing here? This is our territory.” You could be discouraged by that, but we responded, “OK, great, but we’re still going to preach Jesus here.”
Then the team saw a number of people, including Muslims, engaging and praying. There is often kickback but then the Lord melts some people’s hearts.
Why is street evangelism important?
According to the Talking Jesus report, only six per cent of people are practising Christians in the UK. Only 20 per cent of people believe Jesus was God and only 16 per cent believe the resurrection account as told in the Bible.
A lot of young people don’t even know who Jesus is. This is why I have a real burden to evangelise the UK. Can we raise up an army of people who know how to share the gospel – whether that’s confidently one to one or preaching more radically in public?
One of the challenges in evangelistic ministry is we’re often taught to get in and share the gospel in the quickest possible way, but we don’t actually connect with people about everyday life. So we encourage evangelists to engage with people where they’re at for a few minutes and then present the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.
You train children to evangelise too, don’t you?
Yes! We work with Olly Goldenberg from Children Can who helps train them to connect and share the gospel. At Revive London they have a little script which they shared on the streets and one of the team helped my daughter lead her first soul to the Lord. It’s amazing to see that boldness and the kids getting used to praying for people.
What would you say to anyone reading this wondering if street evangelism is for them?
There are people who are clearly called to be evangelists and others who have a heart for the lost who wouldn’t necessarily describe themselves that way.
We had a lady called Hannah, for example, who came down from Scotland to Revive London. She said the conference completely changed her life.
Before, she was scared and couldn’t speak in front of people. During the conference she was prayed for to receive boldness then felt free to preach the gospel through a microphone on the streets for the first time.
Since then, she’s been on mission to Spain and preached without fear. Now God is opening doors for her in her church and she’s mobilising others to get out on the streets and talk about Jesus.
To people who have a desire to learn but are full of fear, that’s where these conferences come in. They give you boldness you’ve not had before as you sharpen yourself alongside other trained evangelists. Come and join us, get revived as we gather with other believers and churches to re-evangelise London and the UK.
The time to preach the gospel is now! Your local church and community need you!
Stories from the streets
Rodel
Evangelising in: Stratford
We prayed for an old Portuguese man who couldn’t walk without crutches or pain. He’d had an operation on his knee and wasn’t recovering well.
After the team prayed for him he started to walk and was saying, “Impossible, impossible!” in Portuguese.
He couldn’t believe the pain had left and he was feeling much stronger, walking without crutches for the first time in five months.
Later the team spent more time with him, shared the gospel and he accepted Jesus.
They saw 12 people receive Jesus in Stratford that day. Jesus is amazing! Miracles are happening on the streets.
Rachel
Evangelising in: Maryland
We went to Maryland and everyone was shouting, beeping and saying, “Get out of here! Why have you come here? Who sent you?”. The first day was very difficult.
On the second day we had a breakthrough. The atmosphere was much lighter and two girls prayed with us – one was a Christian and her friend was not. The Christian girl had been praying for her friend to be saved and right there she prayed to receive Jesus.
Virginia
Evangelising in: Whitechapel and Aldgate
Whitechapel is predominantly Muslim so when we arrived, we spent time worshipping and the presence of the Lord filled the area. As we preached you could see Muslims watching and listening. It looked as though eyes were being opened to the truth of Christ.
There were loads of one-to-one conversations too. We spoke to two gay girls in a relationship. The first day they were in a rush but the next day they were open and interested. They listened, received a word of knowledge about anxiety and made decisions for Christ.
We then met two 17-year-olds who had lost their friend through a stabbing and had just had tattoos done in memory of him. They were very open to the gospel and both made decisions for Jesus.
Team members told me afterwards it was one of the best outreaches they had ever done. We saw eight people come to the Lord.
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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