Today on the Evangelist Podcast, we're looking at Crossing London and we're speaking to Martin Durham.
SPEAKER_00The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. We're going to be talking about Crossing London. Glenn.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Crossing London is a very exciting mission initiative in London and the home counties. Seeking to equip churches to reach out, seeking to equip Christians in evangelism, encouraging leaders, trying to get people uh engaging their communities. And then in uh the autumn, trying to put on a series of uh events. We're hoping to put on two hundred different uh gospel events at which uh the gospel is proclaimed. And uh and just reaching out with the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02You you say we, so uh what's your involvement in it?
SPEAKER_04Oh, I go along to things now and then. Like last night I went up to uh the uh Hope for London showcase, uh at which various evangelists kind of plied their wares and uh various church leaders and that kind of thing um uh got to see what we do and to think about uh how they could use such evangelists in October. So it was a kind of a uh a market place and uh and I was the meat. I was one of the one of the sort of slabs of meat in the meat market. And uh but yeah, got to meet some some uh church leaders as uh we all think uh how to partner together in the autumn uh because there's gonna be a real push for outreach in London and and hopefully uh there'll be quite a buzz across the capital.
SPEAKER_02So do you sort of hear from from like churches that that say, yeah, we we'd read like Glenn Scrivener's common?
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm waiting by the phone now speak at the end of our dinner. It hasn't been ringing hot so far. I thought I thought I thought last night was good. Um so uh no, a number a number of us got up and and and shared about how we like to do evangelism, and and I was sort of in particular talking about uh after dinner speaking and kind of enthusing about opening up churches and tables and homes and restaurants and inviting people to have meals together.
SPEAKER_02And what about sort of uh the the others? Were they sort of things like schools work and there was a bit of that?
SPEAKER_04Um there's a great dance troupe that were there, brilliant singers called the Daughters of Davis, they're um incredible. And uh guy giving testimonies, so how you do testimonies.
SPEAKER_01Um I can imagine a bit a bit like Britain's got talent on top.
SPEAKER_04It was. It was evangelists have not got that much talent, or at least this one doesn't. So this this evangelist was tasked with after dinner speaking because um I don't yeah, so there were they were like magicians and uh stand-up comics and one woman shows uh and just just trying to give churches a flavour for what kind of events could work. Uh so yeah, it was it was good fun actually. I I I got to see a lot of different uh evangelists I don't usually get to see and a lot of different ways of doing it, so it was fun.
SPEAKER_02And uh you managed to speak to Martin Durham.
SPEAKER_04That's right. Yeah, from Karygma 180. Um I really like Martin. He's um uh he's a guy who uh has been called to street preaching. Uh and you don't you don't meet too many of those kind of guys. He he he as w you'll hear on the interview, you know, he had a job in a bank and he felt the Lord call him out of the bank, not into a pulpit, but into street ministry. And uh he set up Kerrygma 180, which he'll talk to us uh a little bit about. But uh I I really like Martin. He's um quite heavily involved in the Crossing London thing. So uh yeah, we can hear from him about that as well.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well let's hear this interview then with uh with Martin Durham.
SPEAKER_04I'm here with uh Martin Durham of Kerygma 180. Uh and uh Martin, tell me a little bit about Kerygma 180. What what is it uh what is this organization all about?
SPEAKER_03Well Kerygma is uh Greek word, it means proclamation, used uniquely in the New Testament, uh, in the context of proclaiming the gospel. 180 is 180 degrees, in other words, calling people to do an about turn, to turn from death to life, from hopelessness to hope, uh, yeah, away from their sin and to fix their eyes on Jesus. And it's a call very much that comes on the streets.
SPEAKER_04You you you very much focus on street work and street preaching, is that right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. And uh a very clear call. I used to work for a bank uh in London, uh I was there 15 years, and gradually there was this call to uh to leave that full-time secular employment and devote all my time to uh preaching the gospel, particularly taking the gospel onto the streets, trying to engage people who just aren't coming into church. Um very a gradual call, but very clear, and I think you know God is very gracious in his calling. That's what my wife and I found. He spoke to us in ways that we can understand and through different difficult life circumstances and brought us to a place of just being completely dependent upon him, just listening out for what he was telling us, and then with consultation with church leaders and really seeing some very direct answers to prayer. We ended up having a prayer retreat with my wife and I, spending a weekend together, taking time apart to pray to begin with, and God again graciously confirmed everything by speaking to us, by taking us to the same piece of scripture, this individually, telling us the same thing through it, and when we came back together, it was so moving we realized that God was speaking, and some people looked and said it must be a difficult decision to leave your job, but for us it was um it was an easy decision because the call was so clear. And it was very clearly a call to street preaching. Now, I believe in street preaching, you believe in street preaching. If there's someone here who doesn't believe in street preaching, what would you say to them? Well, my my stop answer is you know, come out and join us uh for one of our outreaches because I think that would change your mind. Not that we have to do anything, but just kind of see what God is doing. Um we underestimate really how open people are, spiritually. I I I'm convinced spirituality is alive as well. I'm absolutely convinced of that. Now, there's often a problem with church, uh, but people generally believe in something, some energy, some higher power, um, which makes them open for conversation. And so if we can engage them and we try and do that through creative ways, through illustration, through music, then people will talk, and I I'm always amazed, every time, every time, 100% without fail, we always have got conversations with people who are hungry more.
SPEAKER_04I've known exactly the same thing. I don't think I've ever gone out on the streets and not had a conversation about Jesus with someone, which is extraordinary.
SPEAKER_03Uh, can you just tell us uh a good story about uh someone in Calvary Christ through um through what you do? Yeah, um, not so long ago, we had a team that were out preaching on the streets, giving testimony, and we do it short, sharp, but very clear, no compromise of the gospel, but again, uh bringing it in a way that connects. And we had uh one of our team members preaching a young couple stopped in their twenties, and uh interestingly the man was listening, but the wife wanted to pull him away, and she and she managed to do that. She pulled him away and they went off. But then they uh they came back, and he came back on his own, first of all, and made some sort of response, not uh commitment to Christ at that point, but made a response oh you wanted to know more. His wife came back, she joined him, and uh they came to church the next Sunday, uh, joined a home group, and in the home group really discovered who Jesus was, and then both of them made a commitment to follow Christ and were baptized in the local church. And you know, for us I was really excited to see it from that point of interest on the street and not knowing anything about Jesus when you hear their story, they're coming through to being baptized and now followers of Christ. You know, that's for us, stories like that are really encouraging, and there are many testimonies like that. Yeah, uh, I wish there were more, and I believe you know that that in time there will be, but we are seeing people just having their lives transformed by the gospel. That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_04And we're just here with uh Crossing London, a big missionary initiative here in 2014. Um, what what's exciting you about uh Crossing London?
SPEAKER_03The thing that most excites me about Crossing London is this uh gathering of churches, local churches from across all parts of London, trying to engage in a rhythm of mission really through the year. We've just completed a training for believers, Apostolonical Sharing Jesus, Sharing Jesus course, 46 different venues. Uh we we know at least 2,000 people have gone through that in November and February, at least. That's a conservative figure, and and the testimonies coming back are really exciting, just people putting stuff into practice and seeing that they can share their faith in a way that is relevant, in a way that engages, and also here in testimonies of people who uh are coming to Christ, which is uh is amazing. So we're really excited about that, and and here tonight we've been talking about thinking now about the whole proclamation side of things. There's a lot of training of believers and getting out of the community, but at the end of this year, we're helping churches hopefully to put on proclamation events. Hopefully, at least 200 across the capital with four or five big signature events as well. And it's just seeing that rhythm of mission, and I guess that's what excites me the most seeing churches engage in that rhythm of mission, equipping Christians, getting into the community and preaching the gospel, calling for a response.
SPEAKER_04Amen for that.
SPEAKER_03Indeed. Martin Durham, thank you very much. Thank you, Glenn.
SPEAKER_02That's Martin Durham speaking to you, Glenn, uh, last night about his work and in street ministry.
SPEAKER_04Yes, hopefully he can overhear us. Uh we were we were in Grace Bar in Piccadilly, right in the heart of the West End. And it was a very swanky place. I felt I felt yeah, I felt like country mouse going up to the big city. But um loved talking to Martin. He's got a real passion for getting out on the streets. And I like the way he does it. It's not with a megaphone and a stick, but it was quite creatively and and it's consistent, uh as he says. You know, he wants to go out to the same place, Ealing Broadway, every single week and getting to know people. I think that really explodes the myth that street work has to be a kind of a hit and run thing, or it has to be cold contact evangelism. It doesn't have to be cold contact, not if you're committed to it and do it the way that Martin does it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, lovely to hear that story of that couple that came through a small group and then a church and baptism and got saved.
SPEAKER_04And he's got other stories like that as well. Of people, yeah, coming all the way through to committed faith in Christ and and uh Yeah, it's wonderful. And and wonderful to hear him say that he's never gone out and and not uh had a God conversation, as he calls them, you know. And I echo that. It's been rare, if ever, that I've gone out on the streets and not talk to somebody about Jesus. Uh you know, when Jesus says the the fields are white for har harvest, you know, he might be telling the truth.
SPEAKER_02So uh Martin Durham was w one of the uh people for uh for for Crossing London, as we were saying at the beginning. Uh tell us a bit more about Crossing London.
SPEAKER_04So a couple of things they're doing. So um Martin very much involved in uh equipping Christians and they they put on some sharing Jesus uh courses and and uh and as he says I think uh uh at least two thousand uh Christians have been trained through those and and more uh will be trained through these Share Jesus uh courses and and go to crossinglondon.co.uk to find out more about that. Uh and then in the autumn we're we're having these these bigger events. So 200 uh events that are held more at the borough level in in London, but also a few different signature events, bigger things. And uh one of the things that they were plugging last night, I'm very excited about. It's uh a musical called Love Beyond. And uh it's uh it's essentially a West End musical with West End musical stars uh of very high quality. They're all it's an all-Christian cast, uh, but it's the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And uh a a woman who plays Mary uh came and and sang to us a song from the musical where she's singing over Jesus, and it just brought the house down. It was uh stunning, and and she was stunning, and uh you know the lyrics were just so Trinitarian, it was incredible. She was talking about you know Jesus, this you know, son of the Father, full of the Spirit, to come into our family, and it was it was almost like she was doing 3-2-1. It was it was glorious. And then I got to speak to the author of it, um Richard, and uh and he said, Um, yeah, there's a Trinity from the beginning, and Jesus is there right there from the beginning, and uh and uh he said, you know, even the the ascension sort of Jesus kind of goes up in the air and the spirit passes him on the way back down. It's apparently very, very Trinitarian. So really looking forward to to Love Beyond. When is that? So it'll be the first and second of October at uh Wembley Arena and they're hoping to sell it out to date that they've got room to expand it to a third date. So uh yeah, let's uh let's all get along to to Love Beyond. Uh because you know what what they're saying is it's it's kind of like you are immersed in the Bible story for a couple of hours through song. And uh it's it's made for non-Christians, it's not made for it's not made as a sort of a a Christian church outing, it's made for non-Christians, and they they've had wonderful uh responses to it so far. And let's let's see who we can get along on the uh first and second of October.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so where where can folks go for uh the Crossing London information?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, go to Crossing London.co.uk to find out more uh about all of that. If you want to find out more about Martin Durham, uh go to k180.org. How do you spell that? Just uh the letter k180.org. And if you want to find out more about the Love Beyond musical, go to lovebeyondmusical.com. Okay.
SPEAKER_02That's reasonably straightforward. Yeah. Okay, well we're gonna leave it there. Uh leave it a relatively short episode. But uh if you want uh those links, if you didn't catch them, uh they'll all be available on the on this episode's show notes, which is available at revivalmedia.org slash TEP forty five. And while you're there, you may take a look at our website there, you can find our bulletin, and you can sign up to this podcast permanently.
SPEAKER_04Forever Even if you want to get out, you can.
SPEAKER_02Okay, thanks very much for listening, and see you next time.
SPEAKER_04Ciao for now.