As a teenager I was paid £50 per quarter for my first job as a musician. Yes, you read it right, not per week or month, but £50 per quarter! I was appointed the organist for two village parish churches. Each Sunday I cycled to Stratton Audley for the first service and then had just enough time to cycle to Fringford for the second. Sometimes I got a lift to Evensong if the vicar remembered to pick me up. Sometimes it wasn’t until the silence after announcing the first hymn, did he realise he’d forgotten!
I have fond memories of the hymns we used to sing. ‘Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord’ to the tune ‘woodlands’ was a favourite rousing hymn. Always sung with gusto and conviction. Another favourite sung regularly at the Methodist Church I attended growing up was ‘Tell me the stories of Jesus’. Unlike most of the worship songs today, hymns were often sung to each other. They inspired, encouraged, and spurred us on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). They fulfilled the Bible’s mandate found in Colossians: ‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’ (Colossians 3:16). Perhaps it was through singing these hymns I developed my resolve that my Christian duty was to tell others the stories of Jesus. I was young, lacked wisdom but full of zeal and always on the lookout for an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus.
As I reflect, I can’t remember being told to tell others about Jesus. I didn’t attend a course or listen to a three-point sermon, it was just what we did. It was what everybody did, I thought. I think it was caught more than taught. It was the theme that ran through everything we did. I was in bands, and we wrote songs to tell people about Jesus. As a youth group we wrote and performed a musical to tell people about Jesus. We organised outreach events to tell people about Jesus. We just couldn’t help ourselves; we just couldn’t keep it secret.
Are you good at keeping secrets? Some people are exceptional, but my wife is not one of them. Although 100% loyal, trustworthy, and confidential she cannot keep a surprise secret from me. Recently, as soon as she had wrapped my birthday present, even though it was days early, she had to give it to me. Shouldn’t that be how we are with the gospel? Shouldn’t we be so excited we can’t contain it? It shouldn’t be complicated, a programme we learn or a strategy we implement. It should overflow through our words and deeds because we can’t hold keep it secret any longer.
Perhaps if it we don’t overflow, we’re not full? Is it time we become so full of Jesus that we must let the cat out of the bag, as the phrase goes. No-one teaches us how to gossip. But when we have that piece of juicy information, we just can’t help ourselves. We spill all the beans. I’ve never seen a 6-week course advertised or a book written on how to be an effective gossip. I’ve heard many talks on why we shouldn’t gossip, but it doesn’t stop us. On the other hand, I’ve lost count of the courses I’ve attended and books I’ve read on how to tell others about Jesus. There’s so much material. Surely, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a contestant’s specialist subject on mastermind. All these resources are helpful, but subtly have we made sharing Jesus a specialist subject? Something the ordinary person shouldn’t attempt until they’ve read the book, taken the course, and bought the T-shirt?
Telling people about Jesus was not supposed to be complicated. It was supposed to be as natural as it is to gossip. Granted, it’s not easy. We need help, support, and encouragement. I was laughed at. I lost friends. I was bulled. But I was part of a like-minded crowd who couldn’t keep a secret. A community who gathered, not only to worship Jesus, but to sing songs admonishing each other to go and tell the stories of Jesus. We weren’t trained professionals; we just couldn’t hide it. We didn’t need a course, we just needed permission to gossip the gospel. Jesus is not a secret to keep.
Featured Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash
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