He was wrong on almost everything he ever said or did, but on this one I think Jim Morrison got it right: people are strange.
One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was grab my paperback New Testament and a few homemade tracts and walk out onto the high street of Bromley, the town we live in located in southeast London. We have one of the largest high streets in the city and a good stretch of it is pedestrianised, so it’s like a river of people walking through, whether shopping or commuting.
This was the best place for me to connect with those who need the gospel. This was also unfortunate as I am not one for confrontation or inserting myself into people’s day. I do love people and I love to talk to them, but this is totally different. You can be a people person and still recoil at the idea of soul-winning on a public street, because this is a different animal altogether. It is one thing to be charming or to help someone out. That is a piece of cake. Most people welcome it. But this… good grief.
So when I say that people are strange, I suppose I am first talking about myself. I think I’m strange for wanting to do this in the first place. I mean, it’s ridiculous. It’s not attractive or particularly clever. Have you ever seen a grown man learning to rollerblade? There he is, armed with helmet and knee pads, slightly off-balance, reaching out as if hoping the air will hold him up. You think to yourself, what has happened in this guy's life that has brought him to this? Well, now you’re getting a better picture of what soul-winning on the high street looks like. It is ridiculous. But then, we tend to do ridiculous things when they’re necessary. We might run into a burning building instead of out of one. We might run into traffic or remove a valuable organ from our body. That’s ridiculous, but sometimes ridiculous is right. So I admit it: I am strange.
But I am not alone. I am starting to think there is no such thing as normal. I remember talking to this one guy on the high street, and he seemed normal at first, but then he began to explain to me that the CIA and McDonald’s had conspired to make all of us addicted to their food. He looked at me and asked, “Have you ever wondered why every time you eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger, you automatically want to drink a Coke?” I just sat there for a minute looking into his mad eyes and I realised that this guy was completely serious. I mean, where do you go with a gospel discussion after that?
But at least that guy was only paranoid over McDonalds. Another gentleman would often see us out on the high street and engage us for a certain amount of time just so he could start inserting perverted topics into the conversation. It was the weirdest thing. He would just say them out of nowhere. And of course he generally tried to target the young ladies for this. So eventually, I would have to just step into what seemed to be a normal conversation and tell him take a hike. The person witnessing to him would look at me like, “What the heck?” and the man would complain that I was interrupting him. So I had to make it clear to him that it was in his best interest to move on. I would then explain to the soul-winner that he is out of his mind. Soon after, I would find this guy with another team a little farther down the street and have to do it all over again.
I remember this one guy — Hang on! Why is it that the crazy ones are always guys? What is going on with the men out there? I mean we have certainly come across some crazy ladies, but they are rare. So anyway, there was this guy we spoke to, and he seemed a little off but nice enough. He said he wanted to come to church, and he did. He showed up to our Sunday gathering in a skirt. Now mind you, this guy was about 6’3” at about 275 pounds; he was a big dude. Because of what we’re used to dealing with, we all seemed rather okay with it at this point. But then he sat down on the front row and took off his shoes, revealing the longest toenails I have ever seen. This guy would have given Howard Hughs a run for his money. Then he started spraying his feet with some sort of chemical from a bottle he retrieved from his bag. Now, British people in general have mastered the art of subtlety. They keep their feelings and reactions hidden down deep, while maintaining a banal, uninterested demeanour on the outside. And even they were mouths-open stunned. He stayed for the whole service, and we never saw him again. The hardest part was knowing if you should be happy or sad about that.
I could go on. There are plenty of strange people out there. We’ve come across those who are angry at the world, those desperate to tell us about the alien conspiracy. There was even this one guy who thought that the world began with a big bang and everything evolved from a single-celled organism. Even for us, that one was a bit out there.
But there is a different kind of strange out there that must be mentioned. No, I am not talking about people who like K-Pop or post motivational memes. I am talking about a different kind of strange. There are some people out there who are genuinely interested in the gospel. Now, when you consider the western culture in which many of us live, I believe it fits the legitimate definition of the word to call them strange.
But first, let me tell you what I do not mean by that. I have heard it said that churches attract weird people. But this is a misconception. The truth is that everybody is weird. It’s just that some of these wacky people have gotten saved. I have been out there and believe me, the church does not have the corner on crazy.
What I mean is that it is legitimately strange (as in not common) for someone today to be truly interested in Christ. Not religion, not companionship, not understanding the universe, but Christ. That is the most beautiful kind of strange that exists, and I live to find these people.
I can remember sitting on a bench not far from my house where I had stopped to pray. I had been meditating on John 14:13-14: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
The memory is still so vivid. As I prayed, I was genuinely challenged by the implications of this passage. I mean, it says, “any thing”. This is such an amazing promise; I’m sure you would agree. But when you actually set aside time to take him up on it, you have to stop and pause and deliberate over what you will ask. I knew it had to be something “in his name”, which is the same as saying, “according to his will”. So that narrows it down a bit, but not much. The possibilities are still pretty wide open. There were many good things for which I could ask, but I could not shake my biggest burden. I wanted a disciple. Now, I know you’re thinking that this doesn’t sound very creative, but I will thank you not to judge my prayers. Now where was I? Oh yes, I wanted a disciple, but not just any disciple. I wanted one of these strange people who genuinely wanted to serve Christ and wanted to be a student of the Bible. I wanted someone who believes all the way. I wanted someone who was all in. At the time it seemed like a big ask.
I prayed, “Lord, if this promise is for real, I want a disciple - a true one.” It was one week later that Paul and Emma Waller came walking through the front door of our church. They got plugged in immediately and we began to disciple them. Fast forward about 6 years, and I am about to ordain Paul as the next pastor of our church. Paul is precisely who I prayed for. And God didn’t just answer with Paul. His wife Emma is exactly the same. They are both truly consecrated to Christ. I already knew the Bible is true, but when you see the promises of God come alive in your everyday life, it’s like learning that truth all over again. The only mystery (and I am talking mainly to myself here) is why we are not praying like this every day. Paul Waller was not the result of a clever ministry outreach plan or expensive marketing. I prayed, and God gave him and Emma as a gift to our church. These two are so wonderfully strange, and we thank God constantly for them.
When I think of strange people, I also cannot help but think of my good friend Steven Wright. We work so hard on the street to win people to Christ, but sometimes God answers when you least expect it. Mindy had been asking me to mow the lawn, but I was complaining because I had “God’s work” to do. Cut to me standing in the back garden with the lawnmower. So anyway, the lawnmower wouldn’t work, so I was forced to walk it down to a repair shop. I figured while I was forced to be there I would just witness to the repair guy. After I shared the gospel with him, he responded, “Yeah, I’m not really into that sort of thing, but the guy who owns the motorcycle shop next door is. Let me introduce you.” So we walked next door and I met the owner. In walks this big guy who was covered in leather with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He looked like he was in disguise under the bandana and sunglasses. He asked what we were talking about, so I told him I was starting a church down the road. He looks me over and asks, “What version of the Bible do you guys use?” That was the last thing I expected to hear. I figured this could go either way so I just went with the truth. I said, “We use the King James Bible.” He looked me over again and said, “Okay, I’ll come to your church.” And he did. I discipled Steve and subsequently led his adult son to the Lord as well as his half brother. Steve’s life was completely transformed, and he is still walking with Christ today. I remember when I came home and told Mindy, the only thing she heard was that she was right to ask me to mow the lawn. She just smiled at me and said, “You’re welcome.”
I could go on about the other strange people who have come to Christ. Like Steve, there have been many others who were strange enough to believe in Christ. I could tell you about Elizabeth and Victoria, twins I met on the high street who both accepted Christ the same day. I guess that makes them spiritual twins as well. I could tell you about Morina who had been searching for two years for someone who would talk to her about Christ before running into our team on the high street. She broke down in tears of relief when Mindy explained the gospel to her. Or I could tell you about Jamal and Sakile who we met on the high street, who came to Christ in the most spectacular way.
But let me finish with Marcus Victor. We met him on the street during our London Campaign we hold every June. He started coming to our church, and at that time we had just started teaching the book of Romans so we were still in chapters one and two, knee-deep in the “sin” part of the book. Marcus is such a sweet guy and we were always just so happy that he was there, but after a Tuesday night Bible study he came up to me and said he needed to talk. He explained that he knew that he was a sinner, but he didn’t know what to do with that. I led him into our dining room where I opened the Bible and walked him through the gospel. He asked Christ into his heart. Not long after that he was baptised. His family flew in from France just to see his baptism.
Isn’t it so strange? We tend to think no one is interested, that no one wants to know, and maybe, most of the time we’re right. But there are some strange people out there. Strange enough to believe the truth. Strange enough to trust in the Bible. Strange enough to follow Christ. Jim Morrison was right, people are strange. But that’s okay. Normal is not what we’re aiming for.
Brian Clark is a missionary and pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in London, England. He is also an instructor in Living Faith Bible Institute’s evangelism course.
Brian recently wrote a book on evangelism that was published through Living Faith Books. Check out The Gospel Course if you want to gain the faith and concepts for your own personal evangelism.
