The Best Show testimony

My questioning of the Christian faith was brought about by a few incidents and was a gradual process. I had always found Sunday school and scripture very interesting but always felt it very remote from the world of today — I did not see how it could apply looking at the present state of the world. I had no concept of God whatsoever.

My parents were supposed to be Christian, but when the family broke up when I was 12, any faith I had was shattered. A few years later, I realized that God, to some people, was very real and tangible, so I started going to church to try and find Him. After going to service after service for a long time I became more and more amazed by the number of people who were obviously there because it was “’the thing” to do on a Sunday morning.

Studying science at school brought another conflict: it seemed that the teaching was God or Science, but to my mind, both should have been complimentary. I couldn’t see an answer, and nobody was any real help. When I started going to college in London my eyes were really opened to the reality of life-battered babies, attempted suicides all form a percentage of patients in a London hospital, the Kingdom of Heaven did not seem very near to hand.

It wasn’t till I went on holiday last year that anything happened to give me hope. Carol came door-to-door selling tickets for a show, and as I liked Negro spirituals and folk songs, I decided to go along.

With Doris’ first song, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” I felt rather choked up — no one had ever sung like this before and it came clear to me that she had something very real and beautiful. She seemed concerned that the audience should know about it — in fact, it was obvious that the others on stage not only had a very real concept of God but wanted to tell people about it. (This was a marked difference to many Christian groups I had been to where the only thing that ever happens is sitting round in a holy huddle quoting the Bible to each other.)

I felt that this group wasn’t just putting on a summer Show — they obviously had something 99% of us hadn’t. It felt very mixed up after the show — I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry but Michael spoke to me and suggested I come to hear what went on. Because I had felt so strange I couldn’t understand it, I went back to the evening performance, I’m not really sure why. Thus, I decided definitely to go to Thornton Heath and hear what was to be said; I had to find out why they were all bubbling over.

Thank you Father for the best show I have ever been to.