It was in 1986, so forgive me if I have forgotten exactly what I said. It was in Bermondsey, in the London City Mission Hall. The missioner, Terry Bedlow, would have been there and my two evangelist colleagues, David Mouncer and Andy Chubb. There probably would have been half a dozen others, two of whom would have been there for tea and cake afterwards.

I preached on Revelation 1: 4-6

⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed^[d] us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and made^[e] us to be a kingdom, priests serving^[f] his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

I remember focusing on Jesus being the ruler of the kings of the earth for about 25-30 minutes.

I did not know how to preach. I had never been on a course. I probably had not really listened to too many sermons before. I remember having just been taught that it was important to make the text come alive and to share what God had said to you during the week. That was a novel concept that God might speak to me. But I had not met many theologians who would seek to dissuade me though. That is a partial joke.

The London City Mission is a brilliant conservative evangelical organisation. I did not know that though. I just thought it was Christian, just as my parish church in Sheffield with its servers, sanctuary bell and occasional incense was Christian too.

I learnt a lot from that Bermondsey group. They allowed to blossom and to fail. They never let on how bad I was…. that came with time though.