Easter Evangelism In Hereford

Local churches in Hereford are seeing the fruits of their Easter Passion Play, which attracted an audience of 1200, and are planning for Christmas. Counties Evangelist Andy Goode shares the story.

A chance conversation at the Royal Welsh Show led Andy Goode to invite the Saltmine Theatre Company to bring their Passion Play to Hereford. Andy’s business ‘Show Jesus’ is based in the town.

The ministry is committed to evangelism and creating opportunities for people to hear the Gospel. It partners with churches, communities, and people and helps host showground, evangelism, and community events, as well as helping with equipment, such as marquees, BBQs, and face painting.

So, rather than just getting Saltmine to perform the Passion Play, Andy offered to put up the ‘Show Jesus’ marquee and hand out tea, coffee, and literature, and make “a weekend of it” with a prayer night on Friday before Saltmine began their performance on Saturday.

Show Jesus is a charity that works with churches to do outdoor shows and events. It gives out tea, coffee, tracts and leaflets whilst engaging people in conversation. Counties and Show Jesus have been partners over the years with Andy Goode, Phil Davies, Martin Erwin among those involved in the work and formerly the late Bruce Anderson.

The ‘Show Jesus’ marquee also gave away 400 bacon rolls to people milling around, in addition to Bibles, tracts, and Gospels. Andy says, “As an evangelistic outreach, the whole event just fitted together perfectly.”

Over the months leading up to Easter, local churches in Hereford got on board with the project. They recruited a cast of around 45 Christians, trained by Saltmine, to play various roles in different scenes.

The play started in the middle of the town at the statue of the Herefordshire Bull, where they began with the Psalm Sunday scene. They then moved on to do the Last Supper, the arrest, and finally the cast moved to Hereford Cathedral, where they performed the last three scenes: the trial, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.

“The whole play started with someone busking and shouting: ‘The King is coming,’ and people trying to arrest him,” says Andy. “People started to gather around as drums began banging. As the play continued, we had a couple of hundred people watching, but at one point we probably had 1200 people following it, which was great.

“There were probably about 1000 people watching the crucifixion and resurrection scene. After that, one of the actors gave his testimony, and then I preached for ten minutes, and we saw five hands go up.”

“I am still following up with a crowd there that day. We’ve been able to introduce them to Alpha and Christianity Explored.

“It’s also great because Saltmine loved the Show Jesus marquee and would like to take it to other towns when they do Passion Plays next year. This means that Counties will be in the middle of things, helping with evangelism.”

Andy adds that in addition to the novelty factor, the quality of the acting really stood out. Saltmine also tailored the script to Hereford, with references to local companies and people. Andy laughs, “The guy who played Caiaphas was an Anglican bishop.”

“The impact on the people of Hereford at Easter has really challenged us. We have already had meetings about how to perform a Nativity out on the streets instead of in churches. The focus of it will be evangelistic and give people an opportunity to respond by showing them the relevance of Jesus at Christmas.”

Andy adds that one local church leader has been having an ongoing conversation with a local man for several years. He saw the Passion Play and visited the marquee, where he took a Gospel of John, which he is reading through.

“There is also a real hunger amongst churches to continue working together. The community cast of actors was made up of people from across the churches, and they have met up a couple of times since. They are from a variety of denominations and backgrounds. They are keen and saying: ‘What are we doing next?’ They have now got the bug; budding Laurence Oliviers.”

“Most importantly, inviting people to something credible has given many local Christians the foundation to have proper Christian conversations with people. We know five people responded on the day, but the ripple effect has been significant with different churches and individuals.”

What did the crowds think?

“My three words for the Passion Play would be: encouraging, moving and joyful.”

“I would say that it’s hectic, exciting and alive.”

“For me the Passion Play was amazing, it was powerful and provoking.”

“I think the Passion Plays are so important just because they are so uniting of different denominations and churches. No matter what background is or where you come from, it doesn’t focus on religion or politics it focuses on the character of Jesus and who He was and what He had to say.”

“It’s just been amazing to see every station, just more people joining the crowds, seeing what’s going on and being impacted by what believe as Christians.”

“It was really cool to see how the story that we all know come to life with the different characters and to be able to see all the horrors that Jesus went through and the resurrection of Him coming back to life again.”