Who is J. John?

Prologue: You might be wondering just what all these rumours about the Christian Union’s shortly forthcoming mission are all about: “Wot’s all this ‘ere stuff ‘bout ‘By Iz Stripes’ gotta do wiv it anyways?” Or you might not. Whichever is the case, come 10th-12th February you will notice excessive activity among members of the Christian Union. For those three days evangelist J. John will be coming to York to speak in a programme of talks and events which have the declared aim of challenging people about the implications the Gospel message has for them. All this will be grouped together under the title ‘By His Stripes…?’, an allusion both to the suffering servant passage of Isaiah 53, and the archaic and out of touch image of Christianity which some might be adversely influenced by. If you have any connection with the Christian Union then you’ll probably hear much more of this, perhaps even more than you want to; otherwise you can find out more by attending a CU meeting or even by contacting me in Vanbrugh (my official title is University of York Christian Union Mission Committee Prayer Secretary, which essentially means that I want YOU to pray for the mission and I’m ready to give you whatever information you need to do so).

But now, having examined the background, let us move to the question of this article… just who is this J. John anyway?

It might console some of you, at present suffering a major essay crisis (are you sure you should be reading CHRISTIS right now?), to know that it is not only students who are too busy to do all the worthwhile tasks presented to them and who have to resort to cunning plans and solutions. After the CU’s Christmas Celebration held in Heslington church near the end of last term, I approached J. John with a copy of CHRISTIS issue 12, twenty questions about him written down on a piece of paper and a request that he might answer some of them, then send me the answers. In this way we could have boasted a special world exclusive CHRISTIS interview.

A few weeks later I received a letter from J. John’s compatriot and fellow evangelist Dave Edwards (who will also be here during the mission), apologizing because J. John unfortunately didn’t have time to send me any answers. However, I did get a copy of J. John’s book, Dead Sure, and permission to use this as a source to write an article on him. I’ve also heard him speak a few times and met him twice, but this is scant material to work with. As a consequence this will have to be more of a personal impression of the man, a biographical hors-d’oeuvre rather than a full feast of information. If you really want a good answer you’ll just have to come along in February and talk to the man himself.

The two words which best encapsulate my impressions of J. John are ‘short’ and ‘sharp’. This covers his physical description, as he is (I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this) not particularly tall, and has fairly pointed features. It also applies to his manner of preaching. I’d hesitate to say they describe his manner as well, for although undoubtedly sharp, he seems a patient man. His appearance is actually somewhat Mediterranean, which could be considered advantageous in case there are any who still think ‘Christian’ to be synonymous with ‘pedigreed Englishman’; indeed, it would require a certain stretching of the truth to say that he falls easily into any stereotypes of Christianity.

Those of you who attended the Christmas Celebration will no doubt remember his speaking style (and will probably disagree vehemently with my perceptions); having heard him at my home church several years ago I can suggest that he doesn’t seem to change much in his general approach (i.e. he’s likely to adopt a similar approach in February). For those of you who weren’t there his basic technique can be sketched (rather than illustrated) with a brief flow chart:

The speed at which he is able to switch from one to another is quite impressive and in its own way quite powerful. He certainly possesses the ability to make you laugh and then think about what underlies what he has just said.

The impression made by Dead Sure is much the same. The element of humour is noticeably fairly lacking, but I doubt it would have worked particularly well in a tome of this nature, an evangelistic book which the author doesn’t want to be glibly passed off. I remember reading another book by J. John, though the title eludes me; this was more of a nurturing book about Christian living, and was, as I recall, quite entertaining. Fortunately J. John’s writing style is not as prone to finding tangents as mine is. Dead Sure keeps firmly centred on the ramifications of the Gospel and Jesus’ answers to the dilemmas and pain of modern life.

It would be quite a good book to lend to a friend, though its fairly simple style could be considered condescending (though for ‘simple’ you could read ‘clear’). The same could be said of the man himself and while generally original, even J. John sometimes drags out a cliché. Mind you, they’re probably only clichés to those who have had at least a reasonably large amount of churchification and christianization. I’m not in the position to make an authoritative judgement about him (and glad of it), but I would wholeheartedly suggest that you at least come and give J. John a hearing, whatever your personal view on Christianity, however you regard the concept or reality of a relationship with Jesus. It doesn’t hurt to keep an open mind, and to make it worthwhile J. John coming here it would be good if you persuaded your friends to have an open mind as well (and don’t let it become a series of cliquey ‘christian’ events).

One final thing. I don’t know how much J. John will agree with my attempts at describing him and his ministries (I look forward to handing him a copy of this magazine), but I’m sure he would agree with me on this: even if the idea of a mission doesn’t appeal to you, why not give God at least one chance to speak to you through J. John. Invite others to take that risk as well. God bless you, and may He keep J. John an interesting and challenging man to hear.

Wulf Forrester-Barker