I can’t say that I often hear God speak to me, but in 1998 he made it very clear that he wanted me to take the cross to the town centre. This was confirmed dramatically within a day or so and almost immediately a small group formed.
In 1999 Martin Scott brought a prayer team to Reading under the heading “Sowing Seeds for Revival” . He encouraged me greatly to “keep taking the cross to the town centre”. He spoke of “taking and holding the centre ground”. The “Cross in Town” has endeavoured to take that seriously and has kept on.
Looking back over the years that we have been doing the Cross in Town it is difficult to know what difference we have made to Reading.
We know that we have challenged Christians to be more public about their faith. We know that a few find what we do to be strange, if not downright weird. We have felt that an ongoing “silent” witness of the cross has been the right thing to do. We have had a few preaching evangelists come by over time, but always we have felt uncomfortable about that and prefer to let people be challenged by the sight of the cross.
There is something about the literal land/place which is vital to the whole town.
Pictured in discussion is the faithful Tony Horne who sadly is no longer with us, but in the company of Jesus.