Boreham Encounters a Closed Door
Soon after his conversion to Jesus Christ F W Boreham sensed a conviction to use all his time in Christian work. After many interviews with Hudson Taylor about going to China, the old man invited him to tea and with great tact and gentleness pointed out the opportunities of doing effective missionary work at Home, for his injury would, according to Hudson Taylor, hamper him in a foreign country.
Ministry Starts at Home
Not daunted, Boreham took up preaching at the age of seventeen on the street corner in Clapham. His first sermon was on the text, "Today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts."
Maiden Sermon
Years later, having heard hundreds of sermons he said "This manuscript [his first sermon] ...is easily the crudest of them all. From a theological and homiletical point of view, it has not one redeeming feature."[1] He went on however, to identify the dominant characteristic of that maiden sermon, that it throbbed with passion and this was due to the intensity and fervour of those men into whose company he had been thrown.
Crucial Element in Effective Communication
Fifty years and many sermons later he found himself even in his best moments praying that that essential quality of passion and conviction might endure with him to the end.[2] When asked what had been the keynote of his ministry he had no hesitation in saying it was the evangelistic note.
Geoff Pound
Image: Clapham Street
[1] F.W. Boreham, My Pilgrimage p80
[2] Ibid, p81