Keep the fire!

Billy Kennedy is an evangelist with many years of outreach and pastoral experience in reaching young people. He talked to EN about his life and its lessons.

EN: Billy, tell us about the early days of your life.

BK: I was brought up in Lurgan, 20 miles from Belfast and was one of a family of nine. From an early age I was sent to Sunday school in various churches, but in each one I heard the same thing. That was that I needed to be born again, saved by the grace of God and washed in Christ's precious blood.

I really believed it and knew that one day I would have to take that step if I wanted to go to heaven. But once I was 13 years old I left church and everything to do with the Lord Jesus behind be-cause my only concern was to become a footballer. So that became my obsession.

Football crazy

EN: Did you make it into the game?

BK: I did. One day I signed for a team in Ireland called Portadown. Soon after that I was playing at junior international level against Scotland and managed to score a hat-trick! Then I was in the amateur international team. Then I turned professional with a team called Linfield.

In those days I was given £800 for turning professional. With that money I bought my mother a 3-bedroomed terraced house, a big motor car for myself and still had money in the bank! The top wages for footballers in England and Scotland in those days was about £20 a week and I was earning more than that. Sadly the things of God did not matter. I felt I was self-sufficient.

'I'll walk with God.'

EN: How old were you then?

BK: I was 19 years old. But in my second season with Linfield something happened. About ten of us used to chum around together and one Sunday night in Lurgan my friends decided to go down to the Baptist Church. The pastor there was a man named Willy Mullen. He had been a tramp and an alcoholic but God had wonderfully changed his life and he now had one of the biggest churches in Northern Ireland. So out of curiousity I went. As I sat listening to Mr. Mullen God began to deal with me. And as he came to the end of the meeting I knew I ought to do something. But I went out still in my sin, outside the family and fold of God.

But the next week I went along again and God spoke to me in a deep way. I came under conviction of sin. Yet still I went out unconverted. But I said to one of my pals: 'The next time I go back there I'm going to trust the Lord Jesus.' But I didn't get back.

EN: What year was this?

BK: It was 1955. One day I had been training in Belfast and on the road back I met a friend. We decided to go to the pictures. The film starred the singer Mario Lanza and was 'The Student Prince'. As I was sitting there he started singing a song called 'I'll walk with God'. Again God seemed to say to me 'That's the answer'.

I didn't know then what I know now that 'two can't walk together unless they be agreed'. I needed to agree with what God said about me - that I was a sinner. I needed to agree with what he said about his Son - that there is salvation in no other. I knew I had to repent and be converted. That night I knelt beside my bed and took the Lord Jesus as my Saviour.

Catching fish

EN: What change did becoming a Christian make?

BK: The next day I told my friends and my team-mates. They accepted it well and showed tremendous respect.

But three months after I was saved I felt the call of God to full-time service. I was playing in the final of the Cup and I was praying, 'Lord, if I have a good game today that will be it. At the end of the season I'll leave for Bible college.' Well, the next morning in the Irish edition of The Daily Mail the headline on the sports page was 'This was Kennedy's Cup Final'. I said: 'Amen Lord! That's it. I'm on my way.'

I went off to BTI in Glasgow where I met Brenda who is now my wife. Later I started off in the ministry in Liverpool where the Holy Spirit really moved among young people. That was in the early 1960s. Then I ministered in Scotland and later back at Banbridge in Northern Ireland.

EN: How did you come to focus on evangelism?

BK: Things changed for me when I was in New York on a preaching visit. I happened to be listening to the radio. It was a Welsh preacher I remember and the thrust of his message to ministers was simply this: 'Are you catching fish or keeping an aquarium?' I was very challenged about where my ministry should be.

Then when I got back to Northern Ireland a young man from India was preaching and he invited me out to Southern India for seven weeks. There the spark for evangelism became a roaring flame in me. So in 1980 Brenda and I launched out into full-time evangelism.

My idea was gospel missions. However, that never happened. God's ways rarely open up as we expect. But when I was helping at Herne Bay Court I got an invitation through what is now The Hope Trust in Scotland to begin going into schools.

These days I go into about 80 different schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland representing the Hope Trust. I take a two-fold message - the danger of drugs (especially alcohol) and the message of the gospel. 'Christ gives life - Drink steals it!' My first football match for Linfield was against Glasgow Rangers. That still gives me an opening with the youngsters.

Lessons?

EN: What change have you seen in schools over the last 20 years?

BK: In my own experience there has been a positive change. Young people seem more willing to listen to the message than they were when I started. I tend to take lessons rather than assemblies and it is great to have 30 or 40 minutes with the youngsters. In one lesson a girl actually stopped me in the middle of what I was saying and asked, 'Mr. Kennedy, how can I get the Lord Jesus to come into my heart?' Of course, that was exceptional, but we keep sowing the seed and trust that the Lord will work.

EN: What would you say to anyone just starting in Christian ministry?

BK: I would say 'Keep the fire'. He is to do that through his own personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. It is one of the differences I notice between the churches in Northern Ireland compared with England. Generally the Irish still have a great zeal for souls. Whether it is to do with affluence I don't know. But they have kept the fire and that needs to be done at a personal level.

The reason I moved out into evangelism was that question about catching fish or running an aquarium. I have only been fishing once in my life but I learned some things that day. To be a good fisherman you need to have a fiery heart, a keen eye, a clear head and a steady hand.

You need a fiery heart. You need enthusiasm to get out there in all weathers and fish. Jesus said that he makes us accepted with the Father. We rejoice in that. He says he makes us kings and priests. We praise him for that. But he says: 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men' and we question and query that.
We must have a keen eye. Where there is no vision the people perish. You need a clear head in dealing with people with troubled souls. You also need a steady hand to bring them in.

So for someone starting out I would say, 'Keep the fire'.

Another text of especial help to me was Proverbs 25.13 which says: 'As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refreshes the soul of his masters.' There is nothing there about the response the messenger might get. Nothing about reception. But when we go with the gospel we refresh the heart of our master, the Lord Jesus Christ and our labour in the Lord is not in vain.

An interview with Billy Kennedy