He's within preach

FOR someone who has preached to ten million people in 43 countries, including prostitutes, prisoners, comedians and world leaders, he looks very ordinary. And what's with the name? Evangelist J John is in York for the high-profile "Just 10" series of meetings based on the Ten Commandments.

Nearly 2,000 people have so far attended each week in York Minster, to hear him talk on such weighty issues as adultery, theft and violence.

Public perceptions of charismatic evangelists tend to be ambivalent. Money grabbing sexual deviants with terrible hair were a few of the more positive comments made during a quick straw poll of our newsroom. The reality can be somewhat different.

J John is a 43-year-old London-born Greek-Cypriot, who lives near Watford with his wife and three children. He has been described as a mixture of Mr Bean and EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou. His Greek name is Iouannes Iouannon, which means John John. The name J John stuck after it was used as the pen name for his first book.

He was converted to Christianity in 1975 after a friend introduced him to the Bible, and now his reputation as a preacher is respected throughout the world.

"When I said 'Yes, Jesus make it a reality', the light came on," he explains. "My mother said I had been brainwashed. I replied, 'Mum my brain has been washed, and if you knew what was in my brain you'd be pleased it got washed'."

Since then he has written 28 books and is a licensed speaker with the Philo Trust, whose patron is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He conceived the Just 10 series before the Millennium as a way of "going back to the Maker's instructions".

What started out as ten talks in his home church is now a national phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of people have attended the meetings in cities across the UK. It is beamed into five million homes on the God Channel via SkyDigital and 43 prisons are tuning in through a video link.

"Even Tony Blair doesn't speak to 6,000 people live per week," he points out.

The preacher is keen to stress the mission is about much more than saving souls. "You can come and hear me speak and reject the God bit of what I say but I think it's still going to help you.

"For instance, if we can get wife batterers to confess that they are battering their wives and we can begin to get them some help, then that can only be good for the wives, good for the family and good for York."

At York Minster, I watched him in action on, "How to 'affair-proof' your relationships". Dodgy title?

Giant screens and hi-tech speakers ensured we didn't miss a thing. I wondered if the congregation would be whipped into an emotional frenzy, with the aisle littered with those who had fallen over "in the Spirit".

In fact it was refreshing to see J John use good humour and practical advice to get his message across. I felt challenged rather than condemned and, mercifully, no one tried to lay hands on me. Many, however, took the opportunity to go forward at the end for prayer, but there was no pressure.

"My message is that you matter to God and he can make a difference to your life and relationships," J John told me later. "I try to be simple without being simplistic. I try to communicate it in a language people can understand so in many ways I'm like the McDonald's of Christianity."

I thought that was an unfortunate phrase because he is anything but a cheesy salesman. His strengths are infectious enthusiasm, comic timing and a wealth of anecdotes.

Chatting later at his hotel, he recounted a meeting with Billy Connolly. The comedian's wife Pamela Stephenson had introduced them following a mission J John led in Beverly Hills.

"She says Billy is coming to pick me up tonight, can I introduce you?" J John recalls. "I went over to his car and said 'Billy can I speak to you?' He said, 'F*** off!', so I replied, 'No, you f*** off!'. He said 'You're a Minister, you shouldn't use words like that' and I said 'Oh, I didn't realise comedians had a monopoly on the word f***'.

"With that he burst out laughing and said, 'You're not what I thought'. We ended up having a fantastic chat."

"Christianity is fun," J John added, "pompous people have made it boring. You've just got to be yourself."

During another mission to the Middle East he had an "amazing" meeting with Yasser Arafat about the Ten Commandments, and another with the Israeli President. A major emphasis of the Just 10 meetings is in admitting your transgressions and taking positive action to reverse the slide.

To do this, J John encourages the congregation to bring in their stolen items and dump them in amnesty bins at the back of the Minster. He does the same with pornography and weapons.

"It's therapeutic and cathartic," the preacher explains. "If you know it's relevant and don't do anything about it you've made another mistake.

"We did it in St Helens and had so many guns we had to have a police armoured vehicle to come and collect them."

Another person at a mission in Bath dumped £103,000 in cash, accompanied with a note explaining it was unpaid tax.

A penknife, a Crunchie bar and £2,000 are among the items so far left at the back of the Minster.

One of the most surprising things about the meetings is the absence of a monetary collection. The mission costs £60,000 to stage but was intended by organisers, One Voice, to be a "free gift" to the city.

J John himself says he gets "a wage like any other minister".

Does he feel people are naturally suspicious due to several high-profile scandals involving evangelists?

"We could name a hundred mistakes made in the name of medicine, but you don't reject the whole of medicine," he points out.

"Some individuals have been a bad advertisement for church and Christianity. Sadly it does put people off, but I think people in Britain are spiritual. They are interested enough to ask - 'Is there a God? Is there an afterlife? And if so will it make a difference to me?'"

The lasting impact of the Just 10 mission in York is difficult to judge, J John admits.

"Overall if it enriches the lives of thousands of people and therefore enriches thousands of marriages and families, that will have ramifications," he says. "I think a lot of people will say it has made a huge difference."

The Just 10 meetings are held in York Minster every Thursday at 8pm.

Updated: 11:11 Wednesday, May 22, 2002