Tony Salmon's story

  I went through a “baptism” ceremony at a Methodist Church in Liverpool at only six weeks of age. I grew up through the Sunday

  School and, at the age of 16, was “confirmed” into full membership of the Methodist Church, mainly because I was told it was the right

  thing to do. It meant nothing to me. I only became actively involved in Church life when a new minister arrived with his four young

  daughters, started a Youth Group and generally livened the place up. I was swept along with the youthful excitement of the time (I was still a teenager) and thought that I was now a Christian. I taught in the Sunday School, ran the Junior Youth Club, produced the annual pantomime and became a Local Preacher, conducting Sunday worship in Methodist churches around south Liverpool and Widnes.

After leaving Liverpool at the age of 29, I found myself living next door to the Pastor of a Bible-believing Church, so I started going along. But other events in my life overtook me and I drifted away, becoming very cynical and refusing to give the possibility of a real living God any consideration.

A young couple from Dewsbury Evangelical Church, however, became our very good friends, desperately trying to save us from an eternity in hell. I thought they were well-meaning but deluded. In spite of this, I did start going to Sunday worship on occasions after a decade in the wilderness, but I still could not feel the reality of the faith of those who sat around me. Our friends moved away from Dewsbury but, on the very last week they were here, I went to the Sunday evening service. There was a guest preacher, Laurie Hayes – Pastor of Staincliffe Baptist Church. I was impressed. Here was a man who transmitted on my frequency. He had become a Christian as a not-very-young man, and had seen the rough side of life, sharing many of my own experiences, yet he had been saved. Now, perhaps, there may be something in it after all.

I immediately attached myself to Staincliffe Baptist Church to try and find out more. I found that every sermon spoke to me, every passage of Scripture applied to me, and every prayer was said for me! Then began a long string of weird “co-incidences”, culminating in the discovery of a former school colleague from Liverpool, who I had not seen since 1973, preaching from another local Bible-believing Church. Then I went to a Baptism service and….. It is very hard to describe how I felt - it was overwhelming! It took a few weeks to sort out my thoughts. I couldn’t understand why the guilt I felt for some horrendous sins committed in recent years appeared to have gone. I felt that, if God was real, I should feel even more guilty! But, it’s obvious – Jesus took all my guilt and shame to the Cross and paid the price for me. The realisation of the enormity of this suddenly cleared my mind, and my heart. I went

through the waters of Baptism (without quotation marks this time!) at the age of 47.

Now I am cheerfully sorting out my life, and the way I approach things. A lot of things are going to be different. You’re never too old to find the Lord, but you may be too late! Look for Him now.