Selwyn Hughes never allowed adversity to stand in his way. But his ideas have evolved, says Julia McGuiness

A YOUNG MINER had been crushed to death by a falling stone. Selwyn Hughes, aged 18, raced through the mine to get help. He was painfully aware how, minutes earlier, he had pushed away an inner prompting to tell this fellow-worker about Jesus Christ. He vowed that he would never hold back from sharing his faith again.

This spiritual determination has taken Mr Hughes a long way since his National Service in a Welsh coalmine. Now aged 75, he has just published his autobiography, My Story, charting his journey from pit to pulpit. His ministry has grown to international proportions, not only through his preaching to thousands around the world, from Sweden to Singapore, but also through his writing. His Bible-reading notes Every Day With Jesus reach about a million readers.

Mr Hughes was born into a strictly Christian household in the generation after the 1904 Welsh Revival. The Lord’s Day was strictly observed: when Christmas Day fell on Sunday, the young Selwyn had to wait till Boxing Day to play with his presents. Mr Hughes is conscious of the "puritanical spirit" of his upbringing, but also values his Christian home: "I didn’t appreciate it then, but it laid the foundation of my personality."

He treasures early memories of his father at bedside prayers, and it was paternal piety that once stopped the rebellious teenage Mr Hughes in his tracks. Passing the mission hall on his way to the local dance one Saturday night, he was shocked to hear his father’s voice, passionately interceding for his son’s salvation.

Mr Hughes was suddenly converted in 1944, and his whole street soon knew. Early one Sunday, he set off for church proclaiming the gospel at the top of his voice. Bemused and yawning, neighbours in pyjamas emerged at their front doors to hear Mr Hughes’s first "sermon".

BIBLE COLLEGE at Bristol followed in 1949, and then ministry in a succession of Assemblies of God churches in Helston, Llandeilo, and South Kirkby. At Helston, the offerings of the small congregation provided scant financial support. He lived on a diet of beef tea, bread and chips, but looks back on his early hardships as "testing of character" , offset by the fact that, at Helston, he met his wife Enid. His children, David and John, were also born during these years.

After an ill-fated attempt to form a new church with some disaffected members of the Assemblies of God, Mr Hughes left the movement, effectively becoming an itinerant evangelist. In 1961, he visited the United States on a preaching tour. There he heard a children’s choir singing a song that opened: "Every Day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before." This line would have significant echoes for Mr Hughes in future years.

On his return to England, Mr Hughes felt called to London. He was unemployed, but his horizons were expanding. Ever the spiritual entrepreneur, Mr Hughes chose not to join a church, but to start one. He hired an auditorium at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and invited the American evangelist A. C. Valdez to lead a week’s crusade. The event was well attended, and the follow-up meetings at Dennison House on Vauxhall Bridge Road became established as the London Revival Crusade under Mr Hughes’s leadership.

The name is significant: Mr Hughes’s preaching has been characterised by a passionate desire for revival — hardly surprising in a man who remembers of his childhood that revival was constantly talked about over the kitchen table. Yet he expresses disappointment that the desire has not been matched by the reality in his lifetime.

"The closest I’ve come to experiencing revival was in Korea in the 1960s," he says. "There is a lot of sabre-rattling in churches here, and pockets of blessing, but nothing like the Pentecost experience of true revival. When we call anything revival, we’re too easily satisfied, and don’t realise how much God wants to give us."

Mr Hughes poured his energies into Christian outreach and the London Revival Crusade. There were missions with transatlantic speakers, such as the young Morris Cerullo; an enthusiastic booking of the Albert Hall for a rally where only 500 turned up; and the Midnight Express, a one-off mock newspaper covering the return of Christ, and distributed at all mainline and Tube stations across London.

THE YEAR 1965 was a watershed, when Mr Hughes made the transition from pastor and evangelist to itinerant preacher, teacher and writer. Behind the scenes, he had long cultivated a writing ministry. At Llandeilo, he’d bought a reconditioned typewriter by hire purchase, and had torn up an early attempt at a murder story for the call of the Christian market. Regular Christian magazine articles followed, and booklets such as the Soul Winner’s Pocket Guide .

By 1965, Mr Hughes was producing Bible readings on "Theme of the Week" cards. When people started requesting accompanying commentary, Mr Hughes knew that he was on the brink of realising his long-cherished dream of writing daily Bible-reading notes. Every Day with Jesus was born. Until 1971, this publication was distributed free, on the understanding that readers would pray for revival.

Its increasingly wide readership has meant some changes in style. "I’ve become more sensitive to how others think. I’ve not compromised the content, but I word things less dogmatically now. I let my readers know I understand they may be coming from a different position," Mr Hughes says.

In this venture, he has shown a remarkable capacity for continuity. To date, he has written devotional notes for every single day since September 1965. This has meant giving the writing of Every Day with Jesus precedence over other commitments, and it was this that led him to relinquish leadership of the London Revival Crusade and gradually withdraw from prominence.

Every Day with Jesus has became the linchpin of his subsequent ministry. Mr Hughes feels it "has been the pathfinder that has brought opportunities to speak all over the world".

AS MORE INVITATIONS came in from far beyond London, it became necessary to administer these as a distinct area of ministry. "Crusade for World Revival" (CWR) was created as a charitable trust. CWR has combined Mr Hughes’s pioneer dimension with a growing emphasis on working alongside others, as its range of activities and its staff have increased.

The focus has also shifted over the years from evangelism and revival, to teaching and equipping Christians in aspects of daily living and discipleship. Seminars on dynamic Christian living, marriage, caring and leadership have been designed and presented at locations first across the UK and subsequently overseas. CWR’s largest ever event occurred in 1979: a New Year rally that filled the Albert Hall with an audience of more than 5000.

In 1984, the vision of a permanent centre as a "Christian university" became a reality with the purchase and refurbish-ment of Waverley Abbey House, a large 18th-century building set in 20 acres of land in Farnham, Surrey. Since opening in 1987 as CWR’s home, it has enabled the development and hosting of longer in-house courses, most not-ably in the area of counselling.

Mr Hughes acknowledges that he has, at times, had a go-it-alone attitude. "If I talked about my ideas to people, they learnt never to say something couldn’t be done," he says. "That would fire me up to go out and do it, just to show it could. I’m good at initiating things, but I need others to help continue them."

Mr Hughes leads a "Caring" seminar in Westminster in 1986

MR HUGHES has also faced heartache. In his autobiography, he describes how he learned to reduce his speaking engagements away from home by half in order to give his marriage its rightful priority. This commitment culminated in his care for his wife Enid at home for two years until her death from cancer in 1986.

In recent years, Mr Hughes has lost both his sons. In 1997, John died as a result of alcoholism. Ten months later, David had a heart attack. While both were much loved, David had also devoted his career as a printer to his father’s publications. This, as well as his personal support after Enid Hughes’s death, had made him as much a friend as a son.

Whatever his personal circumstances, Mr Hughes has continued to minister. He once challenged people to commit themselves to care for others, even when their own hearts were breaking — although, after his wife’s death, it was six months before he could present his "Caring" seminar without becoming tearful.

Now Mr Hughes is negotiating his own way through illness: in 1998 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Although this was successfully treated, some localised cancer "hot spots" have since emerged. Mr Hughes has had to receive further treatment, and to curtail his speaking engagements.

These reminders of mortality have given him a more reflective perspective on his life, as he finds himself "living in the light of heaven". Looking back, he’s aware of a changing outlook: "I’m more relaxed now than I used to be. I’ve realised I can’t earn God’s favour. My ‘Dynamic Living’ seminars laid down sound Christian principles, but I’d amend them slightly if I were doing them now. They stress behaviour, along the lines of ‘If I don’t do this, I’m a failure.’ Now I’d emphasise grace and acceptance, and that growth in the Christian life can happen gently."

Every Day with Jesus still brings Mr Hughes his greatest satisfaction: "It’s a thrill to know I’m being read by so many around the world."

Looking forward, he hopes that the work of Waverley Abbey House will become "deeper and wider" in years to come; and he longs that his God-given "fire in the heart" for revival will keep burning in the next generation.

"I wouldn’t want to go back to the legalism of my upbringing, but I feel perhaps we’re too relaxed about discipleship. In my childhood, society had a largely Christian mind-set. Now the Church is being overwhelmed by secularism. There’s no other way bar revival for the Church to be renewed," he says.

My Story by Selwyn Hughes is published by CWR (1-85345-296-3; £9.99).