The Village Pulpit
by, S. Baring-Gould M.A.
"In the time when all the north of England was heathen, there was an assembly held at Iona to decide who should preach the gospel to the English of Northumbria. One missionary was sent, and after having labored for some years, he came back to give an account of his mission. A council was held and he said, "Those Northumbrians are a stiff-necked, hard-hearted people. I threatened them with God's wrath, I spoke to them of Hell-fire, I warned them of the terrors of judgment, I denounced the vengence of God on them and they would not be converted."
One sitting in a back seat said, "My brother, it seems to me you went the wrong way to work. You should have gone in love and not in wrath. You should have tried to win and not to drive." All eyes turned on the speaker and it was decided with one voice he should be sent, and he went. His name was Aidan - and he was the Apostle of all Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire. He had the joy to see the whole people bow their necks to receive the yoke of Christ."
http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/general/aidan.htm
Then they went out, using Aidan's only method as a missionary, which was to walk the lanes, talk to all the people he met and interest them in the faith if he could. His monks visited and revisited the villages where he sowed the seeds and in time local Christian communities were formed. One story tells that the king, worried that bishop Aidan would walk like a peasant, gave him a horse but Aidan gave it away to a beggar. He wanted to walk, to be on the same level as the people he met and no doubt to vary his approach when he discovered something of their background and attitudes.
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