Lay Preacher
You will remember that a Mr. Gifford invited Bunyan to attend Bible meetings in his home -- this group grew into a non-conformist church.  Basically, a non-conformist was anyone that didn’t attend the Anglican (Church of England), which included Baptists, Methodists, Puritans, Quakers, and Presbyterians.

The people who attended the non-conformist meetings with Bunyan felt that he was called to preach, most likely after hearing him give his testimony.  John, too, felt called to preach.  Within four years of being saved, Bunyan was drawing in large crowds to hear him speak as a lay minister.  As a lay minister, he kept working full-time as a tinker while preaching every opportunity he got.

During this time he began writing the Gospel Truths Opened, what was to be the first of fifty-eight total publications.  Sadly, it was also during this same time period that John Bunyan became a widower at the age of 30.

Revelation
In Bedford, John Bunyan overheard heard a small group of ladies discussing the Lord. Religion being one of his favorite subjects, he walked over to join them.  Upon listening to them, however, he realized that this was one subject he had no idea about:  they talked about a new birth, about how the Lord had worked in their hearts, about His love they had experienced.  He kept listening. 

He heard them talking about how the words and promises of God had brought deep comfort to their souls, and they discussed how He had helped them when temptation came, and when bad things happened.  This small group of ladies also talked about how their own attempts at living right didn’t measure up to God’s standards.  There was something else that John noticed:  these ladies were full of joy.

John Bunyan is probably best known as the author of ​Pilgrim's Progress​ -- but he was much more than that.  Bunyan was a tinker, a soldier during wartime, a Baptist preacher, the father of a handicapped child, and a prolific author.

Something else that many people don't realize is that not only did his conversion experience mirror that of the hero, Pilgrim, but he began to write that book while he was imprisoned for what he was preaching.  In the next few blog posts we are going to look at his life.