Frank Arthur Jenner

Frank Arthur Jenner was saved in 1937 and from that moment devoted himself to one mission: to ask ten people a day, every day, the most important question they would ever hear. For 28 years he walked up and down George Street, Sydney, approaching sailors, soldiers and strangers with a single sentence.

“Young man, if you were to die tonight, where would you be — in heaven or in hell?”

He specifically targeted sailors passing through Sydney on shore leave. He was a sailor himself, working with the Forces, and he worshipped at one of the Christian Brethren assemblies in Sydney. His method was unconventional, his nature warm and generous, and his life was marked by persistence in prayer.

The sailors of George Street

The power of Jenner’s ministry became known through a remarkable series of discoveries. During a time of testimonies at Lansdowne Baptist Church in Bournemouth, England, in the summer of 1952, Reverend Francis Dixon heard two very similar stories from two British sailors who had never met each other. Both had been approached by a stranger on shore leave in Sydney, and the encounter had so impressed itself on their hearts that they later came to Christ when they returned to England.

Deeply fascinated, Dixon resolved to investigate when he travelled to Australia for a preaching tour. In Adelaide, while telling the two sailors’ stories from the pulpit, a man in the audience leapt to his feet and cried, “I’m another! I’m another!” — Murray Wilkes, who had been challenged while running for a tram and had given his life to Christ in an army barracks two weeks later.

In Perth, another man approached Dixon after the talk. He too had become a Christian through Jenner’s single question — and had gone on to lead Christian Endeavour for Western Australia.

Meeting the man himself

When Francis Dixon finally reached Sydney and met Frank and Jessie Jenner in their humble townhouse, he shared the four stories of conversions. Jenner, with tears in his eyes, fell to his knees and prayed: “O Lord, thank you for tolerating me.”

After a time of prayer, Jenner confessed: “After speaking to 10 people a day for the previous 16 years, this was the first time I had heard of lasting results. You know, I never heard that anyone I ever spoke to had gone on for the Lord. Some made professions of salvation when I spoke to them but I never knew any more than that.”

Weakness and faithfulness

The circumstances of World War II — particularly the horrific images of Japan after the atomic bombs — so heightened Jenner’s sense of urgency that he felt compelled to confront others directly about their standing before God.

This did not come easily. Jenner struggled to overcome a gambling habit acquired as a sailor, and suffered persistent health problems throughout his life. So aware of his own weakness, before each encounter on George Street he silently prayed: “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” He first coined his famous question in 1937 and over the years probably asked nearly 100,000 people.

A worldwide ripple

Jenner’s influence extended far beyond Australia. Just a month after meeting him, Francis Dixon spoke at a Methodist church in Keswick, England, where a man from “Mission to Mediterranean Garrisons” approached him to say he too had been challenged on George Street and was now in a soul-winning work. Four years after that, while ministering to missionaries in India, Dixon found another convert from George Street — a woman who had responded to Jenner’s challenge and offered her life for service in India. In all, Dixon knew of at least ten people who had come to Christ through the influence of this one faithful man walking the same stretch of pavement, day after day, for nearly three decades.

A soul winner — Luke 19:10; Mark 16:15.