This article first appeared in Reformation Today
A
thanksgiving service was held for Michael Toogood at the Swiss
Church, Endell Street, Covent Garden, in July 2023 following
Michael's funeral back in February.
Michael trained as a graphic designer and was a pastor in south east London before becoming a church planter, first in the new town of Thamesmead. From 1982-2000 he was involved in church planting in the notorious London district of Soho.
In the morning there was an opportunity, under the chairmanship of Andrew Murray, Michael's successor, to share reminiscences in an informal setting and then in the afternoon there was a worship service, including a sermon by Gary Brady on Psalm 37:37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.
The following is based on the sermon.
In his Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric, Dabney says, as a general rule, preachers should not eulogise people who die. However, he says that there are a few of God's servants whose sanctity is so universally approved, even by outsiders, and on whom the Redeemer has so manifestly set his divine image, that it may be the pastor's duty to urge their example on God's people. That is the case with Michael Toogood.
I first knew of Michael and his work the year after I became pastor in Childs Hill, four miles north west of Soho. The church was on its way out of the Baptist Union. That year our local association invited us to support a church nearby led by a woman minister and one in an affluent area south of London. We wanted to give to something else. When we discovered The London Inreach Project, we knew we had found a far more worthy work. As it turned out, a deacon had been at the very first LIP public meeting representing the church. I was subsequently recruited to the LIP committee, originally to edit the newsletter, I was chairman for a little while.
As a Welshman myself, Michael was my idea of a prototypical Englishman – the clear voice, Roger Moore looks, always immacutely dressed. There is a phenomenon called nominative determinism. The hypothesis is that people tend towards the sort of activity their name would suggest. There is a Scots chef called Tom Kitchin and a Midlands weather presenter called Sara Blizzard. I heard Michael's name before I ever met him and it has to be said that it influenced my expectations. The name Michael can be parsed as “like God” and Toogood speaks for itself. Now the thing is that when I met him, I was not disappointed.
I will never forget Michael coming to our church for the first time on deputation and particularly the “before and after” set of slides depicting the way he and Pam had transformed their first grotty basement flat in Soho. I remember thinking “This is the sort of thing Francis Schaeffer talks about but here it is in practice”.
I never knew Michael personally but I know how he lived and have read his short autobiography, Mission to Soho, where two worlds meet. I do not find myself agreeing with every decision and action, of course, but he has been an inspiration. Many years ago, at the end of 1998, when I was editor of now defunct Grace Magazine I tried to write an encouraging article. I called it Reasons to be cheerful and wrote of the work of Keith Underhill in Kenya, Brian Ellis in The Philippines and Andrew Swanson in Northern Cyprus. In a final paragraph I wrote
To take one more example, consider the fact that 20 years ago the Soho area was as bad as ever it was but with no permanent evangelical testimony there. Now, though small and struggling, Immanuel Community Church is there, is known and is maintaining a regular witness to the residents and tourists in that needy area.
I noted how former Grace editor, Keith Davies, with others, had the vision for the project and that “it is especially through Michael Toogood's valiant efforts that not only was a church planted in Soho but another in Covent Garden, under Mike Mellor.”
Michael and the work was a reason to be cheerful then and it is now.
*
After setting the verse in context, three points were made from verse 37.
Michael Toogood – an example of a man who lived a blameless and upright life
David speaks about the blameless … the upright. He has in mind people like Michael Toogood. We all know that no-one is perfect. The better you knew Michael, I guess, the easier it would be to identify where his sins lay. However, he was a blameless and upright man. That is to say he lived a holy life and it is notable because he lived in a time and place where it was not a common thing.
When people think a person is very good they will sometimes say “he's a saint”. Michael was a saint – not in that generalised way but in truth, he was one of God's holy ones.
What stands out is his commitment to the work of God and the sacrifices he made in order to do the work he did. Further, he was obviously a man full of compassion.
He attempts some self-assessment in his autobiography (pp 63, 64)
Given my background it's no surprise that the work ethic is part and parcel of who I am. I suspect its root lies lies in my upbringing and lifestyle within my family home. Work dominated almost everything. It was the source of our income and provision for the family. Since our well being depended on the work being done, day in, day out, my parents just got on with it.
The second influence was the studio where I was employed as a graphic designer and typographer. My working day normally stretched between 9 am and 5.30 p.m. What impressed itself on me from the beginning was that someone had to pay for every minute I was there ....
My work ethic became something of a joke among the Soho team and church members, although I can hardly believe it. Apparently I used to tap my foot when someone was late, kept us waiting or when I felt time was being wasted. Throughout the Soho years I maintained a pattern of working every day Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, and each evening until 9:00 pm. On Monday evenings I relaxed by walking the streets, peering into shop windows and looking at paintings, mainly in Mayfair.
I kept as much of Saturday free as possible, helping Pam with the family shopping ... then walking around the city, guidebook in hand, in the afternoon ....
Commitment is not something we see enough of these days, perhaps. There is even to some extent a fear of commitment. Michael was committed to the work in central London, devoted might be a more accurate word. It is striking that he did not assume a two week holiday would be appropriate but thought it through and came to see it was necessary. If it hadn't have been, he wouldn't have taken it.
Commitment always incurs sacrifice and because Michael spent so many years in Soho, it involved great sacrifices. Of course, commitment and sacrifice alone would not have been enough. There was undoubtedly a compassion that drove Michael to be willing to do some of the less desirable things that he did as he sought to serve God.
So we begin there, Michael Toogood – an example of a man who lived a blameless and upright life. Yes, we live in an age where much wickedness exists but here is a tangible example of uprightness, of blamelessness.
Michael Toogood - an invitation to consider and observe his life
What David invites us to do is to Consider the blameless, to observe the upright. Now we were able to do that while Michael was alive to some extent and we are able to do it now to a lesser extent. Obviously, as the years go by less and less people will know about Michael's witness but it is right to continue to consider his blamelessness and to observe his uprightness. I think we can do this in two or three ways.
Firstly, I think the autobiography should be kept in print. More than that, at some point a further biography less subjective ought probably to be produced. It will be a good thing if his life is told for a future generation who never knew him.
Then there is the continuing work in central London. The aim was to establish a church in Soho, in the heart of the city and that has been done. The church is weak and small, however, and we all ought to do what we can to see it strengthened and built up.
More than that, it is important that the spirit and approach that Michael pioneered continue. What he did cannot be replicated and does not need to be. He cannot be cloned either and no-one would want that but it would be good if there were people like Michael in the days to come. Pioneers who can see the need and who will be willing to think through a strategy and then make the commitment and the sacrifices necessary to serve God and to reach out to those who have not yet heard.
The description on page 134 is priceless.
I remember the morning I decided that my visiting should embrace all and anyone living or working in Soho. Practically, this meant taking a street or block of flats and visiting them systematically. This policy should also include the notorious alleys! Immediately opposite our Brewer Street home, Green's Court linked with Peter's Street. It was narrow and grubby but tame compared with Walker's Court which ran parallel to it. An Italian Deli, a shoe repair shop, a coffee bar and a club/brothel were all situated there. The brothel was my first venture into the seedy world of the sex industry.
With a club of sorts trading downstairs, the action seemed to be on the first floor. A highly made-up bleach blonde woman in her 60s sat behind a table at the top of the first flight of stairs. I had seen her bustling around the area before. In the 1950s she would have been known as the 'Madame' who sifted the male customers. Apparently not all male customers were acceptable to the working girls! I explained who I was and why I was visiting all the premises in the Court. She waved me into the waiting room. The room was small and made smaller still by a curtain which separated the waiting customers from those being entertained. The girl was already busy on the other side of the curtain! A few minutes later the customer appeared, embarrassed at finding someone waiting on the other side of the curtain but he went quickly down the stairs and out into the street.
Then the girl appeared, not wearing a great deal. She was actually attractive, in her early 30s, dark haired and probably Italian. I explained who I was and why I was there, showing her the family photograph as evidence. She had probably heard many stories like mine before! With customers arriving, time was short. Why was she doing this? I noticed the gold ring on her wedding finger. She said she was working for the money - about £400 a day, lived a train journey away and was in Soho for about eight hours. Her husband was in agreement with what she was doing. It was time to go. I left some gospel literature behind. Once again, some would find fault with my visiting such places and people, but Jesus did and counted such rejects among his friends and followers. I soon recognised that my visiting like this was not ideal but it was the best we could do at that time.
Michael Toogood - a reminder that those who seek peace have a future in the world to come
Then we must not miss finally the closing part of the verse. Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace. It could be simply peace awaits such people but probably David is saying that the blameless and upright are also those who seek peace. Of course, peace is one of the things that Michael now has but there is a whole lot more that he has now inherited and there is more to come. Now we know he has received all these good things by the merits of his Saviour, Jesus Christ. However, the trajectory that began here on earth, a blameless and upright life is the one that leads to future glory. There is no reason to believe that there is any future for those who do not seek holiness. Without holiness no-one will see the Lord. We are confident about Michael, however, that now he is in heaven. He has been given the crown of righteousness.
On page 139 of his autobiography he gives all praise to his Saviour and speaks of his conversion.
If the experience seemed comparatively costless to me, I would trace it back to the great revelation of my conversion in 1954. Among the many truths that made an impact on me was that I had been 'redeemed' by Christ. I knew that I was both bought out and brought back by the great price paid by Jesus in his death at Golgotha.The obligation was life-changing: neither I, nor my life, was my own but Christ's who paid the Redemption price. The Apostle Paul says exactly that: 'Do you not know ... you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God.' (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The apostle Peter presses the same point on his readers. 'You were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ … (1 Peter 1 18-19).
We have said goodbye to Michael, in the way that we say goodbye to people who set off on a journey by car, train or 'plane. We've watched as the vehicle disappeared into the distance but we knew that at the other end of the journey they would be received by others. And that is what has happened. We have said goodbye but Michael has been received into eternal dwellings by God's holy angels, where he will remain until the Lord Jesus comes again and the great resurrection day is here.
His blameless and upright testimony should encourage those of us who remain to keep pressing on to the glorious future that lies ahead for all who trust in Christ and live for him.
Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.
