page_title: Frank Jenner
section_title: Discovery by Francis Dixon
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Jenner / Discovery by Francis Dixon
caption_attribution_description: English: Frank Jenner in 1943
context_page_description: Frank Arthur "Bones" Jenner was an Australian evangelist. His signature approach to evangelism was to ask people on George Street, Sydney, "If you died within 24 hours, where would you be in eternity? Heaven or hell?" Born and raised in England, he contracted African trypanosomiasis at the age of twelve and suffered from narcolepsy for the rest of his life. After some time, he joined the Royal Navy, but deserted in New York and joined the United States Navy. When he was 24, he deserted again while in Australia. He subsequently worked for the Royal Australian Navy until he bought his way out in 1937.
  That year, Jenner encountered a group of men from the Glanton Exclusive Brethren who were engaging in open-air preaching, and he converted to Christianity. For 28 years, from his initial conversion until his debility from Parkinson's disease, Jenner engaged in personal evangelism, probably speaking with more than 100,000 people in total. One person who became a Christian after encountering Jenner's question was Noel Stanton, who went on to found the Jesus Army in 1969.
context_section_description: The Reverend Francis Willmore Dixon was the head pastor of Lansdowne Baptist Church in Bournemouth, England, and his youth pastor, Peter Culver, had become a Christian as a result of meeting Jenner on George Street on 2 September 1945. In 1952, at an All Nations Bible College event, Dixon and Culver heard Noel Stanton's Christian testimony, which included the episode in which Stanton had met Jenner. Dixon then realised that Culver and Stanton must have become Christians as a result of the same man. The following year, Dixon heard two different British sailors who did not know each other testify at Lansdowne Baptist Church, and both had told very similar stories to Culver and Stanton; both had been walking down George Street and had been asked Jenner's question.
  Dixon then travelled to Australia with his wife to engage in itinerant preaching there. Dixon hoped to find Jenner there, although Dixon did not yet know the name of the man he was looking for. In Adelaide, Dixon told the stories of Culver and Stanton while preaching. Murray Wilkes then approached Dixon and said he had also become a Christian after having been asked Jenner's question on George Street. At a Methodist church in Perth, Dixon told Culver's, Stanton's, and Wilkes' stories again, and met yet another person who had become a Christian after an encounter with Jenner. Finally arriving in Sydney, Dixon asked Alec Gilchrist of Campaigners for Christ if he knew a man who asked strangers on George Street whether or not they were headed for heaven or hell. Gilchrist was familiar with Jenner and informed Dixon about how to contact Jenner. Dixon visited Jenner at his house and told him about all the people he had met who had become Christians because of Jenner's evangelism. Jenner, now fifty years old, had never before heard of even one person living their lives as Christians as a result of his evangelism, and he cried upon hearing that there were several.
  After returning from Australia, Dixon went on to discover more people who had become Christians because of Jenner in Bournemouth, Cumbria, India, and Jamaica. By 1979, Dixon had discovered ten people who had become Christians as a result of Jenner's evangelism. It is because of Dixon that the story of Jenner's evangelism began to be told. Dixon's wife Nancy wrote an account of Jenner's evangelism, which she called "The Jenner Story".
caption: The story of Frank Jenner (pictured) became popular because of Francis Dixon, who investigated after meeting many people who had converted to Christianity after encountering a man on George Street.
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