In a video posted in August 2025, Johnston said, “It’s hard to believe that it’s over a year since I got the summons for preaching on John 3:16 outside the hospital in Coleraine, and it has been a very challenging year. It’s been a very encouraging year.”
“It’s been tremendously helpful just to have The Christian Institute on board, and [my wife] Sheila and myself cannot express just what their support and fellowship has meant to us,” said Johnston.
Johnston said that as he had been waiting for a trial date, God had been teaching him patience. “We are as committed as ever to believing in the freedom of speech,” said the pastor. “We are as committed as ever to believing that we have a mandate to preach the gospel in every nook and cranny as long as we have breath in our bodies, and that’s our ambition, to preach the gospel where Christ is not known.”
He thanked people for their prayers and support. “I think as we get older, we need to be reminded that as long as we’re here, the Lord has a work for us to do,” Johnston said. “And there is no retirement, absolutely. And we pray as much as ever that God would turn back the nation.”
“We pray as much as ever that righteousness would reign. We pray as much as ever that the Lord would send us a time of refreshing at this particular season,” said Johnston. “And we live in that hope that the moral abyss that is all around us, that God would come and, again by the power of the Holy Spirit, convict and convert this nation.”
On May 7, Johnston was found guilty of “influencing a protected person, or being reckless as to whether his actions had that effect” and was fined £450, or roughly $600.
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“Despite assurances to the contrary when this legislation was being considered, we now see that an already controversial and deeply unjust law has now been selectively applied to criminalise gospel preaching,” said TCI Director Ciarán Kelly. “This is creeping censorship. If the ruling stands it will represent a shocking new restriction on freedom of religion and freedom of speech so we will be helping Clive to consider the options for appeal.”
ChurchLeaders has reached out to The Christian Institute for comment and will update this article in the event of a reply.
