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 PrintableVersion Reflections on two weeks in EnglandHaving just returned to the USA from two weeks in England, being in Oxford, Leicester, London, Cambridge, Birmingham, Leyland, Cambridge (again) and St. Albans, I feel like I’ve had quite a tour around the country. I’ve had a wonderful time travelling with Peter Jensen (Anglican Archbishop of Sydney) speaking at a number of ‘Gospel Partnerships’. I was also able to sit in on a ministerial fellowship with Graham Beynon and some friends in Leicester, speak at Oak Hill, have dinner with Dick Lucas, tea with Peter Masters, lunch and dinner with Tim Chapman (at Little Shelford), dinner with Bruce and Lynn Winter at Tyndale House in Cambridge, a tour around Daf Meirion-Jones’s church (All Saints’) in Preston, stay with Fred and Elizabeth Catherwood, see many old friends at Eden Chapel in Cambridge, have a good time of interaction with the congregation in a session at Spicer Street in St. Albans and even meet up with a couple of New Frontiers guys in London before I flew out! It’s been a busy couple of weeks. As an American pastor, what did I think of the spiritual state of England? 1. God is doing good things in England. It was tremendously encouraging to see so much excitement for church planting! Free churches and Anglican evangelical congregations are finding ways of helping each other to plant new Bible-believing, gospel-teaching churches all around England. The question and answer times at these gospel-partnership meetings showed the great interest there is in evangelism, done through the local church. This is a healthy emphasis, and one that I’m not sure was there as much in the previous few generations of English evangelicals. 2. The challenge and opportunity is immense. My travelling partner for the whole two weeks was Mike Gilbart-Smith. Mike is an old friend from Cambridge, formerly John Ross’s assistant at Farnham Baptist Church and now a Senior Pastoral Assistant with me at Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington. As we drove down the M6 from Preston to Cambridge, we enjoyed working through Whitaker’s Almanac. We were curious about population statistics. We were both struck by the fact that there are far more Hindus than Methodists, far more Sikhs than Baptists, far more Muslims than people either on the electoral role or attending Church of England congregations! All around England is something far more important than the political and cultural challenge of such a multi-cultural community. There is an opportunity for the gospel that should not be missed! What would John Wesley and George Whitfield and C.H. Spurgeon say about such a situation? They would understand that liberal disbelief in the gospel has ruined many Christian congregations, that immigration laws have brought many non-Christians to their towns and cities and that in this there is a call to Christian evangelism that is clear and glorious, and even convenient! 3. Faithful leaders do their work to the Lord. I was struck by the faithfulness of many Christians. Godly Christian leaders do their work to God and his glory, trusting ultimately in God alone. One minister recounted to me the ups and downs of his congregation over the last century, with still another telling me about the heroic ministry of a man I’d never heard of who rescued the congregation from liberalism back in the 1940s. There were leaders I didn’t see this time, because God had called them home, their work being done. There were other men in their 80s whom I did see, who ‘continue to do good’ (I Peter 4.19), Dick Lucas and Fred Catherwood among them. There were others I saw who were facing retirement and learning to trust God for what would come next, for themselves, and for their earthly life’s work. In all this, God’s kindness in raising up faithful leaders for so many churches in England was striking. 4. Confidence in God. The last reflection I’ll share right now was simply the encouragement it is to see God showing himself faithful generation after generation. If Bible history isn’t enough to encourage us, we have the history of the church. And if that isn’t enough, we’ve got those around us even now whose lives are testimonies of God’s continuing goodness over the years (Philippians 1.4-5). Mark Dever,
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