Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

College prep?

An interview with Dr. Garry Williams

Dr. Garry Williams has recently taken up a post at the John Owen Centre, part of the London Theological Seminary. EN took the opportunity to interview him about current theological education.

EN: In these times of economic constraint do you have any advice for young people and churches on how they may finance themselves through a theological course?

GW: I think that concern for the future of the ministry should be a shared responsibility of the whole church. For this to happen, pastors need consciously and deliberately to teach the congregation about the vital role of training in maintaining the health of the church. This will lead to congregations believing in and being prepared to support theological training, both in prayer and practically. The continuation of a faithful ministry is also a particular responsibility of present leaders, as Paul reminds Timothy, so pastors need to be proactive in identifying potential future ministers and in leading the church in supporting them.

Young people who think they have a calling to ministry need very much to seek the guidance of their local church leaders. There are really no short cuts; there is a shared responsibility for funding training for the good of the body. This shouldn’t be thought a burden — it is the joy of how the church works in all areas of its life.

EN: How would you decide whether or not a candidate is suitable for spending three years studying theology?

GW: In terms of external criteria, I would be concerned first and foremost with their life and doctrine. The requirements are clear in the pastoral epistles. I am particularly struck by the absolutely crucial role of a man’s character. While evangelicals have in some quarters often been too slow in prompting men to consider the possibility of pastoral ministry, we have in others been too fast and indiscriminate. We can think that, if a man stands up and gives a good talk and is bright and committed and bold, then he should be a minister. But that is only half the story. He must also have a godly character and be committed to loving and pastoring the sheep with gentleness.

In my experience as a hearer of sermons and talks, I have heard much more about the requirements for elders in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 than I have in 1 Peter 5. Yet Peter clearly and strongly commands gentleness and warns against a domineering ministry. A gifted and bold preacher and teacher might actually be a damaging pastor. So I would perhaps be slower to encourage someone into ministry, waiting until I have more of a view of their character and their way of relating to people. Nonetheless, the need remains — it is a case of maintaining both urgency and discrimination.

EN: As the culture of our country changes, how ought training for gospel ministry to be changing?

GW: Let me single out one thing. During most of the 20th century there was a residual knowledge of Scripture and even some kind of nominal Christian conviction among many. This is no longer so.

Much of Britain is now astonishingly unaware of anything in the Bible. On the other hand, much of it is committed to other religions. This pairing of secularism and adherence to non-Christian religion seems to me to represent much of our contemporary context, in particular in the more urban and multicultural areas. In this sort of society the church cannot presume any kind of residual, culturally-derived interest in the gospel. Even just 20 years ago, as a student, I could invite friends to church and, for many of them, this ‘made sense’ culturally. For most now it makes no sense at all. As one friend put it to me recently, if you ask people who never go to church why they don’t go, many have no answer — the issue is so far off the agenda that they’ve never even needed a reason. Our context is much more like that of the early Christians among the pagans than that of the Victorian Christians among a society in some significant senses broadly Christianised. Training for ministry needs to recognise this and ask how we can reach out in this kind of situation. I think that it requires a much more proactive approach in which we take the debate to the world, much as Paul did in the first century, going on the offensive and engaging in public debate.

I’m encouraged by examples of churches organising debates and challenging the foundations of non-Christian thought systems with the gospel, and it is striking that often many more non-Christians come to them than would come to a church service or a talk. This suggests the importance of the kind of apologetic that Cornelius Van Til advocated, exposing the incoherence of non-Christian thought systems and the way in which they have to assert what they cannot consistently assert, such as a notion of the good, treasured values that only the gospel can truly ground. We need to believe that only the gospel is true, and to take captive arguments for obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

EN: Garry, you have left Oak Hill to take over the development of the John Owen Centre (which is attached to London Theological Seminary). Could you tell us what the John Owen Centre is about and how it fits with LTS?

GW: The aim of the JOC is very simple: it exists to provide ongoing theological refreshment for pastors. I have many conversations with former students and other pastors who lament the difficulty of maintaining theological study amid the demands of a busy church. They start with excellent plans to keep up their languages and wider reading, but the pressures of the role and the demands of regular and unforeseen pastoral situations soon dash these hopes. Eventually, the freshness and excitement provided by a sustained period of deep study can begin to run dry.

The aim of the JOC is to help with this problem by providing a range of accessible opportunities for serious study that will keep ministers fresh and excited about the riches of God’s word. By doing this, we hope that ministries will be strengthened and therefore the Lord Jesus will be glorified in the lives of his people. If a minister wishes he had some way of keeping up his studies, then we should have something suitable to help.

EN: What is your vision for the future of the John Owen Centre?

GW: My vision is to develop the work of the JOC in fulfilling its aim of providing this kind of theological refreshment for pastors. We already run different activities to this end, including a ThM programme from Westminster Seminary (Philadelphia), a bi-annual conference, a theological books reading group, a Hebrew reading group, and Hebrew study days. This year we are starting two new activities.

1) I am particularly excited about the new Doctrine Study Days, which will involve me offering a single day of intensive theological teaching at the level of third or fourth year seminary material. The aim of the days will be practical, to refresh and strengthen the ministry of those attending. They will be taught in small groups (12 or fewer), allowing good opportunities for interaction. I will repeat the same day a number of times before moving on to a new topic, which will probably mean that a new day will be offered every few months. These days will be in Finchley at LTS to start with, but I also hope to take them on the road to the south, north, and west, so that distance from London need not exclude anyone. The days will be available for booking by groups such as fraternals.

2) The second new activity will be to offer a more structured package of help for ministers who have a period of study leave, be it a couple of weeks or several months. We would seek to provide guidance on reading, opportunities for discussion, and interaction on the basis of written work done by the minister on the subject of his choice.

If any readers would like to be kept informed of our activities they can sign up for news by emailing johnowen@ltslondon.org