Missionary to Belgium and author Clive Every-Clayton (1942-2026) has died in Scotland after a long battle with cancer.
As a young man growing up in London, Clive was brought to faith in Christ by an evangelist on a youth group camp. He and his brother Glenn soon felt a calling to international missions and his involvement with Operation Mobilization led him to Belgium where he met his wife Dorothy.
From the 1970s onwards they worked with the Belgian Evangelical Mission, which was an evangelistic church-planting movement across Belgium.
Clive pastored two church plants to maturity and planted a third church in French-speaking Belgium. He became known as William Clayton which was also his pen name, writing ten books about the Evangelical faith, aimed particularly at helping Roman Catholic friends.
He had a burden for local theological and practical training, teaching in French at the Institut Biblique Belge and running year-long mission teams.
Throughout his life he was zealous for evangelism and helping people to find hope and answers for life’s questions, recently blogging at authentichopeforanswers.com
Emphasizing the essential message of the cross, Clive managed to steer clear of divisive secondary issues and won friends throughout the Evangelical milieu. The churches that he served also speak of his peaceableness which helped them avoid personality clashes.
Although Clive was not the flamboyant or charismatic leader that he would have liked to be, he showed the value of patiently walking at the pace of the slowest seeker or the weakest member, and seeing fruit over decades rather than days.
He leaves behind four believing adult children and three grandchildren. A memorial service was held in Brussels in August to thank God for his life and ministry.
