You set me thinking, Gary

Gary Benfold, on his blog, has bewailed the number of preachers going from Britain to the United States, mentioning Mark Johnston as the latest to do so. I commented that up here near Lancaster the cry usually is that preachers, or potential preachers, tend to go south. This is partly because young men go south (or southwest) to train, to LTS or WEST. They then preach in the south and get called to a church in the south. Gary has, I think, taken in good part my comment about him travelling south to Bournemouth. Of course we both know that we seek honestly to follow the guidance of the Lord in these matters.

Nevertheless, I think there are a number of problems. I know a church 30 to 40 miles from here, now happily settled with a South African pastor, that, during the inter-regnum, had several men preach from the south who ceased to show any interest as soon as they saw the town and the environs of the church building. I think there still is a need in the north. When we moved from Stoke-on-Trent to Dunstable I said at my induction: ‘From time to time it has been my privilege to minister in more northerly regions than North Staffordshire, and I almost feel a sense of guilt in coming so far south when the needs are so great in the north. I bow to the hand of the Lord in this, but trust I will remember to pray for the churches and brethren in the north of England.’

Gary was actually concerned about the situation in London, and I identify with that also. Our capital city, bursting with people from all over the world, is not well-served with evangelical Reformed churches. This is not to under-estimate the good work being done by some, but I think it must be a hard graft in many areas of London today. Sometimes I think that because of our Independency and fragmentation there is no overall strategy, though I would not want to deny that the Lord has a strategy. I sometimes think we focus too much on the soft targets: students and ‘nicer’ people in ‘nicer’ areas. I think there is also a problem about our understanding of the local church – but that must be for another occasion, as it requires me to do some more work on the biblical perspective. These are just almost random thoughts, but Gary has set me thinking on what I think is a rather important matter.