Meeting the new man

An interview with Jonathan Worsley who is working alongside John Benton as editor of en

Eagle-eyed readers of en may have spotted a small but significant change.

Since the December issue there has been a new name on the information panel on page two. Jonathan Worsley has joined the team as Assistant Editor. John Benton asked him a few questions.

en: When you were first asked if you were interested in getting involved at en was it a surprise?
JW: If I remember rightly, at some ministerial gathering in 2016, you asked if you could talk to me at the next break.

Not knowing you well, I spent the subsequent session wondering what I’d done to annoy the editor of en (Did he know that I often just read the Oak Hill copy of en without personally subscribing?) So – yes, at the time I guess it was a surprise.

en: How did you become a Christian?
JW: Having the privilege of Christian parents meant that I heard the gospel from an early age. However, one evening, aged ten, after a youth group talk on prayer, I realised that I didn’t have a personal relationship with God. Moreover, I recognised that years of such ignorance meant that it was actually impossible to be right with him. Without wanting to dramatise my conversion, that thought really disturbed me – I distinctly remember not playing the game afterwards and ambling back from church most solemnly.

When I got home, I asked my mum if she could explain how I could become a Christian. She walked me though three simple truths: God created me and was worthy of all praise (Revelation 4.11); I had fallen far short of God’s standards (Romans 3.23); and Christ had wonderfully died to take the punishment I deserved (Isaiah 53.5).

That night, in God’s sovereignty, everything fell into place; I turned to trust Christ as Saviour and Lord. We both wept, and I was baptised a few years later. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until I left home that the gospel started to really shape my decisions. Indeed it was the godly example of mature Christians at the University of Birmingham, and the expositional preaching at City Church, that were the two main catalysts of my Christian growth.

en: Tell us about your wife Sarah and how you met?
JW: Sarah and I met in 2009, at a church social in an Indian restaurant in Washington DC. At the time, I was an intern at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC), and Sarah was a graduate student in economics. Knowing nothing about economics, I remember steering the conversation towards cricket and the superiority of Indian takeaways in England. I don’t think either impressed her!

However, over the next few months, through mutual friends, we got to know each other better and talked about our desire to serve the Lord. We got married in Washington in February 2011. We now have three children: Benjamin (5), Lydia (3), and Samuel (1). Sarah currently spends most of her time looking after them, although she has managed to teach herself piano so that we are able to have accompaniment in church on Sunday mornings. She is an incredible support in ministry and undoubtedly my best friend.

en: So you returned to London and Oak Hill. What were the biggest things you learned there?
JW: Yes, in 2012 we moved back to England. Having been out of the UK evangelical scene for three years, Oak Hill was a good time of renewing old friendships and making new ones.

During my time there I really appreciated Mike Ovey’s systematic theology lectures. I also enjoyed deliberating on the thorny subject of Christian socio-political engagement in my final year, because this very practical topic forced me to hold in tension many areas of theology – eschatology, anthropology, biblical theology, and so on.

en: But you deliberately left college early to take on a small church at Kew as pastor. What was your thinking behind that, as a gifted young man?
JW: In truth, the opportunity at Kew Baptist Church came up totally out of the blue. I had only completed one year of my degree when I was asked to preach there by Robin Dowling, a part-time Oak Hill lecturer who had pastored at Kew in the early 1980s.

I agreed to preach, but when the tiny church subsequently asked if I would consider being their minister I was astonished. With visions of being an assistant pastor in a larger student-focused church, I was initially certain of saying ‘thank you … but no.’

However, when Sarah and I prayed about it, looked at the gospel need in Kew, talked to other local church leaders, and saw the great desire of two or three elderly saints to keep a Christ-centred ministry going there, we thought we’d give it a go (as long as I could complete my degree part time).

In many ways I felt ill-equipped (and I’m sure being an assistant pastor would have been helpful), but since ministry is a road of constant learning, and since there are so many small churches that need revitalising in areas of huge gospel need, I’m increasingly convinced that many young men, who have been well taught, just need to humbly take the plunge. As John Piper says: ‘Risk is right.’

en: You have obviously been greatly helped by Mark Dever at CHBC and 9 Marks. How does that colour your perception of different denominations and UK evangelicalism?
JW: Certainly my time in Washington DC influenced me significantly and I’m very grateful to friends at 9 Marks, but I think that living in any other culture helps one to better perceive the strengths and weaknesses of their own.

British evangelicalism has so many strengths, and there are certainly many weaknesses in American church culture that readily come to mind. However, what we are not so good at here is the ability to be denomin-ationally robust, whilst also fostering close friendships with gospel-loving brothers and sisters of other denominational persuasion. Mark (Dever) was an incredible model for me of ‘building fences and shaking hands over them often’ (his phrase not mine).

In the UK, pragmatism and modern tolerance seems to cause us to fall into one of two traps. Some appear to build fences around ways of doing gospel ministry and caricature other networks without patiently getting to the nub of potential theological difference. Others seem to believe that the ‘who’ of the church (e.g. who is baptised, who takes the Lord Supper, who is part of my local church) doesn’t really matter (‘is a secondary issue’) so long as the gospel is preached faithfully every week.

This makes local churches less like committed families and more like preaching hubs. Certainly, there is nothing more important than preaching the gospel, but when the gospel goes out it divides and creates a palpable social order.

It should delightfully generate loving local communities, who become more committed to Christ and each other. Perhaps I have this wrong, but we in the UK seem either too reticent to define the ‘who’ of that community, or too eager to highlight the practical characteristics of our networks such that we run the risk of detachment from other brothers and sisters.

en: What encourages you at present and what do you think are going to be the main challenges in the future?
JW: I think the future challenges for evangelical churches are fairly evident. The majority of British people are at odds, not only with Christian theology, but core Christian anthropology. Consequently, evangelicals are increasingly, as Dan Strange says, ‘the pantomime villains of society’. Therefore the need to equip and encourage Christians (particularly those in the public sector) seems pressing.

More positively, in this cultural melting pot, nominal Christianity is vanishing and the hopelessness of secularism is seen ever more accurately. The light of true Christianity shines ever brighter against this backdrop – the downtrodden in society may know their value as those made in God’s image, the lonely in society get to meet communities of genuine Christians who love one another deeply, the successful who have everything this life has to offer (and yet are empty) may hear of the certainty of eternal life for which they were made. How exciting to ‘speak up … in such a time as this’ (Esther 4.14).

Surveying the future

en: What are you working on at en at present?
JW: Apart from editing and writing articles, I’m thinking about the future of en. The newspaper is excellent, but I’d love to see more people reading it.

en has been one of the things that has kept evangelicals united and encouraged, and I’d love to see that continue amongst a younger generation as secularism intensifies.

I’m also considering what is working well and what needs to be improved. So right now I’m trying to listen to those who subscribe, and those who don’t.

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