John Woods
1. How did you become a Christian?
I cannot remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. Baptised a Catholic, I spent my first year at a mother and baby home attached to a convent. My adopted grandmother was a Scottish Presbyterian, who meandered through a menu of options including the Mormons and the JWs.
I was sent intermittently to a free church Sunday School. At high school, two godly teachers intrigued me, then one day a classmate invited me to attend a youth group. I was immediately struck by a sense of reality among them. They read the Bible as if they were listening to a real voice and prayed as if they were confident that someone real was listening.
I asked the leader of the group: ‘How can I know God like that?’ He explained the gospel to me, and I asked Jesus to be real to me too. Ironically, I ended up in the same church as my two schoolteachers and one of my Sunday School teachers. All three said that they had been praying for me. Eventually I became the first full-time pastor of that church, and one of those teachers and the husband of the Sunday School teacher served as two of my fellow elders.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
Listen carefully. Speak carefully. Live what you speak.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
Somewhere between C- and D+. Apps like PrayerMate are useful in providing a structure for my daily prayers, but I have sought to develop ways of injecting joyful freedom into my transforming friendship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
When I was a teenager, someone gave me a 19th-century edition of Pilgrim’s Progress. For a while I read it through every year. During the pandemic I reread it as part of my preparation for writing my book on preaching, God is in the House. Bunyan sparked my imagination and has shaped the way I think about compelling and effective communication.
In my 20s I heard a brilliant sermon on Luke’s Gospel by Welsh preacher Geraint Fielder. He recommended Michael Wilcock’s book The Message of Luke in The Bible Speaks Today series. This book provided a helpful model of how to read a long and complex book like Luke in a way that respected Luke’s storytelling ability, delightful arrangement of that story, and the careful intertextual reading of the Gospel that sees the richness of Old Testament revelation flowing into his portrait of Jesus.
The Adventure of Living by Paul Tournier was put into my hands when I was in my early 40s. This was a tricky time to navigate in my life. I had a sense that my time as a pastor in my hometown of Lowestoft was coming to an end. There were a few possibilities on the table; some were riskier than others. Tournier talks about his own midlife tussle with moving from physician to pastor. The thought that helped me was that a man (in particular), needs a balance in his life of adventure and security. Too much adventure and we are likely to die of too much excitement; too much security and we might die of boredom!
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
My first ‘pastor’ Stanley Griffin modelled ways of communicating truth by lip and life. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones showed how truth is to be experienced. Dick Lucas helped me to keep my finger on the text. Tim Keller helped me join the dots of my devotional life, theology, reading, and cultural engagement. Augustine, who is brilliant on most things, taught me how to teach, delight and persuade in my preaching.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
Being clear about the truth. Being charitable in how we hold the truth. Choosing the right tone when we speak.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
Encouraged by friendships with a range of younger pastors who are faithful and innovative. Discouraged by lack of effort to build bridges rather than erect walls.
8. What makes you laugh?
‘Went on the holiday of a lifetime. Never again!’ (Tim Vine)
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Pay attention: to God’s word; your fellow Christians; those with whom you differ. Be aware of the cultural moment.
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory, and why?
Obadiah, because he contributed to Scripture, but has been largely ignored. I want to say I read his book and preached on it.
