Mark Meynell has recently become a freelance writer and teacher, having pastored in local churches, taught in an East African seminary and, for the last 22 years, served with Langham Preaching (a programme of Langham Partnership).
1. How did you become a Christian?
I was 18, and in the February before my A Levels, I heard a series of three Lent talks on consecutive nights. I went every night (I don’t know why!). I’d always been someone who was happy to talk about God, but never Jesus. That was far too specific. However, the speaker was unashamed and clear about knowing Him. That was enough to sow the seeds for joining the club soon after.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
God is not simply concerned for your growth in the ‘holy’ bits of life, but in the whole of life. Not only is it possible to integrate Him into your passion for beauty, truth and justice, it is essential. That is how He made us to flourish.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
Erratic and complicated! As someone who struggles with routine and predictability, I’ve realised I need to change things up regularly. But having close friends as a result of ministering in some of the most troubled parts of the world – Ukraine, Turkey, Haiti, to name just three – news headlines give an urgency to interceding for those places, not to mention the painful battles with doubt about what exactly the Lord is up to.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Life Together (SCM) – an astonishing description of what true Christian community can and should be (written in extraordinary circumstances during Nazi rule)
- Wade Bradshaw: Searching for a Better God (Paternoster) – it’s not a book that made waves (sadly), but it is the first book I read that began to give a convincing explanation for how Western secularism had changed. A brilliant and readable distillation. Spurgeon’s • Zack Eswine: Sorrows (Christian Focus) – an inspiring, consoling and affecting account of Spurgeon’s preaching through the lens of his mental-health battles. Gives hope to all of us with similar challenges.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
I’m supremely grateful for my parents who gave me such strong foundations and an openness to the world around me (especially to those from different walks of life or cultures).
Then the handful of older brothers who discipled me were hugely significant. In the last 25 years, the joy and humbling that comes from working in different corners of the worldwide church. Brothers and sisters overseas have helped me shed a tribalist spirit and learn from those who do things differently, even (or perhaps, especially) when I might disagree with them.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
There are so many! British evangelicals haven’t even got close to dealing with our class issues, nor with our means-justifying-the-end pragmatism. I fear the latter, in particular, has been the silent poison behind so many of the recent power-abuse scandals. People become tools for some other agenda (even one that is gospel motivated). That is how it is even possible to start treating them as we want rather than what they might need.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
I love divine serendipities (what the world calls coincidences) which show that there really is someone at work behind the scenes. I detest the effect of power abuse, both on survivors and those around them. For the last ten years, someone new has shared their story with me on average every month and it is heartbreaking.
8. What makes you laugh?
I really don’t like slapstick, but I just adore absurdity and incongruity as well as the brilliance of a finely-honed sentence (such as by P. G. Wodehouse).
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Please forgive the hubris of our presumption and lack of teachability. Help us learn how better to work alongside you in true, mutual partnership for the Kingdom.
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
The Philippian jailer would have a few interesting things to say, I’m sure!
