Tom Allen has served as pastor of Eastbourne Grace Baptist Church since October 2021. Prior to this he was pastor of a church in South London for five years. Married to Catherine, they have four children, Reuben, Jesse, Clara and Caleb.
1. How did you become a Christian?
My conversion experience continues to leave me in awe of God’s electing love. I played Sunday league football from the age of eight, and so rarely attended church.
There was no family worship in the home, which meant I had little fear of God, nor knowledge of His word. In my teenage years, I ran headlong into much immorality. I was a rebellious son, and often verbally and physically abusive to my father.
At 15, in the middle of the night, whilst all alone, God arrested my conscience, impressed upon my mind the reality that the road I was on leads to destruction. This caused me to seek Him for about a year. The following summer, I was reading Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 alone in a tent in August 2008. I was convicted of sin, and broken with sorrow over my evil heart. I asked the Lord to forgive my sin and save me by Jesus Christ. He heard my cry, I was overwhelmed by the love and holiness of God. I promised to follow Him wherever He would lead me.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
Be committed to the local church and serve wherever there is need. Be humble and realise that no task is beneath you. Cultivate the disciplines of reliability, steadfastness, dependability, and be a Barnabas, a son of encouragement.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
I lament the weakness of my prayer life, how we must cry to God for supplicating grace!
I always try to start with worship. I sing a hymn from Christian hymns, using the iPhone app. I then read a chapter each morning, with Matthew Henry alongside. After this, I will pray over what I have read, and intercede for myself, my family, my church and the world.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
Dallimore’s two volumes on George Whitfield have shaped me more than any other book. They gave me a vision for zealously serving the Lord, and trusting in the power of God to bless His own ordained means.
John Owen’s Communion with the Triune God, opened my eyes up to the experiential nature of true Christianity, and birthed within me a desire to read the Scriptures with a view to knowing God relationally.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
Whilst he has tragically fallen into sin, and disqualified himself, Steven Lawson’s passionate preaching was humanly an instrument God used to create a desire in me for passionate expository preaching that is direct, loving and experiential.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon has been, throughout my Christian life and ministry, a model for personal piety, healthy churchmanship, and pastoral preaching.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
To live in the light of eternity. We are living in an age where believers need to have the conviction, deep within, that it is not good “to gain the whole world and lose your soul”.
Persecution may be getting closer than we would wish, and the only way we will remain faithful in our generation, is if we have eternity stamped upon our eyeballs. We must, like Daniel, trust in God’s power to protect us and, should we be called to suffer for His name, to keep us.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
I am encouraged by the many young people in the nation who seem more open to spiritual things. Equally I am heartened by the younger believers who are prioritising a Biblical ministry over personal preferences, whether it be church music, or Bible versions, etc.
I am discouraged by the lack of vision many dying congregations have for the future. By this I mean, I have seen churches close and their properties sold to the world. If only the remaining believers had considered the importance of closing a church to the glory of God and asking Him whether their resources could be stewarded for the good of other healthy local churches that are struggling to support a pastor.
8. What makes you laugh?
My wife. She is honestly the funniest person I know.
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Do not assume that strong doctrinal distinctives come from an unloving and ungracious spirit.
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
Peter. I want to ask him what he was feeling in his heart, when Jesus asked him “do you love me?”.
