London Seminary, LTS as it was called then, was a very small affair when it began in 1977, the year of Ford Fiestas, Abigail’s Party and the Yorkshire Ripper.
The Seminary is not large now, but in those 40 years – a whole generation in biblical terms – over 400 men have been trained for pastoral and preaching ministry, the bulk of whom are still ministering today. They work all over the country, from Inverness and Dundee down to Eastbourne and Bournemouth, from Aberystwyth across to East Anglia, in the capital itself and in nations all over the world. More than that, other ventures, such as the John Owen Centre and the newly announced Flourish course for women, have been introduced to support and strengthen the work.
Philip Eveson
It was appropriate that at the Seminary’s annual service on the last Saturday in June, the Chairman should be Philip Eveson, the second of three Principals who have led the work. He took the opportunity to remind us of the work’s beginnings all those years ago. He was also able to represent the Board in giving a big thank you to our Secretary for 39 of those last 40 years, Brian Stevens, as well as publicly thanking Robert and Sarah Strivens, with the help of Board Chairman Spencer Cunnah, on behalf of the Seminary.
The first Principal was Hywel Jones and the third Robert Strivens, who gave this year’s report, his last in that capacity. We also heard from the Principal Elect, Bill James, who will begin as the fourth Principal, God willing, in January 2018. He read Psalm 96 and led us in prayer.
Leaving students
We also heard from six leaving students, carefully shepherded by Vice-Principal David Green – Chris Durrant, John Kerr, Philip Lievesley, Pedro Real, Manuel Redondo and Chris Statter. Five of these men are about to begin ministry – in Bournemouth, Gloucester, Frinton-on-Sea, Brazil and Salford. Manuel hopes to do further study before returning to Spain. It was also good to hear that third-year students Keith Holmes and Chris Roberts are already settling into ministry in London, in Covent Garden and Ealing.
Albert Mohler
It was a great opportunity to have Dr Albert Mohler, Principal of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, as the visiting preacher. The SBTS has over 5,000 students of different sorts at present, but there was no hint of condescension from Dr Mohler, quite the opposite, recognising the different circumstances under which we labour.
The students were directed, in our hearing, to John 15.18-27 where Christ the General warns his untried soldiers of what is ahead. Under the heading ‘What do you expect?’, he warned of what lies ahead and gave three reasons from the text as to why to continue. Firstly, because we belong to Christ; secondly, because we have the Holy Spirit alongside us and thirdly, because we have Christ praying for us, Christ who has overcome the world.
Good numbers
There appeared to be more present at the service this time than in recent years. Several former students had taken the opportunity to travel back to London and their presence was appreciated. Tea and discussion on the lawn is a tradition on these occasions and that was kept despite periodic attempts by the overcast skies to send down rain.
Being present on these annual occasions is always a joy. Not only is there the opportunity to meet up with friends and fellow workers, but there is always the reminder that by the grace of God the kingdom is inching forward in this place and that.
Luther and ‘mouth houses’
Both the principal and Dr Mohler referred to Luther and his 95 Theses, this being the 500th anniversary of the bold act of the great Reformer. Dr Mohler, who has had opportunity to travel to Germany this year, suggested to us that Luther got to the five solas of the Reformation bit by bit, not all at once. Perhaps none of them were fully in place in Luther’s mind in 1517. But the Lord led him along step by step, the Reformation came to be and ‘mouth houses’ (a term apparently coined by Luther in Germany and taken up in English by Puritans and others in America to emphasise that God’s Word and his salvation is an acoustical affair) began to spring up in every place. At one time Luther’s students rather lost the plot when they thought icon-oclasm was the answer, but he recalled them to the work of getting the Word out of their mouths into people’s ears, where the Holy Spirit could teach it to their hearts.
That same need exists today and the leaving students were encouraged to take note and act. We pray that the Seminary will take note too and continue to prepare men for the ‘mouth houses’ of England and beyond.
