Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Online

After leaving medicine in 1927, Dr. Lloyd-Jones became the minister of a Welsh Presbyterian Church in Aberavon, South Wales. He was there until 1938, when he moved to London to share the ministry of Westminster Chapel in Buckingham Gate with Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, who retired in 1943. This ministry lasted for thirty years until Dr. Lloyd-Jones retired in August 1968. He then engaged in a wider preaching ministry and in writing until shortly before his death in 1981. From: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Online: "If I may say so in passing, the thing that has given me greatest pleasure, and greatest encouragement of all the things I have ever been told that people say about my ministry, is this. It was said by a lady, who remonstrated, and said, 'This man preaches to us as if we were sinners!' Quite so. You see, you must not be searched, you must not be examined, you are all right. Of course, denounce those sinners who are outside, or those liberals, but, why, we are the people who are orthodox! We do not need that, we need instruction. We want these general lectures, these addresses, these character studies. How interesting, how nice. But we must not be disturbed. There is nothing wrong with us. And so such people, as you see everywhere in the Bible and in the history of the Church, have always disliked anything that searches them, or makes them feel uncomfortable, or probes them." Dr. Lloyd-Jones was brought up in Welsh Calvinistic Methodism, first as a boy in Wales and then as a teenager and student in London, when the Charing Cross Chapel, which his family attended, was living on the left-over emotion of the Welsh revival. If you have never heard of the Calvinistic Methodists the very term may seem contradictory. Because of his spiritual foundations in that movement it would be wise to take some time to hear an explanation of that denomination from Martyn Lloyd-Jones himself. Consider the following excerpt taken from an address by Lloyd-Jones given in 1968 to the Puritan and Westminster Conference.

Though he did not truly found it, Welsh Calvinistic Methodism finds its roots in George Whitefield. During the mid 1700's the churches of Great Britain could be divided into two main camps. The Methodist branch (under John Wesley) was Arminian meaning they emphasized man's free will. The Presbyterian and Congregationalist were Calvinistic meaning they emphasized the sovereignty of God in salvation. Both of these camps had their problems. The Methodist ignored the nature of the doctrines of Grace and the need for depraved man to be regenerated by the effectual call of God. On the other hand the Calvinists (including many Baptists) had become hyper-Calvinistic meaning they began to deny the free offer of the gospel to all men and the need for evangelism and missions. In many ways Calvinistic Methodism sought the best of both sides. These Welsh Christians were thorough believers in the doctrines of Grace. Unlike their English counterparts, however, they did not believe that being Calvinistic means ignoring one's heart and emotions. They were aware of what George Whitefield called a "felt Christ." Lloyd-Jones rightly notes that right doctrine apart from this "felt" Christ had inherent problems. The Welsh church saw a need to return to Bible preaching rather preaching of doctrinal statements, Catechism and Confessions. One other great concern of the Calvinistic Methodist Church was revival. For that reason Lloyd-Jones observed that he believed that Jonathan Edwards was in his heart a Calvinistic Methodist. While the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church had itself grown cold by the time of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, it history played an important part in formulating his life and ministry. "The Doctor" reintroduced in his preaching ministry the need for careful, expository preaching. He restored to Great Britain what it had known under Spurgeon and that was a hungering for the unfettered Word of God itself over liturgy and religious form.

One listener listening to Dr. Jones one night was the 72 year old Dr. Campbell Morgan, pastor of Westminster Chapel in London. It is reported that the elder pastor told Lloyd-Jones, "No one but you would have brought me out on such a night!" The evangelical with perhaps the greatest national standing in the thirties was G. Campbell Morgan, Minister of Westminster Chapel. When he heard Martyn Lloyd-Jones, he wanted to have him as his colleague and successor in 1938. But it was not so easy, for there was also a proposal that he be appointed Principal of the Theological College at Bala; and the call of Wales and of training a new generation of ministers for Wales was strong. In the end the call from Westminster Chapel prevailed and the Lloyd-Jones family with their daughters, Elizabeth and Ann, were finally committed to London in April 1939. He had begun his ministry there, on a temporary basis, in September 1938. Morgan and Lloyd-Jones' association was a fitting example of how Christians can work together even when they differ on secondary issues. G. Campbell Morgan was an Arminian and his Bible exposition, though famous, did not deal in the great doctrines of the Reformation. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was in the tradition of Spurgeon, Whitefield, the Puritans and the Reformers. Yet the two men respected each other's positions and talents and their brief partnership, until Campbell Morgan died at the end of the war, was peaceful and much furthered the work of Christ in London.