Why are ministers going to North America and why should they think of staying here? Ken Brownell has investigated this pressing question...
I have been thinking about writing this for some time. Every so often we hear of a good minister leaving this country and moving to North America. When recently I heard that two very well-known ministers are planning to do just that, I decided the time has come. Because I am an American, but have lived here for 27 years, I may be able to say what a Briton could not without sounding like sour grapes.
Need in the UK
Of course the movement of ministers from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland is nothing new. John Cotton joined the Puritan migration to New England in the 1630s, as did many others. The names of well-known ministers who have gone to North America in the 20th century is a long one: W.H. Griffith Thomas, John Murray, Stephen Olford, Glyn Owen, J.I. Packer, Philip Hughes, Stuart Briscoe, Bruce Milne, Alistair Begg, to name but a few. Institutions such as Regent College in Vancouver, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Westminster Seminary have attracted British theologians.
