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Lore & Background

According to his autobiography, Pawson's immediate ancestors were all farmers, Methodist preachers or both, dating back to John Pawson, a friend and follower of John Wesley. His father, Henry Cecil Pawson FRSE (1897–1978), was head of Agriculture at Durham University and Vice President of the Methodist conference. From his childhood in the north of England, Pawson had wanted to be a farmer. He completed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in agriculture at Durham University before studying for a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Arts (MA) in theology at Wesley House, a Methodist theological college in Cambridge. On 1 September 1956, he was commissioned in the Chaplains Branch, Royal Air Force as a chaplain with the relative rank of flight lieutenant, serving in Aden, and relinquished his commission on 1 September 1959.

In Their Own Story

After leaving the RAF, Pawson served as a Methodist minister but gradually expressed disapproval of infant baptism. After appearing before a doctrinal committee of the Methodist church, he volunteered to leave the denomination. Shortly thereafter, he accepted an invitation to become the pastor of Gold Hill Baptist Church in Buckinghamshire from 1961 to 1968. Later, as pastor of Guildford Baptist Church (nicknamed Millmead, which he helped to design), he established a reputation among both evangelicals and charismatics as a Bible teacher. His teaching tapes, originally made for the church's sick and elderly members, became popular worldwide. Pawson left Guildford Baptist Church in 1981 and engaged in an itinerant worldwide Bible teaching ministry through seminars for church leaders in Asia, Australia, Africa, England, Europe, and the United States. He died on 21 May 2020 at the age of 90.

Reader's Guide

In The Normal Christian Birth, Pawson argued that a biblical initiation into Christianity should involve more than the simple 'Sinner's Prayer', proposing four principal steps: repentance towards God; believing in Jesus; baptism in water; and receiving the Holy Spirit. In Leadership is Male, he teaches that leadership is a role given by God to men. In The Road to Hell, he is critical of annihilationism, teaching that people who go to hell experience eternal suffering. In Unlocking the Bible, he presents a book by book study of the whole Bible, based on his belief that the Bible should be studied 'a book at a time'. In When Jesus Returns, he rejects postmillennialism in favour of a premillennial understanding of the Second Coming. In Jesus Baptises in One Holy Spirit, he discusses the evidence for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as a separate event from believing, repentance and water baptism. In The Challenge of Islam to Christians, he documents the present rapid rise of Islam in the West. In Once Saved, Always Saved?, he uses scripture to question the frequent evangelical claim that someone who has once believed in Jesus Christ will end up with Christ in heaven whatever that person subsequently believes or does. In Word and Spirit Together: Uniting Charismatics and Evangelicals, he calls for an end to the division between charismatic and Evangelical Christians. In Defending Christian Zionism, he puts the case that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is a fulfillment of scriptural prophecy.

Did You Know?

• Pawson's father, Henry Cecil Pawson FRSE, was head of Agriculture at Durham University and Vice President of the Methodist conference.
• Pawson served as a chaplain in the Royal Air Force with the relative rank of flight lieutenant from 1 September 1956 to 1 September 1959, including service in Aden.
• Pawson helped design Guildford Baptist Church, nicknamed Millmead, which became one of the largest Baptist churches in the United Kingdom under his ministry.
• Pawson was the author of more than 90 books, produced more than 300 teaching videos and more than 1600 audio recordings.
• The foreword to Pawson's book Leadership is Male was written by a woman, Elisabeth Elliot.