Welsh Reformed preacher (1899-1981), known affectionately as "the Doctor." A brilliant medical student who became assistant to the Royal Physician at Bart's Hospital in London, he left medicine in 1927 to pastor a small mission church in the Welsh town of Aberavon. Eleven years later he was called to be associate and then sole minister of Westminster Chapel in London (1938-1968) — a pulpit he filled for three decades. Lloyd-Jones led the resurgence of Reformed, expository, experiential preaching in mid-20th-century Britain and, through tape recordings and published sermons, far beyond.
Lloyd-Jones is the most important British preacher of the 20th century. Four contributions. (1) Expository preaching revived. His multi-year sermon series through Romans (14 volumes), Ephesians (8 volumes), and the Sermon on the Mount (2 volumes) modeled slow, doctrinal, experiential exposition. The method ran counter to the topical, therapeutic, and programmatic preaching dominating evangelicalism. Generations of preachers learned their craft by listening to "the Doctor." (2) Revival and the Spirit. His Joy Unspeakable and Revival lectures argued that the evangelical Church desperately needed a fresh outpouring of the Spirit — a position that put him in conflict with strict Reformed cessationists while maintaining a firm distance from charismatic excesses. His nuance was that baptism with the Spirit is an experience of assurance distinct from regeneration, normally given in initial conversion but capable of being received afresh. This position remains debated. (3) Separation from ecumenical compromise. In 1966 he publicly called evangelicals to leave mixed denominations (specifically the doctrinally-compromised Church of England and mainline Free Churches) for evangelical unity. His fellow Anglican evangelical John Stott publicly disagreed; the division remains instructive. (4) Doctrine for the preacher's soul. Spiritual Depression (1965) is one of the finest pastoral works of the century — teaching Christians how to "talk to yourself instead of listen to yourself" with the promises of God.