Serving with World Harvest Mission in London
28 Cranmer Close
Ruislip, Middlesex
HA4 9QF
NW London, England

johnwadelong@bigfoot.com

The Longs' Bio:

Johnny was born in Tampa, Florida, USA, after completing his public education, graduated from Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi in Biblical Studies and Philosophy (1965). That year, Johnny and Rebecca Ann Morse (“Becky”), a Presbyterian pastor’s daughter from Birmingham, Alabama were married. After earning the Master of Divinity degree at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi (1968), the Longs did youth ministry in Virginia and South Florida. Johnny was ordained in 1970 by the Presbytery of the Everglades of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). Volunteering for overseas service, the Longs were appointed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod (RPCES) to serve the Africa Evangelical Presbyterian Church (AEPC) in Kenya, East Africa. From 1973 to 1977, they were engaged in a ministry of church planting, leadership training, and famine relief. In 1977 the Longs returned to the United States and until 1992, pastored Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregations in Mississippi (3½ yrs.) and Alabama (12 yrs.).

After experiencing what Johnny and Becky call “a profound and much-needed spiritual renewal,” they responded to calls from African church leaders and World Harvest Mission to return to Kenya. Johnny, Becky, and Elizabeth (“Libba,” then 11) arrived in Nairobi in January 1994 to begin a decade-long renewal work with church leaders and in theological schools. During this time Johnny earned the Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with a specialty in Christian Spirituality, “SONSHIP for Africa” being Part II of his three-part doctoral thesis. The book is available in English, Amharic (Ethiopia), Malagasy (the language of the Island of Madagascar), and is currently being translated into French for use in theological schools in Africa, and German for  training German speaking missionaries in Tanzania.

In October 2002, WHM asked the Longs to relocate to London, England to direct the renewal component of a new evangelism & church-planting ministry to reach the post-Christian generation in the UK. The four-family Africa Renewal Team, having done its work of discipling Sonship trainers around Africa, was disbanded in late 2003 whereupon the Longs returned to the US to raise the additional support needed to begin a new ministry in the UK. They arrived in London in mid-August 2005, and have begun the work of developing mentoring relationships with pastors in the application of the Gospel to their personal and family lives, their preaching and teaching, and their leadership of their churches in ministries of nurture, evangelism, and church planting. Links have been established with a number of leaders in the IPC (International Presbyterian Church), the C of E (Church of England), FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches), the Free Church of Scotland, and several Reformed Baptist Churches. Three pastors are assisting Johnny in the re-writing of his SONSHIP for Africa course for the UK context (“Grace4Life”). Currently he is training a group of nine English pastors in “Gospel-centered preaching,” a course he is developing for the John Owen Center meeting at the London Theological Seminary.

Johnny also serves as the Renewal Coordinator for WHM in Africa, and he and Becky will be teaching in Kenya and Madagascar in November 2006, and return to Nairobi in 2007 to do the Africa Inland Mission conference.

Johnny & Becky have three wonderful children: John III (37, an architect in St. Louis, MO), Rebecca Lance (33, of Bethesda, MD), and Mary Elizabeth Roberts (24, of Chattanooga, TN).