David Watson (evangelist)

David Christopher Knight Watson (1933–1984) was an English Anglican priest, evangelist and author.

Watson was educated at Bedford School (1940-1946), Wellington College (1946-1951) and St. John's College, Cambridge where he converted to Christianity. He became involved with the ministry of E. J. H. Nash by the invitation of David Sheppard, later to become Bishop of Liverpool. Watson noted: "Undoubtedly the most formative influence on my faith during the five years at Cambridge was my involvement with... 'Bash camps.' [...] It was the best possible training I could receive." He became a priest in the Church of England, starting his ordained ministry among the dock workers of Gillingham, Kent.

Watson's second curacy took him to the Round Church in Cambridge where the vicar was Mark Ruston. Around the same time, encouraged by Martyn Lloyd Jones, Watson sought the religious experience known as baptism in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues.

Watson became curate-in-charge of St Cuthbert's Church, York in 1965, which was attended by no more than twelve at any service and was twelve months away from redundancy. Eight years later the congregation had out-grown St Cuthbert's and an array of annexes resulting in a move to St. Michael le Belfrey, York. Subsequently, the congregation grew to many hundreds in only a few years. As his ministry progressed, Watson was involved with missionary enterprises throughout the world and was a high-profile advocate of reconciliation and ecumenism in Northern Ireland. He met the Vineyard Leader John Wimber in 1980, and was one of the first people to welcome him to the UK. This encouraged the connection between Wimber and Terry Virgo of Newfrontiers that ensued. He left St. Michael-Le-Belfrey in 1982 for London.

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