I come from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and arrived at NTC as a student, spending five years here before moving to the Glasgow area to work as a pastor and church planter for 12 years. I returned to Manchester and NTC to take my current post in 2007, a role which integrates missional education, missional training and coaching of pioneers through Forge England and Wales, and the birthing and forming of missional communities.

My PhD in Missiology, “Rooting the practice of Evangelical Protestant Church Planting within a Trinitarian Theological Framework with particular reference to creation, context and community” explored how our understanding of the Trinity could shape and inform the planting of new churches. The aim was to provide a theological framework for the pioneering of new communities through engaging in critical conversations with a range of Trinitarian theologians (Moltmann, Boff, LaCugna, Volf, Tennent, and Newbigin) alongside the planting of a new church, Didsbury Community Church. This enabled theology and practice to mutually inform one another and provided a setting in which the principles and ideas created could be applied in a real-life setting.

At NTC I teach a range of modules that are rooted in missiology: Contexts of Mission, Creative Evangelism, Starting Healthy Churches, New Forms of Church, Growing Healthy Churches, Theology of Mission and Global Missiology: Mapping the Landscape. My monthly blog, Musings Over A Mug provides missional conversations and reflections on a range of missional issues. Through Momentum UK Services, I provide missional consultancy, training, theological reflection and speaking engagements to a number of denominations and missional agencies across the UK and beyond.

I’m quite musical, and you’ll only need to be around for a while to discover my love for the hymnology of Lennon & McCartney.