Meet our new Brighton Learning Community Mentor
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Emmanuel?
I’m married to Charlotte, we have three young daughters and we live in the middle of Brighton where we both came for university. I joined the staff at Emmanuel as a graduate, taking on a series of roles; student worker, central Brighton pastor and latterly head of preaching, teaching and training. I hold an MA in Systematic Theology from King’s College London and am working towards a PhD in Political Theology in the same department.
We’ve been part of Emmanuel for the best part of 20 years; when we joined it was called Church of Christ the King and was the first church of the Newfrontiers movement. Now our church meets in several locations across the city. Brighton has two universities and many other institutions of higher education, so we have many students that attend. Our vision is to reach other culturally up-stream cities in the secular West and as a church we have planted into Berlin, Amsterdam and Ottawa in the last few years with plants planned imminently in Krakow and Belfast.
How do you think the Learning Community will serve Emmanuel in its vision?
We’re excited at the prospect of raising men and women of the Word who are rigorous in their thinking and passionate for Jesus and his mission. The Learning Community will allow people in our church to pursue high level academic training whilst growing in pastoral and ministerial experience in the midst of our city and in the context of a living worshiping community.
What are you looking forward to about offering the MTh and being a mentor?
For me, it is all part of a calling to do theology as a way of following Jesus. I love the way that God meets with us in our studies and how his Spirit delights in our curiosity. I have led the Internship programme here for several years and have taught many groups and seeing the ‘lights go on’ as people are built up in the faith through worshipful study is a huge privilege. I am expecting that to happen with the MTh here and I am very excited to be taking that journey with the students.
How can we pray for you?
This is our first year, so we value prayers for a smooth start. We’d also value prayer for myself and the students that God will meet with us as we learn, study and discuss. We’re all very excited to be joining hands with Union in this.