I am married to Anne who I met in Christian drama group at Hull University. Since then we have both pursued Christian ministry. Initially running a church youth group in Sussex which grew from about 6 to 60 members during the 5 years we gave most of our spare time to it. We then became CPAS Urban Evangelists in 1990, doing youth evangelism in inner-city Nottingham and joining FPE.  This remains a defining experience for us. We quickly found everything we thought we knew about youth evangelism didn’t work and found ourselves having to learn about the very different culture we encountered. This has shaped our ministries ever since and was the beginning of my exploration of cross-cultural mission amongst those with no church background that now forms the basis of my role with the Sheffield Centre.

We trained together at Trinity Bristol and were ordained together in 1996. My training offered the possibility to do masters research exploring New Age and Paganism; not only as an important area for mission but also a chance to revisit the few years in my teens when I was a practicing occultist as part of my own spiritual journey before I became a follower of Christ. After a shared curacy we both went into university chaplaincy at different universities. I began my current role as Researcher in Evangelism to Post-Christian Culture at the Church Army Sheffield Centre in 2003, whilst moving with Anne’s ministry to various parts of the country. We are currently in St Albans where Anne became vicar of the city centre parish in January 2010.

In my job as well as research into contemporary evangelism and culture I support Church Army’s projects working with Fresh Expressions in areas like Nightclubs, Arts Venues and street outreach.  I do a wide range of training and speaking engagements in Britain and abroad looking at evangelism within the emerging culture. I am also engaged in training churches to run stalls at Mind Body Spirit events. I am involved in Elemental, a venue offering Christian Spirituality at the Glastonbury festival. I am a member of the Lausanne World Evangelisation issue group on New Religious movements. I am also author of New Age Paganism and Christian Mission, Grove 2003, Coded Messages, the Da Vinci Code and evangelism,
Grove 2006 and with others of Equipping Your Church in a Spiritual Age, CBTI 2005. My latest book Mission-Shaped Evangelism Canterbury Press 2010 examines contemporary culture and the history of cross-cultural mission in order to set out an approach to evangelism today.

Outside of work one of my passions is cooking, and keeping a wine cellar to accompany the outcome.  Together we enjoy walking, theatre and music. Anne does not however share my passion for the three TV series in the CSI franchise or my boxed set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.