John grew up in a small and under-resourced church in Western Sydney. For most of the church’s life there was no minister so all ministries were lay leader led. As with many such churches the lay leadership served wholeheartedly but eventually burned out for lack of direction and leadership. John himself went through a similar path of burn out and left church altogether. By the grace of God and the help of a caring minister, John was nurtured back to spiritual health over the course of many years.

Compelled by this experience John went on to study a Bachelor of Theology and a Master of Arts (Ministry) at Sydney Missionary & Bible College with the aim of helping the lay leaders of small, struggling churches to grow despite their difficult circumstances. To this end, the thesis and coursework for his masters was focussed on discipleship in the book of Proverbs and has greatly influenced his philosophy of ministry. He graduated with the Chairman’s Prize for Academic Excellence and is continuing to develop his thinking in the theory of play and its application to youth group games and the implementation of story structure in preaching.

John served as a lay leader in various ministries for over 10 years and has now been working as a minister for over six years. He is currently serving as the Minister at HPCC and spends his spare time mentoring and training lay leaders and creating resources for this ministry.

Have a listen to John’s sermons here.