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A
bit about me
David & Faith,
December 2003
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Early years
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I was born
in Malton, in East Yorkshire, England, in 1940 and grew up in a stable Christian
home. My parents were Methodists.
During his time away in the Second World War,
my father joined the Open Brethren. At the end of the war he
moved the family to the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, and
it was there I grew up. I became a committed Christian myself
at the age of twelve.
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Education
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At Bradford Grammar
School I gradually veered towards languages and sat my 'A'-levels
in Spanish, French and English. From there I went to Bristol
University, from where I graduated in 1962 with a Special Honours
BA in Spanish Studies.
While at university I was active in the Christian
Union and became Missionary Secretary.
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Family and work
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The year of my
graduation, I married my childhood sweetheart, Faith. We continued
to live in Bradford. I taught in several local schools and in
1963-64 took a year out to get my Graduate Certificate in Education.
Eventually I became Deputy Principal of Bradford's
largest Middle School.
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Pastoral service
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Since an early
age I had felt the call to full-time Christian work.This dream
came to fulfilment in 1976, when I left schoolteaching (and took
a 50% salary cut) to become part of the pastoral team of The
Church House Fellowship, a new evangelical, charismatic church
in Bradford.
This church (now known as the Abundant Life
Church) was formed from the merger of three smaller groups, including
the Brethren assembly in which I had grown up and had eventually
been recognised as an elder. The merger took place under the
'apostolic' direction of Bryn Jones.
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Project work
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In time I moved
from pastoral activity into project-type work with Bryn's organisation,
Covenant Ministries. In 1980 I set up Covenant College
for him and his team and acted as principal for the first few
years.
Then I served briefly under Arthur Wallis on
the editorial staff of a Christian magazine, Restoration,
before becoming editor myself, which kept me busy for the next
eight years. During that time I also did some book-editing and
began writing. My first book, Church Adrift, was published
in 1985 and was followed by five others.
Next, having moved from Bradford to Leicester,
I gave myself to the editing/writing of a ten-volume theological
series, the Modular Training Programme, for Covenant College.
This project came to an end in December 1995.
During all this time I had continued teaching
at Covenant College, specialising in New Testament Greek, as
well as travelling to preach and teach in churches in both the
UK and overseas. I forged special links with churches in Zambia's
Copperbelt and NW Province.
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South Africa
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In January 1996
my wife and I went to South Africa for two years to set up a
Bible college for a group of churches there. We lived in Centurion,
near Pretoria.
The college saw its first batch of (mostly
black) students graduate successfully in December 1997, after
which we returned to the UK.
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Back in Britain
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On our return
we felt that our work with Bryn and Covenant Ministries had reached
a natural end, and we moved back to West Yorkshire—to Castleford
and the Five Towns
Christian Fellowship, with which I had had close links
for many years.
In due course I was received into the church's
eldership team and from August 1998 began to serve the church
on a full-time basis.
Our three children are now grown up and away
from home, but we are delighted that they are all active Christians
and fully involved in their own churches in South Wales and Cornwall.
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