Meet the team

We have the pleasure of working alongside some very gifted teachers and trainers, from various different backgrounds and cultures. These leaders are developing our material, as well as training other leaders who will be able to train the next generation.

 

Colin

Colin heads up Mobilise Global and is passionate about producing and empowering well-rounded leaders that can lead their churches well. 

For a British 50-something year old bloke, he turns up in some quite unexpected places. It’s an unusual path he has taken, as he used to be an electrical engineer, and was then in church leadership in the UK, leading Jubilee church, Worthing from 2004 – 2015. When he moved to South Africa, he saw huge opportunities for the gospel, but also a desperate need of good training for emerging leaders who would sustain that growth. 

"For me, a well-rounded leader is one who has a good theological understanding, who has good leadership skills, and who is constantly growing in their character to be more like Jesus."

Colin has devoted much of his adult life to studying the bible, and has a knack for making profound truth accessible. During lockdown, he diligently wrote and produced both theology modules, and is currently working on getting them translated. “I’ve been lucky enough to have 20 years of input, resources, and lots of pondering time, so I just want to add what I can. I love teaching people to read and teach the bible well, helping to maximise their leadership amongst their people. There’s a whole host of different theologies floating around Africa – some from the West about prosperity, lots from TV, and many aren’t very helpful. I’d love leaders to be grounded in scripture so that when they hit troubles or questions from their congregations, they can answer well and stay strong.”

“We recognise the great need for biblical training, but without the cultural traditions that often come in the package. So we want to teach how the bible works, and empower local leaders to then interpret it and apply it to their own contexts. We want the local leaders to be well equipped and able to teach and raise up their own leaders, and build their own movements of churches.”

Colin is married to Pam and they have 3 children. He likes reading, playing guitar, watching sport, walking, table tennis, food, films and deep conversations. His dream is to see pastors equipped, and teachers training their own people well. He longs to see lots of church planting, and that those churches would grow strong, with good foundations. Ultimately, he prays that more training centres will be planted, so that everything multiplies out into different languages and people groups so we reach unreached people and affect the nations. 

Pamela

Pam’s role in the charity is communication-based. She does all the writing, connecting, and social media. She is passionate about building community, so loves meeting people across different churches and cultures, hearing their stories, learning their songs, and eating all kinds of wonderful food.

Pam is by no means a theologian, and sometimes struggles to focus on the teaching material, but we have found that God uses this to flag up issues! If she is not understanding things then other people probably aren’t either, especially if they’re not working in their first language. 

“I have experienced God’s word bringing freedom, and it’s amazing to be part of that process in others – freedom from shame, freedom from regret, worry, fear, and lies about our lives and identities. Theology just means ‘the study of God’, so I consider myself very fortunate to hear so much of it, and to be challenged by big thoughts. The best part is that I get to witness the delight of those who are gaining confidence in the bible, and how it hangs together. Sometimes I’ve even seen church leaders understanding concepts for the first time - I love the pure joy on our team’s faces when somebody says “Ohhhhh, I’ve never seen it like that before…!”

Pam is married to Colin, and they moved from the UK to South Africa with their family in 2016. Adjusting to life and parenting teens in a cross-cultural context was tough, but she loves adventure, and is grateful for the way the experience has changed her. “I own less stuff and I’m happier in my own company. Living here and meeting people from other cultures has messed with my own Western theology in a big way! I am very happy with my role, writing about some of the amazing people we have met. Not many people get to emigrate and experience different cultures, so I hope that my stories give readers a small sense of coming along too. Ultimately I hope they help us to stay connected, to pray and ultimately, to love and worship the Lord a little bit more - it is incredible to see who he uses, and how he works.” 

 

 

Gareth 

Gareth’s main contribution to Mobilise Global is around the areas of discipleship and church-planting. He wrote the training module about these topics, and if you chat with him, these are the themes that run throughout his conversation.

“I think for me, having got my degree in theology and completed loads of leadership training, I still remember feeling utterly clueless when I was taking over leading a church. I was thinking to myself, ‘what do I actually do?!’ So my role in terms of the church-planting course, is very practical. What do we do with the theology we have? We’ve learned a lot but now what does God want us to do with our new knowledge? 

“Regarding discipleship, what really gets me excited is that it’s not only for church leaders, but for everyone. I am putting my energies into bringing the idea of discipleship down to a level where everyone feels confident that they can do it, rather than a few ‘skilled individuals’. So I’m trying to lead people through that process. I love simple church – not that we lower the bar of following Jesus, but the expectations of what church looks like. I want to see everyone obeying Jesus and making disciples. Christianity means full participation!” 

“Training is such a key issue, and I see that especially as I am based in South Africa and know many African leaders and teachers. Much of the weakness we see in African christianity is because Western christianity has been ‘copied-and-pasted’ into Africa. We want to avoid that as much as possible, bringing as much truth but as little culture as we can!”

“Africa isn’t one culture! In our exposure to different people groups and nations, there is such a beautiful diversity. Every culture, every village almost, needs its own expression of church. One size doesn’t fit all, so we can’t just train a certain group of people to go throughout the continent. Training is the way we’ve got to do it, and I am convinced that this means bringing principles and truth, but then allowing local leadership to flesh it out in their own way, and apply it however it works best for them.”
 
Gareth is married to Nicci, and they have 3 boys. They live in KZN, helping in the local church leadership team, the Issachar Alliance team, and the training. They have a particularly special grace on them to help others. Gareth loves the outdoors and sports, but his real passion is that every believer would be equipped to follow Jesus and make disciples. “If we can get that right, we are going to see the gospel go to the unreached.”

 

 

Leon

Leon runs the “Empowered by the Spirit” module of our training material, because he loves all things to do with the Spirit. He has purposefully given himself to growing in that area for years, and enjoys the gifts of healing, prophetic words and words of knowledge. He says the Lord has “graciously grown” him as he has stepped out. So the training is not just knowledge, but very practical. “I want to demonstrate what we’ve just learnt. I always lay hold of that Scripture that comes in 1 Cor 2 where Paul says he ‘didn’t come with eloquence or superior wisdom… but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power’. Even when I’m doing a normal preach in my home church, I always trust God for a time of ministry at the end.”

When he is delivering the training material, Leon says there are a few things here and there that people have heard and captured, and built a theology around. Then he loves to break in and say “hey – this is not what the bible is saying!” Now and then there will be a huge discussion. Last time in Zanzibar, they spent a whole hour discussing the truth around the gift of tongues. “You have your own personal understanding of a subject, but when those discussions happen, the Holy Spirit gives you divine inspiration, and stuff just starts coming through in your mind and heart and it all comes together – I enjoy that!”

Leon also loves being out there with non-christians, “…It’s almost like you have to SO trust God, saying, "Give me something, give me something!” and I have an eye for that … so as I approach people I am seeking the Lord at the same time and I’ll say, ‘listen, by any chance do you have lower back pain?’ or something like that, and they’re like, “WHAAAT?”, and the Spirit opens up the door.”

It took him a long time to discover that he’s an evangelist and he wrestled with it for years, but now he knows and he hasn’t looked back. Others step out too around Leon because he’s bold. It hasn’t always been so….

Leon’s dad was a complete atheist and his parents divorced when he was very young. Through the divorce, the family were thrown into a lifestyle of poverty which drove Leon and his brother into a life of crime. “We started going to prison a lot, from a very young age. Through the whole process, God didn’t give up. By 1998, I was facing a whole lot of criminal cases and the sentence was looking like 25 years – the judge had made that clear. I was only 16. I knew my life was messed up completely. It was at that point that the Lord saved me! Everything turned around completely, my mum got saved, my sister got saved…. there are still a few members of the family that we are trusting for salvation, and my dad died without getting saved. But from that lifestyle to my lifestyle now, you see the hand of protection of God on my life.”

Leon is pictured with the beautiful women in his life – Shenelle and their 2 daughters . He loves fishing – he can fish for hours and hours, sitting on a rock at the beach for the whole day long. Even if he doesn’t catch a single fish, he is still content.
 
Please pray for Leon and his family, for wisdom about their lives and that they will always know and follow the Lord’s leading. We are so grateful that God has joined him to the team, with his unique flavour, sense of fun and bold faith.