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Staff Team

RUN is administrated by a small team based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. When you phone or email you are likely to be speaking to one of the following:

Chris StoddardChris Stoddard - Director
Chris has been the full time Director of RUN since 2001 and is one of the founding members of the Network. In addition to working with Youth for Christ for 3 years he has spent over 20 years in pastoral ministry, first in Northamptonshire and more recently at Southcourt Baptist Church in Aylesbury where he took specific responsibility for mission and worship. His role within RUN involves giving an overall direction to the organisation as well as helping churches and their leaders become more effective in mission. Chris is married to Liz, they have two daughters Louise and Anna and live in Buckinghamshire. When not RUNning around on business his interests include skiing, cycling, walking, music and travel.

David FinnDavid Finn - General Manager
David became a Christian through contact with The Navigators in his third year at London University. He is married to Jean; they have 3 daughters and live in Aylesbury. He is a member of Southcourt Baptist Church where he is involved in leading worship. He is keen on reading (especially historical novels), music and his family. David initially graduated as a Chemical Engineer and worked for 10 years in industry. He subsequently served for 20 years in financial services, eventually becoming a Senior Manager in the Marketing Department of a nationally known life office. He joined RUN to work part time as General Manager at the beginning of 2003.

Helen SmithHelen Smith - Membership Secretary
Helen joined RUN in 2001 and although officially part time office administrator, typically has a busy week combining answering your calls and membership issues with being a full time wife, and mum to James and Jennifer. An active church member, Helen also sees involvement with the wider community as a key part of her Christian life. Spare time! Helen enjoys relaxing at the gym, badminton and outdoor activities with the family.

Trefor WilliamsTrefor Williams - Communications Support
Trefor has been working with RUN on a part time basis since early 2005. Prior to that, he worked on the staff of a busy suburban church. Now attends a local Vineyard church where he is involved in projects for the homeless and disadvantaged. Trefor is married with 3 teenage children and lives on a smallholding with numerous horses, sheep, dogs and cats! The outdoors is where Trefor loves to be, but agrees to sit in front of a computer screen for a few hours each week to keep RUN members up to date and well informed! More info and shocking picture found at www.myspace.com/treforW.

We also have a team of backroom technicians, including:

  • Gareth Bithell - Web Developer
  • Stuart Hoaen - Web Developer
  • Adrian Riley - Web Designer


Executive Team

Rev. Roger SuttonRev. Roger Sutton (Chair) - Altrincham Baptist Church
Chair of RUN since its formation in 1993. Married to Lesley, a visual artist. 4 children. Lived and ministered at Altrincham for 19 years. His ministry passion is to lead the church to love God and love the World. Altrincham was one of the first churches in the UK to start Seeker Services in 1992, twinning this with strong evangelistic and social care ministry in the local area.


Rev. Chris StoddardRev. Chris Stoddard - RUN Development Director
Chris has been the full time Director of RUN since 2001 and is one of the founding members of the Network. In addition to working with Youth for Christ for 3 years he has spent over 20 years in pastoral ministry, first in Northamptonshire and more recently at Southcourt Baptist Church in Aylesbury where he took specific responsibility for mission and worship. His role within RUN involves giving an overall direction to the organisation as well as helping churches and their leaders become more effective in mission. Chris is married to Liz, they have two daughters Louise and Anna and live in Buckinghamshire. When not RUNning around on business his interests include skiing, cycling, walking, music and travel.


Rev. Martin SaxbyRev. Martin Saxby (Treasurer) - St. Matthew's, Rugby
Vicar of St Matthew�s Rugby where he has been for 15 years. He is married to Jackie and they have two adult children, Victoria and Andrew, both involved in worship leading at St. Matthew�s. Martin has been on the RUN executive for over ten years having become involved at an early stage in Seeker Services and re-orienting an Anglican church to be seeker friendly. He is passionate about growing the body of Christ and enabling traditional churches to become relevant to modern day culture and impacting local communities. He mentors local church leaders and wants to see local churches developing effective mission strategies.


Rev. Peter HancockRev. Peter Hancock - Huddersfield Pennine Methodist Circuit
Pete Hancock is a Methodist superintendent minister in Huddersfield. He is married to Jane and has three daughters. Before moving North in 2002, Pete spent eight years leading the planting of "The Bridge", a "church for the unchurched", in Hinckley, Leicestershire. Through this he joined RUN ten years ago. He has been a resource person for the Methodist Church nationally in the area of fresh ways of being Church and believes that new pioneering forms of Church can be a prophetic sign to the Church as a whole of the future that God is leading it to. He enjoys the non-denominational, non-party "all in it together for the Gospel and the Kingdom" ethos of RUN.


Rev. Geoff LanhamRev. Geoff Lanham - "B1" Birmingham
Geoff Lanham is an Anglican Priest who has worked in Birmingham for more than 14 years. He�s married with three children; enjoys sport of all kinds and is passionate about Liverpool Football club and walking in the country. Geoff first got involved with RUN back in 1995 because he saw the difficulties un-churched people were having in belonging to church. The RUN passion to prioritise mission and listen to the needs of the un-churched match his own. He currently leads a Network Church based in Birmingham City Centre called B1 which aims to cater particularly for people in their 20s and 30s. His passion is to make connections with non-churched people and bridge the cultural chasm between church and the world outside. Currently, Geoff is developing a project called 'Breathe' to create sacred sanctuary space for city centre workers and dwellers in Birmingham.


Dr. Andy MackieDr. Andy Mackie - Riverside Church Birmingham
Andy Mackie is leader of Riverside Church in Birmingham, taking on this role in 2004. He became a Christian in Edinburgh at the age of 20 and moved to Birmingham with a strong missionary pull a few years later. He began working for Riverside Church around 1992 and has always had a heart for equipping people to be missional both in the workplace and in the local community, as well as leading some 40 Alpha Courses since that time and seeing many come to faith through this and other evangelistic initiatives. His desire is to see ministry teams develop to impact the diverse challenges of their city. He is married to Ruth and they have 3 children.
Andy has been committed to RUN from the outset, as one of its founding members, and also helps facilitate its core aims of envisioning, networking and resourcing church leaders so that all can move forward with the main thing - communicating the message of God's grace to the people of this land.


Sue GreenSue Green
Sue is self employed and works on a number of different projects, all of which seek to encourage the local church in mission. Although a primary school teacher by profession she has worked with Covenanters as North West Regional Manager and more recently for Open House International, as Director of the Real Christmas initiative, Sue lives in South Manchester and loves nothing more than socialising with family and friends. She is verging on the obsessive as regards attending the gym (due to far too many meals out) and loves skiing. Sue is passionate about partnership and longs to see a much better co-ordination of mission activities on a local, regional and national level. She joined the RUN Executive in 2005 and is looking forward to having her thinking about mission challenged at the same time as serving its members as best she can.


Tom BurkeTom Burke - Grace Christian Fellowship. Cork, Southern Ireland
Tom is leader of the 400 strong Grace Christian Fellowship in Cork, Southern Ireland, as well as being the Coordinator of the Cork Church Leaders Network. He is married to Denise and they have 2 children Dillon (16) and Dara (13). Tom joined RUN 2 years ago, convinced about the need for churches to be relevant to both their local and contemporary culture. He is passionate about the Irish church engaging fully with local Irish culture, as well as networking with similar churches in the UK and Europe. Tom's not sure if he constitutes an ethnic minority on the RUN Exec. team or not, but decided to play that card for all it's worth anyway.


Council of Reference

RUN�s executive team is supported by an active Council of Reference, which includes:

  • Rev. Ian Coffey - Spring Harvest Leadership Team
  • Bishop Graham Cray - Bishop of Maidstone
  • Mr Mark Greene - Executive Director LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity)
  • Rev. Anne Hibbert - Director of The Well Christian Healing Centre, Leamington Spa
  • Rev. Dr Martin Robinson - Exec Director of TIM (Together in Mission)
  • Rev. Paul Simmonds - Research Director of Foundations 21
  • Rev. John Smith - UK Director Evangelical Alliance


Volunteers
Volunteers
Volunteers

During the course of a year we have a number of mailings to members as well as others who want to be kept in touch with RUN's activities. Have you ever wondered how these are made up and sent out? Well, the secret is out.

The RUN office is based at RUN Member Southcourt Baptist Church, Aylesbury and we have a number of folks from the church who are willing, when called upon, to help us with making up of packs and stuffing envelopes for no other reward than a cup of coffee and a doughnut!

Our picture shows our volunteers hard at work stuffing envelopes for the mailing of brochures for the RUN National Conference.

Conference Volunteers
RUN conferences are often held at Member churches where we are very grateful to those who give of their time to make the days so welcoming and successful when we are �on the road�.

RUN is a Registered Charity (No. 1080435) and also a member of the Evangelical Alliance.