Michael
In 2021 Michael began working as a ministry trainee for Newcastle Reformed Evangelical Church (NREC), while taking several modules at Westminster—a role that was intended to last just two years. However, in 2023, just as Michael was reaching the end of his traineeship, a small, fragile church in the town of Winlaton, just south of Newcastle, reached out to NREC for help. Joined by several others from NREC, Michael began pastoring this church as part of a revitalisation work. Over the last two years, the congregation at Winlaton Evangelical Church has grown from five to around twenty-five, with two baptisms taking place last summer.
Michael is married to Hannah, and they have two boys, Roger and Peter. Presently, they are in the process of moving from Newcastle to Winlaton, into a house just two minutes’ walk from the church. Their hope is that, in the years to come, the church will grow both numerically and in spiritual strength, and they plan to stick around as long as the Lord provides. In God's grace, Michael has been able to continue his studies part time, while pastoring the church. This can be a lot of work—but he believes that the teaching at Westminster has fed his ministry in many important ways, and hopes to complete in the summer of 2027.
Presently, Michael's income is largely dependent on the Knox Scholarship; the seminary's kind provision of this fund has been a vital support to the possibility of the work at Winlaton.
