Pastoral team
Ian Thompson – Grace Community Church Morval Acting Pastor
I was brought up by Christian parents and I always accepted that Jesus Christ was real and that the Bible was true, but we attended a very small mission church where the few attenders were mostly old and I had little sense of the Gospel being dynamic or relevant. Gradually through my teenage years I began to see that there was a lot more to it than the limited horizons of our little mission. I remember one day coming across Nicky Cruz’s book “Run, baby, run” about how he was delivered from the gangs of New York. I was riveted as I devoured the story of how his life was changed. As I read into the early hours I got more and more excited thinking to myself “It is true after all!” Gradually my life began to change as I began to put my beliefs into practice and to experience Jesus for myself.
I have had many ups and downs in my life since then, but God has kept me through them all. He has blessed me with a special wife, Christine, 4 children, David, Eleanor, Philip and Daniel, and one granddaughter, Megan.
Joining Grace Community Church back in 1995 was definitely one of the “ups” for us as a family! We were given such a warm welcome and we have loved being a part of it ever since. It is now my privilege to “hold the fort” as acting pastor until our newly appointed pastor, Jim Hillier, joins us in the autumn.
Yours,
Ian Thompson (Acting Pastor)
The Core Team
This is the team that manages the affairs of the church. They are voted in by the members at Morval.
Ian Thompson – communications and office manager; currently acting pastor; also serves on the Overseers’ team
Jesse Foot – music and service leading co-ordinator
Paul Julian – finance
Maureen Easterbrook – pastoral visiting
Ralph Chase – home missions
Steve Allen – overseas missions
Anniken Allis – child protection
Martin Gilbert – children and youth; ministry of the Word; also serves on the Overseers’ team
The Overseers
Overseers is another biblical word for elders. This team is made up of representatives from each of the member churches of Grace Community Church, Cornwall. Those starred* are also trustees of the GCCC charity.
Stephen Thomas* – Chair (Bodmin)
Richard Powell* – Senior Pastor of GCCC (Bodmin)
Ian Rescorle* – (Bodmin)
Gordon Nash* – (Torpoint)
Archie Gray – interim pastor at Torpoint
Martin Gilbert* – (Morval)
Ian Thompson – (Morval)
Richard Powell, Senior Pastor
Richard is the pastor at Bodmin and is also the Senior Pastor of the Grace Community Church, Cornwall, family. He has a leadership role across the church family and chairs the weekly staff meeting of all the pastors.
I had the privilege of being brought up in Christian home and became a Christian at an early age.
At this stage however, my faith did not mean a great deal to me and I had no sense of a personal relationship with God. As I grew older and became a teenager I began to drift away from church. I spent the next few years doing a lot of things that I thought would make me happy but actually left me feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled in life. Then at the age of seventeen God used two different events to grab my attention (Please feel free to ask me about them). As a result I started to read the Bible and God began to speak to me through it. For the first time in my life I started to develop a sense of relationship with God. Since this time I have grown and matured in my faith and found the deep satisfaction and meaning in life, through my relationship with Jesus, that had previously eluded me. In 1998 I married Alison and we now have four very lively and fun children. Their names are Rachel, William, Anna and Daniel. I began working for the Grace Family of Churches in September 2008. My overriding passion in life is to see the church become increasingly effective in sharing the good news about Jesus.