Teachers
The School of the Word teachers reflect a wide range of leadership and ministries operating in the UK and in other countries. They are all involved in the life of their respective church communities. They are practitioners. Given the ethos of School of the Word, this is important. Students at School of the Word benefit by learning from teachers who are all involved in the cut and thrust adventure of everyday missional church activities. It would seem strange not to be taught about mission and church by those who were not directly involved in mission and church.
The teachers on School of the Word do believe in academic excellence. Among the teachers are those listed below who are responsible for the bulk of the teaching; they all have postgraduate teaching and/or academic qualifications that are at Masters or Doctorate levels.
Keri Jones
David Emmett
Richard Anniss
Roger Aubrey
Ezekiel Shibemba
Matthew Ling
Tony Ling
David Lyon
Trevor Lloyd
Guest Teachers – Richard Bauckham, Dave Garrard, Neil Hudson, Roger Sutton
Keri is Chair of the Governing Body and the founder of School of the Word. He passionately believes that School of the Word has a crucial role to play in preparing workers for today’s harvest.
He apostolically leads those working together as ministries without borders. His leadership has inculcated within those working with him, a vision of the church being the means to bring the kingdom rule of God on earth, rather than seeing the church as an end in herself. Such vision is not at all parochial but worldwide in its outworking. It is no surprise that those from the church communities he leads have literally gone into all 193 nations recognised by the United Nations with the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Click Mission 193 to read more about this.
Keri is happily married to Carol and has five children who are all adults. One of his sons teaches evangelism as part of the Missional Church Missional Leadership module.
Keri teaches some of the history in the Theology and History of the Restoration Movement module and has discussions with students about the values of the Restoration Movement as a primary source.
David Emmett David has enjoyed being the Principal of School of the Word since the move from Cardiff to Manchester in September 2008. He worked with local churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 10 years and was Head of a secondary school there as well as being involved in teaching church leaders and being on the Executive Committee of the Community of Pentecostal Churches. It was in Congo that he met his wife and has been happily married for 22 years. He has three children, all of whom are studying in full time education.
He has been an elder in King’s Church Manchester since 1994. During this time he has had periods of working full time for the church and also has been led at times to work as a French teacher in a local inner city secondary school. Combining secular paid work with church leadership has led him to develop an appreciation of a theology of work. He still regularly travels to Congo to help with teaching at elders’ conferences of the Harvest Evangelical Church; this community of churches is led by one of his former school students.
David teaches Soteriology and Pneumatology in the Heart of the Gospel module, and some of the history in Theology and History of the Restoration movement.
Richard is a member of the Board of Governors. He has led the church hosting School of the Word for several years. This enables students to interact with him, not only as a lecturer but also as the leading elder in their church setting during their time on School of the Word. Richard also moves apostolically among those who work together as ministries without borders. New Life Church in Salford was planted by Richard and he has a desire to plant other churches in the North West of England and in Europe. He ministers in French and English when he travels to Congo with David Emmett and is currently pioneering the “Without Borders” Bible Week in France planned for May 2010. He is happily married with three young children.
Richard passionately teaches the theology of the Church on the Missional Church Missional Leadership module.
Roger is a member of the Board of Governors and was the Principal of School of the Word from 2002-2008. Many alumni who have been equipped and function in various church communities are still grateful for his teaching and leadership. Today, he leads All Nations Church in Cardiff. He is married to Dianne and has two adult children; his son is currently studying for his PhD and teaches film studies and postmodernism on the School of the Word course.
Roger has written books aimed at helping Christians understand doctrine on faith and God in simple and non-academic terms. Many have found his writing most helpful. All who hear Roger lecture or speak are left feeling encouraged and built up in their understanding of the truth of the Gospel.
Roger teaches the Doctrine of God in the Heart of the Gospel module.
Ezekiel studied at School of the Word himself in 2002. Since that time, as well as having been an elder in Cardiff and Manchester, he has been a great example of missional living in his leading of a pioneering church community (planted from King’s Church Manchester) into the town of Oldham. He also loves to lead musical worship in whatever sized group he finds himself. Anyone attending Ezekiel’s lectures will know what it is to see him break into song as he himself is impacted by the significance of what he is teaching.
He is married and has two teenage boys.
Ezekiel teaches Christology in the Heart of the Gospel module and Church History in the Missional Church Missional Leadership module.
Matthew exercises a prophetic ministry among the churches working together as ministries without borders. He is also a gifted leader of musical worship and has written several worship songs sung in many churches today. He leads the church community in Coventry and has regularly travelled to Cuba and to India to work alongside local ministries.
He is married with 4 children.
Matthew teaches aspects of the Kingdom of God in both the Heart of the Gospel and Missional Church Missional Leadership modules.
Tony is a member of the Board of Governors. He has worked with Keri Jones since the early days of the Restoration Movement in the 1970s. Tony has published a two part commentary on the book of Revelation. He is held in high esteem and much affection by the church communities to whom he has exercised his prophetic ministry over the last 30 years. He has been a foundational ministry to many churches in both the UK and overseas. Tony exemplifies the prophetic ministry of building up and encouraging churches.
He teaches restoration doctrine in the Theology and History of Restorationism module.
David is a member of the Board of Governors and leads the Living Rock church community in Leicestershire. The church he leads has known much missional success through community involvement. David has responsibility for the weekend programme of School of the Word, which takes place over 10 weekends a year in Leicestershire.
David is married with 3 children.
David has a growing interest in the history and roots of the Restoration Movement and teaches on this subject in the Theology and History of the Restoration Movement.
Trevor leads a flourishing church community in Huddersfield. He is appreciated in the churches as a gifted teaching ministry who vivaciously applies the teaching from Scripture into today’s culture with contemporary relevance. He is married with 4 children.
Trevor teaches Scripture on the Heart of the Gospel module and world views on the Challenges to Missional Thinking module.
Guest Teachers
As well as those working together as ministries without borders, guest lecturers are invited to teach on School of the Word. Among these are:
Until 2007 Richard was Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He retired early in order to concentrate on research and writing, and moved to Cambridge. He is the author of numerous books and academic papers. He lectures on the Bible and Mission (also the title of one of his books) as part of the Heart of the Gospel Module.
Neil taught for several years at Regents Theological College and was director of post graduate studies. He has led Salford Elim church for many years and currently works for the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity. Neil has many published articles in academic journals.
Neil teaches Pentecostal and Charismatic history in the Theology and History of the Restoration Movement module and Missiology in the Challenges to Missional Thinking module.
Roger is currently director of Reaching the Unchurched Network. For many years he led Altrincham Baptist Church. During this time he initiated Seeker Services and Altrincham Baptist has the longest running record of Seeker Services in the UK. Roger shares honestly about the ups and downs of this time as part of the Missional Church Missional Leadership module.
Dave teaches at Mattersey Hall College. He has many years experience of lecturing in a Bible College and prior to that working with a missionary society in Congo establishing advanced level Bible Schools. He has written extensively on the history of the missionary society in Congo. He currently travels regularly to Ethiopia encouraging church planters in that country, and still visits the Pentecostal churches in Congo.
Dave teaches on the history of W.F.P. Burton as a missional leader in Congo in the 20th century as part of the Missional Church Missional Leadership module.