Meet The Team

John Partington, National Leader - AoG GB

Email John - john.partington@aog.org.uk

John is the National Leader of AoG.

He has been a pastor and apostolic leader and now wants to use his widespread experience, infectious sense of fun and evangelistic zeal to bring a fresh vision and purpose to AoG. John’s exciting journey has demonstrated the God-given positive attributes he has shown for more than three decades. He thrives on inspiring others with fun, the feel-good factor and, with his father heart, he loves to encourage others. John has led churches in Bedworth, Liverpool and Exeter as well as pioneering seven others.

He is married to Andrene and is a father of three and a grandad.

Ian Watson, Assistant National Leader - AoG GB

Email Ian - watsoni@bridgebolton.com

Ian is the senior minister of the Bridge Church Bolton where he and his wife Sue have served in this capacity since 1990.

The Bridge has seen good growth over this period of time thanks to the multi-gifted team of ministers and staff that serve alongside Ian. Prior to this, Ian and Sue were part of the ministry team at Burnley for eight years.

Ian has also served on the World Ministries Team for the past eight years, initially as director for Africa North, then Europe, and now as World Field leader overseeing the various area leaders.

Ian has been married to Sue for 28 years and they have three children: Kendal, Jordan and April.

John Andrews, Training Director

Email John Andrews - john.andrews@thehubcentral.org.uk

John is the Senior Minister of The Hub Christian Community in Rotherham and serves on the NLT. He is a teacher with a passion to inspire and equip the Church to make God famous in the world. As well as ministering in the UK, John travels regularly to various nations of the world seeking to invest what he has, while he can.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, John is married to Dawn and together they have three children: Elaina, Simeon and Beth-Anne.

Andrew Smith, Area Leader - Scotland

Email Andrew - andrew.smith@aogscotland.org.uk

Andrew has pastored Whitburn AoG in West Lothian, Scotland for the past twenty years. He is committed to seeing the Kingdom of God expand North of the Border and for the past seven years has led the Scottish Region alongside pastoring his local church.

Andrew has a passion to see more churches planted and younger leaders emerge as the work of God continues to develop in Scotland. With a heart for seeing healthy and connected churches within the movement, Andrew wants to make the next few years count like never before in seeing the work of God move powerfully forward in the UK and particularly Scotland.

Married to Lois with two teenage girls and a 20-year-old son, in his spare time Andrew is an avid golfer and a keen Glasgow Celtic supporter.

Grayson Jones, Area Leader - North

Email Grayson - grayson@iccd.co.uk

Grayson graduated from Mattersey Bible College in 1991. While at College he began to lead a new church plant in Darton near Barnsley. He was the senior leader at Darton for 11 years where he led the church to purchase its own building and trained up a successor to take on the work when he left. While at Darton he also planted a Church in Scotland.

Grayson and his wife Del took over the leadership of Doncaster Pentecostal Church in July 2002 and have since transformed the church into what is now known as International City Church. Over the past nine years the church has seen significant growth and a congregation has been planted in the town of Barnsley.

In 2008 Grayson achieved a Masters Degree in Missional Leadership and is now also a part time lecturer at Mattersey Hall.

Grayson and Del have four children.

Phil Pye, Area Leader - Central

Email Phil - phil@arenachurch.co.uk

Phil has been in ministry with AoG since August 1979, having spent the previous two years at Mattersey Bible College. He has led churches in Skegness, Oxford and Jacksdale, and four years ago joined the Senior Leadership Team at Arena Church, Ilkeston, a growing community of believers on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border.

Phil has served in a number of capacities within the fellowship, including Youth, Training and as part of the Regional Leadership Team. For the past six years he has been Regional Leader for the East Midlands Region.

His primary gifts are leading, preaching and teaching, being impassioned to encourage and empower other leaders to build advancing prevailing local churches - ‘the hope of the world’.

Married to Sharon for over thirty years, they have two grown-up daughters who love the Lord. Miriam lives in Melbourne, Australia, and Alison, a school teacher, married to Ryan, lives in Nottingham.

Gary Rucci, Area Leader - London & East

Email Gary - gary.rucci@aog.org.uk

Gary and his wife Nikki arrived from Brisbane Australia in 2011 to assist John Partington and the National Leadership Team in strategy development during AoG’s time of transition. They have been in fulltime ministry for 23 years and are both credentialed with Australian Christian Churches (ACC). They have served in various capacities with significant senior leaders in some of Australia’s largest churches. They are passionate about community transformation, leadership development, discipleship, mission and mobilisation.

Gary is known for his passionate and articulate communication and has served on several elderships, boards and leadership teams developing strategies and systems to enhance the influence of local church and mission organisations. For more than ten years he was the Australian representative for Next Wave International, a European-based mission led by fellow Australian, Mal Fletcher. He served as European representative for ACC and for many years as the Australian rep for Chinese City Gospel Mission. He has ministered in more than 40 nations.

Gary and Nikki have three children – Steffany (20), Christopher (17) and Jonathan (11).

Ian Williams, Area Leader - Wales & West

Email Ian Williams - williams@cherith6.freeserve.co.uk

Ian is the Senior Pastor of Riviera Life Church in Torquay, a church which he and his wife Jackie pioneered in 1995. Riviera Life Church (formerly known as Living Waters Christian Centre) continues to grow, impacting the lives of many people each week through its relevant teaching and life-giving message. Ian’s personal mission statement is “Determined to make the Difference”; he carries a passion to see the church fulfil its God-given purpose.

Ian and Jackie have four children – Beth, Jordan, Hannah and Reuben.