David Jeans moves to New Zealand
UK Church Army College Principal appointed Dean of the College of the Southern Cross, within the College of St John the Evangelist, New Zealand
David Jeans, Principal of Church Army's has been appointed to the task of equipping the next generation of priests for the Pakeha wing of the Anglican Church in New Zealand where he will ensure mission and evangelism will occupy a central place in training for ministry.
The Rev David Jeans, has accepted the post of Dean of the College of the Southern Cross, within the College of St John the Evangelist in Meadowbank, Auckland (http://www.stjohnscollege.ac.nz/). He hopes to take up the post in early May 2006.
David Jeans, who holds a Master's degree from Oxford University, and a M.Phil in Theology and Religious Studies from Manchester University, has for the past nine years, led Church Army's regarded in the UK 'as a national centre of excellence in the training of evangelists.' As well as providing formation training, The Wilson Carlile College of Evangelism also provides in-service training for these workers, as well as lay training. David, who is also a member of the Church Army's national Senior Management Team, leads a team of 14 staff at the college.
David comments: "Although I am from the evangelical wing of the Church of England, I am committed to working with those of other traditions to advance the mission of God through the church and have been delighted to be Principal at the Wilson Carlile College of Evangelism when we have developed and delivered mission-shaped training with an emphasis on the vocational and practical. The college is a real centre of excellence in working with men and women from all church traditions to help equip them to think about the message and context of evangelism for a contemporary world."
In 2004 David chaired the working party that produced Inside Out - a report of Church Army's Theology of Evangelism Working Party that argued the case for "specialist, gifted, called and recognized evangelists in the ministry of the church". The report was welcomed by Paul Bayes, the National Mission and Evangelism Adviser for the Church of England, as "providing the theological and practical foundations for understanding the ministry of the evangelist in today's changing content. I strongly recommend it to all those who wants to think and pray more deeply about the evangelistic work of the church in our generation."
Mr. Bruce Davidson, Chair of the St John's College Board of Oversight, says he is pleased to announce Rev Jeans's appointment, and he looks forward to his contribution to the future life and direction of the College of the Southern Cross.
'David's particular interests' he says 'are in training to reflect the mission and ministry aspirations of the wider church, the centrality of mission in theological and ministerial education - and the development of reflective practitioners able to think theologically about their mission and ministry contexts.'
One aspect of his Sheffield ministry which David will be sorry to shed is his chaplaincy to Sheffield Wednesday Football Club (www.swfc.co.uk) which, he says, has been his own personal arena of mission for the past 16 seasons.
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