Contributors

Pete is one of the founding convenors of the Wildfires Festival. KXC is an Anglican church in the heart of central London serving God’s purposes to make all things new. Along with his wife, Bee, Pete Hughes planted the church in 2010, establishing a community with the simple vision to recklessly give themselves away to God, each other, and the people of King’s Cross and beyond. Pete is a highly-regarded figure in the UK church, who has written a book on joining God’s story of recreation, called ‘All Things New’.

As one of the founding convenors of the Wildfires Festival, a powerhouse of creativity, leadership and teaching, Rachel is the Lead Pastor of Gas Street Church with her husband, Tim. She is passionate about communicating the liberating power of God’s truth and seeing His Kingdom come in Birmingham. Rachel has a background in television and media, and worked for the BBC in London before joining the staff at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) where she led the Creativity & Arts Department while also raising four young children. More recently, Rachel has pioneered a national ministry to empower women called ‘The Orchard’.

Tyler’s burning passion is the formation of a community established through prayer, that is unexplainable apart from the love and power of God. He is the Lead Pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, where he lives with his wife, Kirsten, and their three sons. He is also honoured to be the National Director for 24-7 Prayer USA. Tyler is the author of ‘Searching for Enough’ and is currently working on a second book, on the topic of prayer.

As one of the founding convenors of the Wildfires Festival, Ken is primarily passionate about Jesus and about people, particularly the emerging generation entering the workplace.

With over 40 years’ experience in investment banking, he now runs his own consulting firm. In 2016, he was nominated as one of the top 5 deal advisors of the last 20 years in Europe. Ken has written four books, God at Work, Know Your Why, Strange Kingdom, and Joseph of Arimathea. He is chairman of the boards of Worship Central, the Lambeth Trust, and the Reconciling Leaders Network, and is regulalry asked to speak and preach across the country.

Damilola Makinde serves in the formation team at KXC and as advocacy engagement lead at the Evangelical Alliance. She’s desperate for a revival in the UK and is keen to draw alongside others in contending for this.

Pete Greig is the increasingly bewildered founder of the 24-7 Prayer movement, Senior Pastor of Emmaus Rd, and a leader at Waverley Abbey. He is an Ambassador for Tearfund, a member of The Order of the Mustard Seed, and a co-host for the Lectio 365 daily devotional. Pete’s latest book is How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People.  

John David (J.D.) Walt was for many years the Vice President and Dean of Chapel at Asbury Theological Seminary, and one of the key under-the-radar leaders behind the recent Asbury Outpouring.  We are thrilled to have him at Wildfires to share his insights and release that anointing. 

J.D. is the Founder and President of Seedbed, Inc. whose mission is to gather, connect and resource the people of God to sow for a great awakening. Seedbed’s work publishes a full complement of awakening and disciple making resources and hosts the annual NewRoom Conference which has grown from an attendance 200 to approaching 3,000 over the past six years.  

He is a licensed attorney in the state of Arkansas and an ordained elder. J.D. is a father of four children and lives in The Woodlands, Texas. 

James leads Prayer Storm a movement of worship & Intercession which equips the church to be in prayer as well as gathering people from across the UK to fast and pray for the Nation believing God for a great spiritual awakening. Since starting in May 2009 Prayer Storm has become a catalytic movement in seeing many catch a heart intercession, starting regular prayer meetings in churches, schools, universities and work places.

Jim Laffoon serves on the Oversight Team of Every Nation Churches worldwide. He is also the International Director of the EN Schools of Empowerment, which include the School of Empowerment, the School of Intercession, the School of Prophecy, and the School of Healing the Human Soul.   

Jim lives with his wife Cathy in Franklin, Tennessee; they have 6 children and 8 grandchildren.

Originally from West Sussex, Beth now lives in California. She is married to Matt, and the mum of five children. Beth is passionate about family, discipleship, teaching the Bible, and gathering women together. She leads a ministry called ‘Vine’ and has written several books.

Nick and Becky Drake are the founders of Worship for Everyone, a movement that seeks to unite all ages in worship. They are both on staff at Gas St Church in Birmingham, and they have 4 children, who joined them throughout lockdown in a weekly Facebook live show, ‘Family at 4’, which reached tens of thousands of households. They continue to write and release music and have recently published two books: Why Worship? and Worship for Everyone. 

Professor John Wyatt is an academic, medic and author who is fascinated by the challenges of cutting edge technology and how these raise new questions about what it means to be human. He co-edited a recent book The Robot Will See You Now: Artificial Intelligence and Christian Faith. He podcasts at Premier Unbelievable: Matters of Life and Death and his website is johnwyatt.com. 

Wole Agbaje is the pastor of IMPRINT Church, a vibrant community in Central London and Leicester that develops a culture of worship, discipleship, and creativity with the goal of conveying Jesus’ love to their communities. He also works as a curate at Holy Trinity Brompton, where he is involved in worship, teaching, and prayer ministry.  

Wole is also the Head of New Wine Young Adults, a thriving movement of churches dedicated to restoring the UK back to Jesus by empowering the local church. Wole is also a musician and designer who is passionate about empowering people to use their artistic talents to communicate their faith in Jesus. 

Anna Mason leads St Gregory’s Church in Cornwall, which launched out of KXC. It is still early days of the adventure having only officially started in March 2023, but it is a group of people with a vision to wholeheartedly follow Jesus and serve him in Cornwall and beyond.  

Natalie Williams grew up in relative poverty in the deprived seaside town of Hastings. She became a Christian at 15, which changed her life completely. Natalie has been involved with Jubilee+ since its first year and took over as Jubilee+ chief executive in April 2021. Natalie is the co-author of four books, including A Call to Act (2020) and Invisible Divides (2022). She is passionate about the church being a place of overflowing mercy, especially for those trapped in poverty. 

Tanya is the Emerging Generations Pastor at Trinity Church Nottingham. Over the last two years, Tanya has poured her heart into seeing revival among the youth and is passionate about seeing young people come alive through encounters with Jesus. As such, she has set up ministries such as Fuel, a Nottingham-wide youth event. Tanya is also part of the Orchard team and is excited about pioneering a new youth stream this coming October. 

Tim May is Rector of Bow Church which he leads with his wife Lulu in the heart of East London. They long for the presence and power of Jesus to break out in Bow and beyond. Tim has held roles in churches of various shapes and sizes and was previously the National Director for Alpha in the UK. 

Pete Wynter is Vicar at St Paul’s Hammersmith, Director of the Leadership College London, and Founding Director at Onelife Leadership, a charitable company working with young leaders around the UK and beyond. He has delivered transformational leadership programmes globally, and has hosted and spoken at the Leadership Conference in the Royal Albert Hall, London, for several years. 

He enjoys adventure, tries to keep his competitive edge in check and loves heading for Cornwall with his wife Sarah, their three children and one adorable dog called Luna. 

The Rt Revd Dr Ric Thorpe was appointed as Bishop of Islington in 2015 to oversee the Diocese of London’s work on church planting and growth. He serves the Church of England nationally as “bishop of church planting”, supporting bishops, dioceses, church planters and pioneers, and developing church planting strategies to plant new worshipping communities.  

Ric is the director of the Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication, which offers training and support on church planting and heads the annual Multiply Church Planting Conference. He is married to Louie and they have three children. 

Adam and Rachel Dyer are leaders at Yeovil Community Church in Somerset. Rachel is also Founder of Yeovil4Family and Head of Partnerships Development for Spurgeons Charity. Adam also leads Jesus Collective based in Toronto.

They are passionate about Jesus and about whole community transformation, and they are parents to Jake, Emilia, Zach and Elijah, and grandparents to Florence and Willow. 

Dan is married to Marina and father to Grace. He is the HOPE Together YxYA Director and is one the Senior Leadership Team and Youth & Young Adults Leader at Life Church Lancashire. He is passionate about seeing unity across the Church and a generation of leaders unite around mission. He also loves; music, Burnley FC and coffee. 

Lindz West is the CEO and founder of an organisation called Light and an energetic frontman to the band LZ7. His heart is on fire to use music as a mechanism for evangelism. He tours with huge artists globally and without fail delivers the powerful message of Jesus. Couple this with the Illuminate schools tours up and down the nation, Lindz has spoken Jesus to over 1.2 Million people in the last 3 years! 

As one of the founding convenors of the Wildfires Festival, Tim is best known as the worship leader and songwriter behind songs such as ‘Here I Am To Worship’, ‘Happy Day’ and ‘The Way’. He has a desire to see people encounter God and be fully equipped as worship leaders, so that the local church can be empowered. As a result of this, he pioneered Worship Central – an international movement of worship leaders and musicians. Tim is also the Lead Pastor of Gas Street Church alongside his wife, Rachel, and they have four children.

Jill Weber serves on the International Leadership Team of 24-7 Prayer and is the Director of Spiritual Formation at Emmaus Road Church in Guildford. Jill is also the Global Convenor of the Order of the Mustard Seed, an international lay, ecumenical religious order and leads the Waverley Abbey Community. In addition Jill is a regular contributor to the Lectio 365 Daily Devotional App and author of Even the Sparrow: A Pilgrim’s Guide to Prayer, Trust, and Following the Leader.

Sammy Greig serves alongside Pete as Senior Pastor of Emmaus Rd, parent to two adult sons and owner of Crumble the dog. Having lived for many years with her own chronic illness, she now runs her own private counselling practice helping clients process past trauma. Pete and Sammy split their time between a barge on the River Wey and a cliff-top retreat on the Isle of Wight where they host and mentor leaders from around the world.

The driving prophetic force behind King’s Cross Church, Bee Hughes, along with her husband Pete, leads KXC in the heart of central London – a community pursuing God’s redemptive purposes for the city with courage, compassion and creativity. She is a strong advocate for raising up women into leadership, and for fuelling faith in families and children. Bee is one of the founding convenors of the Wildfires Festival.

Believing everything we do should be woven in worship, Gas Street Music is a worship community based at Gas Street Church in Birmingham, with the shared focus to wholeheartedly lead people into an encounter with Jesus.

Jonny and his wife Amy lead a church in Nottingham called Trinity, which they planted a little over six years ago. He is a father to four.

An ASCAP award winning UK-based songwriter, speaker and worship leader, Nick has worked for several large churches in central London as a worship pastor whilst developing his gifts in songwriting. As Prayer Pastor at Gas Street Church, he helps host Kingdom Come events that have an emphasis on Spirit-led prophetic worship, and is also the songwriting developer for Gas Street Music. Nick regularly runs Capitol Publishing song camps for the next generation and travels to the US to write. His passion for co-writing and encouraging artists has led him to write with many different people, bringing a unique, fun energy to the room!

Rich has championed the central role of local churches in student mission for over 25 years, inviting a generation to ‘a call less ordinary’. He leads Fusion, which is a movement passionate about student mission, seeking to equip students, serve churches and develop student workers all across the world. Rich is married to Ness, Team Leader of Open Heaven and Pioneer UK Leader.

Lauren Windle is a journalist, presenter, public speaker and author. Her first book Notes On Love: Being Single and Dating in a Marriage Obsessed Church was published in 2021 with a follow up Notes On Feminism: Being a Woman in a Male Led Church set for release on International Women’s Day 2024. Lauren is published in Vogue, Marie Claire, Church Times, Premier Christianity and others. She has been sober for nine years and regularly speaks on addiction and recovery.

As one of the founding convenors of the Wildfires Festival, Ness is a true champion of women in leadership and is the Team Leader of Open Heaven, a church in Loughborough which was planted with friends in 1993 when they graduated from university together. Open Heaven is now one church with multiple expressions and has sent out a number of church plants. Ness is the Pioneer UK Leader and relentlessly empowers and raises up other female leaders. She is married to Rich who heads up Fusion, the national student movement.

Katharine Hill is the UK director of Care for the Family, a charity which aims to strengthen family life and help those who face family difficulties. As an established speaker and broadcaster, she has addressed thousands of people both across the UK and internationally on marriage and parenting issues. She is the author of several books, including the popular Left to their own Devices and A Mind of Their Own. Her latest book is called Born Free. She is married to Richard and they have four children and five grandchildren. 

Leah Chilengwe is a speaker, teacher, mentor, mother of two, wife, and entrepreneur. With years of corporate experience speaking both to businesses and individuals, Leah’s passion is to see people embracing their core identity so they can live authentic lives; especially in this current tumultuous climate. Leah is also the author of her two books: All Grown Up and Lids.

Lauren grew up in Sheffield, UK, until moving to Manchester where she now lives with her husband Henry. Lauren suffered a great deal growing up until her life took a dramatic turn when she encountered Jesus for the first time. Since then, she has travelled around high schools and youth events preaching the gospel and sharing her story. Lauren works for The Message Trust’s mission team called ‘Respect Me’, helping young people in schools discover their identity in Jesus through exploring Christian perspectives on sex, relationships, and self-worth.  

Hannah has lived in Birmingham all her life and is founding director of ‘sidekick’, a business built around enabling others to find their unique purpose. She enjoys communicating in all its forms and sees it is a powerful tool for development. Writing, chatting, interviewing, podcasting, training, speaking to small or large groups – she does it all! Hannah recently created a digital course called ‘The Purpose Pursuit’ and is a mom to three teenage sons.

Rose Nannies are a specialist event-nannying agency working across London and the South East. They attend all kinds of events, providing age tailored creche set-ups and excellent quality childcare for little ones under their care. Their team are all DBS checked, first aid trained, experienced and super friendly!

They are beyond excited to be hosting the 0-2s space at Wildfires 2023. They’ll be bringing along their creche, and will be crafting, singing, playing, laughing, and even baby-bathing (!) throughout the festival. They can’t wait to meet you and your little ones soon’

Sam grew up in Scotland and moved to Guildford in 2017 during his gap year. Since then he has worked as one of the Children Pastor at Emmaus Road. He is passionate about creating safe spaces where children can be themselves, have fun, and encounter God. Sam is one of the leaders hosting Blaze, the 5-7’s children’s venue at Wildfires.

Rachel loves helping children encounter God’s love and experience His presence in their daily lives. She lives in Aldershot and has been part of Emmaus Rd since 2013 and as one of their Kids Pastors since September. She is super excited about being one of the leaders to head up Blaze, the 5-7s venue at Wildfires, this year and cannot wait to help the kids make friends, have fun and get to know more about Jesus!

Dan grew up in Wales and is now based at Revelation Family Church, where he is the Children and Families leader. He is passionate about facilitating spaces for children to encounter God through play and creative opportunities. Dan is married and has two young children and they love to go bouldering together. This year Dan is excited to be leading team in the SPARKS venue for 3-4 year olds. 

For 14 years Josh helped lead evangelistic mission bands Twelve 24 & Social Beingz, preaching the gospel to hundreds of thousands of young people all around the world. In 2021, God hijacked Josh and put a passion in his heart to work for 24-7 and stir up revival in young people. Josh wants to see young people grow into an army focused on prayer, mission, and justice. This forms the foundation of his role as Youth Director for 24-7 Prayer and head of Youth at Wildfires. In 2017, Josh helped plant SOULCITY Church in Manchester where he lives with his wife Emma and three kids.

Corey is the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at Calvary Church in Inverness, Florida. He’s a passionate preacher and God has used his ministry to impact the lives of young people in America and beyond. He is married to his wonderful wife Mackenzie and together they have two beautiful kids. Corey has an incredible testimony of how Jesus changed his life and he’s excited to share it at Wildfires 2023. 

Micah spent most of his life growing up in Alabama, USA where he eventually had a radical encounter with Jesus as a teenager at the Ramp in Hamilton, Alabama, where he is now Lead Pastor. The Ramp is a multifaceted ministry that hosts conferences, leads a school of ministry, plants churches, and more. Micah has spoken all over the world and carries a powerful message of prayer and consecration to awaken the next generation to wholehearted devotion to Jesus.  

Grace is a follower of Jesus who loves travelling and sharing her faith. Grace is passionate about faith, travel, interior design and spending time with those she loves. She is married to Nathan and they have a little girl called Bonnie-Rae. They have lived in the Midlands for many years but have recently bought a camper van and moved to Cornwall.

Phil currently leads the Prayer Spaces in Schools teams, and writes for 24-7’s Lectio apps. Before this, he served as 24-7’s UK Director for 7 years. Phil and Emma live on the North-East coast of England with their daughters, their dogs, and with various foster placements. Phil likes running, a lot.

For the last 15 years Simon has had the privilege of serving as the Senior Pastor of Kerith Community Church, a church with four sites in the South of England. He is married to Catrina and they have three adult children.   

Carla leads on the work and growth of 24-7 Prayer’s products and resources. She is also part of the Lectio 365 team, helping tens of thousands of people to pray and meditate on the Bible every day. Her life was hijacked by God in 1999 during a two hour stint in the first ever 24-7 Prayer Room. 

Carla loves prayer and worship, friends and food, a well told story and a challenge to get her teeth into. In her spare time, Carla is an active member of Revelation Family Church, a 24-7 Prayer Community. She lives in Chichester, UK with her husband Steve and their children Jackson and Eloise.