At Hope, we aim to build church the way they did in the Bible. In New Testament churches
there were ‘elders’ (also called pastors): men who took the ultimate responsibility for leading, teaching,
caring for and protecting the church. There were also ‘deacons’: men and women who served people in the church in support of the elders. We also have a few staff members serving different areas of church life.
Below you can see photos of our elders, our deacons and staff members.
PASTORS / ELDERS
Tom and Sarah have three young children and moved to Ipswich in 2014. Tom works full time for Hope Church and also leads Sent, an event for students and twenties across Relational Mission.
Main responsibilities:
Eldership Team Leader
Preaching
Staff Oversight
Tim and Esme Virgo moved to Ipswich in 2015 and have four young children. Tim works full time for the Church; responsible for Pastoral Care and LifeGroups. Esme is a key member of the Pastoral Care team.
Main responsibilities:
Leads Pastoral Care Team
Preaching
Oversight of LifeGroups
Ian and Chris have been part of the church for over 20 years and have 3 grown up children. Ian works as a finance consultant.
Main responsibilities:
Chairs the Board of Trustees.
Leads our men’s ministry.
Maurice and Rachel have 4 children and have lived in Ipswich since 2012. Maurice is part of the core leadership team for our family of churches, Relational Mission.
Main responsibilities:
Apostolic care of other churches in Relational Mission
Tomi and Moyo live in Ipswich with their two young children.
Mark and Rachael have lived in Ipswich for over two decades and have 4 grown up children. Mark is retired from a senior position in the local council.
Main responsibilities:
Heads up ministries helping those in need.
Oversight of Safeguarding Team
DEACONS
Rod serves as a deacon on our pastoral care core team.
Esme serves as a deacon on our pastoral care core team.
Jan serves as a deacon in our pastoral care core team.
Kirsten serves as a deacon for youth and works full time for Hope Church, heading up our thriving youth work, which has gatherings on Sundays and Fridays
Sam serves as a deacon for young adults. He works part time, leading our Young Adults ministry for 18-30s. He is also currently leading the Youth work part time while Kirsten is on maternity leave.
Emily serves as a deacon on our youth team.
ON STAFF
Abi works full time for Hope Church, heading up Hope Kids which has groups for children from aged 1, through to year 6 of school.
Annabelle works part time, leading our connect teams ensuring everyone receives a warm welcome, finds out more about the church leading through to membership.
Bebs works part time as the finance coordinator at Hope Church. Click here for more information on how you can give.
Dan works part time, leading our worship ministry.
Jenny works as the church administrator full time, responsible for office admin, e-newsletters and room bookings.
Matt works full time for Hope Church and is responsible for looking after our building, our graphics and communications, making sure our Sunday mornings run well and handling bookings of the centre.
Peter works part time as Youth Assistant, supporting Sam Higgins with the Youth work while Kirsten is on maternity leave
