Hello, and Welcome.

Its March 2024 as I write, just a few weeks after my 68th birthday. I will have been happily married to Stephanie for 38 years on August 2nd this year. Together we brought 4 sons and 4 daughters into the world. Together we homeschooled them all (Steppy did 99% of it) and we are very proud to say they are all doing well in adult life.

Before I met Steppy I already had two other daughters for whom I am very grateful to their mother who has sadly passed on.

For almost all of my life I have lived in Greater Manchester and although I love to travel and fully intend to continue travelling as extensively as time allows I always feel the need to get home to my favourite city and its wonderful welcoming people. In case you were wondering the site header is a picture of the modern Manchester skyline. (Used by Permission, Cropped top and bottom from the original by ChrisClarke88, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Having enjoyed more than 40 years in sales, marketing and management presiding over sales worth many millions of pounds to the domestic and business-to-business marketplaces I understand how important it is to move quality products from the manufacturer to the end user. Our society depends on it and as individuals prosper we all prosper together. I love the wisdom in the saying “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 1 John 1:2

You may be wondering why I am quoting from the Holy Bible. Well let me tell you right now…as important as I believe that business is, it cannot be the most important thing.

We have a saying in our house and we try to live by its precepts.

God First, Family Second, and Business Third.

That’s not the end of course, there are other things that make for a varied and interesting life and I will write a lot about them but everything is founded on those three… and in that order.

I am Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Family Church which meets as two congregations in Wigan first at The Bethel Community Centre in Hindley Green where my wife Stephanie and have been pastors for more than 17 years and then we officially opened Cornerstone Bryn in November 2018. We believe we also have more church planting ahead of us.

A Spiritual Leader with an Entrepreneurial Spirit

Health, Wealth and the Time to Enjoy It with family and friends is the goal of most people and we believe living right is the best way to achieve that goal. That why the most important message we can give to enhance the lives of those who come into our circle of influence is the one above from the Apostle John. Forgive me if I repeat myself… Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

That tells us that God loves us, He wants us to prosper in everything we do, He wants us to be healthy in mind and body and he wants us to have a deep spiritual understanding and peace in our souls.

There’s Enough for Everybody to Enjoy an Abundant Life.

It would be remiss of me not to at least try to explain the Good News that set me and Steppy free and changed our lives for the better almost 35 years ago. When God created man he set him up to rule in the earth and to tend and care for it. God did not skimp on anything and there is an abundance of all we need to live the abundant life. Mankind fell from his original place of grace and friendship with God and learned to live selfish, avaricious lives. The Kingdom of God is nevertheless within all men because God Himself is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. If He is omnipresent it can only mean He is in me and He is in you. Unfortunately many cannot see the Kingdom of God and are unable to operate according to its spiritual laws. Therefore they live lives that are less than the abundant life God intended. One night a learned man called Nicodemus came to Jesus looking for the answer to this eternal question…Jesus told him, “Unless a man is Born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Nicodemas did not understand, he asked how would it be possible to enter again into his mother’s womb and be born again. The answer was that we must be born not just of the flesh but of the Spirit, each of us has the potential to be Born of the Spirit and it is something we must do by our free will. It is a choice that all men have…Jesus told us he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus told Nicodemus, but it benefits us all, that His Father, God so loved the world that he sent His only Son, Jesus that whoever believes on him would not perish but would have eternal life.

Nicodemas asked ‘how can you be born again’ and perhaps you are wondering the same thing… Do you agree with God that Jesus died on the cross so that you might be forgiven for all of your sins? Do you believe that on the third day after God raised Jesus again from the dead. He is alive forever more and is seated at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and He is present on the earth now by His Holy Spirit who indwells all men who believe. Holy Spirit is leading men into all truth until He, Jesus returns. The Bible says, If you believe this in your heart, and confess it with your mouth you shall be saved.

That is such good news that all the angels in heaven will rejoice at that moment to welcome you into the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is already within you, being born again is really just switching on the lights and we do it by faith: by choosing to believe. No work to do, nothing to join, only believe.