Who We Are
Ralph Cunnington
Catalyst & Trustee
Ralph Cunnington is the planter and Senior Pastor of City Church Manchester. City Church has so far directly planted one church and facilitated the planting of an additional 3 churches in Greater Manchester. Ralph is married to Anna and Dad to Sophie, Zach and Jacob. He is on the Board of Crosslands, UCCF and 9:38.
Tim Simmonds
Catalyst & Trustee
Tim Simmonds is the Senior Pastor of Christ Church Manchester which has seven services in five locations across the city, two of which Tim planted. Tim is married to Vicki and has two daughters. In addition to his ministry at Christ Church, Tim works to serve and support numbers of churches and church plants in the UK and other nations, is a regular contributor to the Broadcast Network, and is one of the authors of Multiplanting.
Antonia Lee
Project Manager
Originally from Bermuda, Antonia visited Manchester in early 2021 and months later God provided the opportunity for her to move here. Antonia started as the part-time Administrator at City Church Manchester and is also the Project Manager for Northern Gospel Powerhouse. Antonia has had many previous administrative roles and hopes her skillset is strengthened through her work for Northern Gospel Project. She is excited to see the impact of gospel-churches being planted and how hearts will transform for His glory.
Tessa Reed
Communications & Design Consultant
Tessa came to Manchester on mission in 2018 – via Aix-en-Provance, California and London – to serve the church with her creative skills. With an art and graphic design background, she’s worked in Christian and church comms for the last seven years, helping with digital and print design, branding, marketing and publicity, editing, photography and film. She’s passionate about seeing more churches planted in the needy Northwest and excited to serve alongside the Northern Gospel Project to help that happen. Her daughter is studying graphic design and well on her way to a creative career.
Tom O’Toole
Trainer
Tom is part of the leadership team of Christ Church Manchester and is the Director of the Broadcast Network, creating training resources for church planters and pioneers. He is also one of the authors of the Multiplanting book. Tom lives in Manchester with his wife Emma and their two children. He is excited to be a part of the NGP team.
Statement of Faith
We fully subscribe to the Evangelical Alliance basis of faith:
WE BELIEVE IN…
1. The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
3. The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God-fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
4. The dignity of all people, made male and female in God’s image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
5. The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ – born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
6. The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
7. The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
8. The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ. 9. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
10.The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers – given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit’s gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
11.The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.
Intentional church-planting is a ministry of the church. It’s ‘just one of the things we do along with the rest – we do teaching, evangelism, discipling, worship, …, and we do church planting.’
Graham Benyon, Senior Pastor, Grace Church Cambridge; Lecturer, Oak Hill College