About John Gillespie

John Gillespie BSc MTh PhD- John came to Christ through ACT (Active Christians Today) campus ministry at BGSU in Ohio. He went to seminary at Perkins School of Theology where he had to fight for his evangelical faith among liberals. John married Teresa (Tessa) Hines in 1982. He felt a call to England and in ‘83 he and Tessa went to Stoke on Trent on an internship through the seminary. They went back to Arkansas for three years and after feeling the call confirmed, finally arrived in Cornwall in ‘87 where they pastored churches for 25 years, founding Grace Community Church (Morval) in 1994. Two church plants followed. John’s ministry gifts are in preaching, teaching, and pastoral care with a special desire to train the next generation of servant leaders for Christ. John loves sports, international cooking, building bikes and long walks with Tessa.

John and Tessa felt God convict them to home-educate their children before moving to England in 1987, so for 25 years this was Tessa’s main ministry. She also loves teaching the Bible for women’s meetings and children’s Sunday School. She was part of a team who started the first Crisis Pregnancy Centre in Cornwall. She is a trained Crisis Pregnancy and Post Abortion Counsellor and Parenting Educator. More recently Tessa trained to be a Trauma Healing facilitator through the American Bible Society. When training with GTN Tessa has taught Bible Storying and other topics. Tessa loves encouraging young mothers and is enjoys quilting and vegetable gardening. John and Tessa have seven children and 22 grandchildren.