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Rev Ian Coverdale

Church-wise my background is varied. Before coming into the ministry I have worshipped in Anglican, Baptist, URC (then Church of Christ) and Salvation Army congregations as well as Methodist ones as we moved round the country. The spirituality of the local congregation was always more important to me than the label over the door.

I was in my late thirties when I entered training for the ministry. Till then my career had been in Operational Research (i.e. research into the way organisations operate). I had had five years in the Department of Health analysing policy initiatives and then ten years with Cheshire County Council, finally as the authority's Consultancy Manager.

Nobody was more surprised than me when God started calling me to the ministry. We were happily settled in a Cheshire village and I was in a job that suited me down to the ground. My children (3 girls - now grown up) were well settled in the local school. So it was a call that I resisted for two years before eventually accepting that God knew best.

Despite the fact that he had to drag me screaming and kicking into the ministry I don't regret it one bit. Ministry is an incredible privilege. It is so thrilling to see God at work.

I have been a minister now for twenty years and have four more to go. Brighouse was the third circuit in which I had served, having started in Ellesmere Port and then moved to Bramhall. Each of the three circuits has been very different and I have had to relearn what it is to minister effectively each time. My wife Sheila has worked alongside me in all three appointments but she prefers to stay out of the spotlight.