Team Updates 2026

It has been one year since we first spoke about sending out the Bognor Regis site of Grace Church to become a church in its own right. It’s been quite a journey since then and we rejoice that Mosaic Church, Bognor Regis is now fully established and thriving, full of faith for what God has in store for them. This has, fairly obviously, meant a lot of change for the people of Mosaic Church. It has also, perhaps less obviously, had a fair few implications for the people of Grace Church, with multiple teams seeing some inevitable and not insignificant changes. With all these developments happening gradually over the last year, I thought it would be helpful to provide an update on how and where we have ended up in a few key teams.

Elders:

In sending Bognor out, we sent out 2 of our 6 elders in Jonny Holder and Simpson Charlton. They are now both elders of Mosaic Church. We have since proposed Andy Garforth, Ola Nosiru, and Tim Goodge to become elders of Grace Church. You all gave your hearty backing and so we appointed them all as elders in November 2025. Praise God for the gift they are to his church.

That leaves: Thomas Bishop, Steve Blaber, Tony Dark, Andy Garforth, Tim Goodge, myself (Joe Leach), and Ola Nosiru.

Staff:

Jonny Holder is now full-time at Mosaic and Simon Taylor is part-time there. It is common knowledge in Grace Church that Simon was carrying a very substantial amount of operational and administrative weight in Grace Church. We felt it was a good opportunity to see if we could diversify this vital burden somewhat. Tim Goodge joined the staff part-time in September 2025 in order to oversee (not do) the ops and admin in the church. Tim remains a pilot part-time so he is around for two weeks and then off flying for two weeks. Liz Tucker was then appointed as the Operations Facilitator (a new role) working Monday, Tuesday, Thursday school hours plus Sunday mornings. Both Tim and Liz are doing great as they continue to settle into the weird and wonderful world of being employed by a local church.

Another key thing is that JC Schoeman has offered to take responsibility for managing finances for us on a voluntary basis. He is very qualified and he brings a wealth of business and finance experience, having previously managed considerably larger budgets than ours. It’s fair to say that he will help us think in ways with our money we haven’t done so far. It is over-simplifying it but broadly, what Simon was doing is now shared between Tim, Liz, and JC.

That leaves: Tony Dark (who is going from 5 days a week to 4), Tim Goodge, David Hunt, myself, Nettie Stathers, and Liz Tucker.

Trustees:

Luke Groves was a trustee at Grace and he is now chair of trustees for the new board at Mosaic Church. In taking on his new role on staff, Tim has resigned his position as a trustee (after 20 years!) and will act as ‘company secretary’ serving the trustees. JC has joined in light of his new responsibilities. And Anna Madge has also agreed to become a trustee. She has a lot of experience in local charities and is an excellent addition to the team.

That leaves: Steve Blaber (Chair), Kathryn Bishop, Olaf Fogwill, myself, Anna Madge, Ufo Okeme, and JC Schoeman.

It may not necessarily seem like it but that is a lot of significant development for one year! It feels necessary to clarify that building and doing church together is not some game we play where we are moving pieces around a board. These are all brothers and sisters we have genuine relationship with.

Writing down and explaining these details may make it all seem so easy and straightforward and perhaps a little clinical. In each of these cases, suffice it to say that there has been a lot of thought, discussion, and prayer.

We are so grateful to God for how he has led us up to now, for where things have settled with such amazing people in place, and for all God has for us as we move forward together in faith and expectation.