The Evangelical Baptist Network has a small core team under the leadership of Yinka Oyekan with a council which is populated by a little more than 30 members.
The Core team consist of Yinka Oyekan, Alex Afriye, Nigel Coles, James Collins, Vicky Thompson, and Louise Hearn. Short bios follow:
Yinka Oyekan
- Yinka Oyekan is the senior minister of The Gate in Reading a multi-site Baptist Church,
- Yinka received Christ in a Baptist Church in Edinburgh, and has a passion for evangelism and church planting. He is the Team Leader for Barnabas Fellowship of Churches a network of churches whose vision is ‘Building Kingdom churches and developing Kingdom relationships’. Barnabas has churches in the UK, France & Africa. Yinka has been involved in Church planting for over 30 years in the UK, France & Africa. He has written several books and manuals. Yinka was President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (2020-2021) and he served on the on the Baptist national core team.
- The Gate church has experienced two outpourings of the Holy Spirit one which has led to national evangelistic campaigns in many countries.
Rev Alex Afriye
Alex Afriyie has been minister of London Network Church (East Acton Baptist) for 33 years. He has a great passion for evangelism, discipleship and church growth. He recently served as moderator of London Baptists for 4 years. Over the years his church has participated in relational and community outreach. In recent years Alex has been involved in the leadership of the London Turning and it has beena delight to see many people responding to the gospel on the streets of London. He is currently studying
a Masters in Transformational Leadership. He now serves on the core team of Evangelical Baptists and has a passion for orthodoxy and orthopraxis that is resourced by a living relationship with Jesus. He is married to Dorcas with 3 grown up children. He enjoys swimming, reading and trying to speak French.
Rev Nigel Coles
Rev Dr James Collins
Senior Pastor of Purley Baptist Church
I have been an accredited Baptist minister since 1999. My first passion is for my family – I have been blessed with a wonderful wife, Naomi, and two amazing children, Katie and Mikey. I love spending time with them, relaxing and learning from each other. Nevertheless, I have a very deep desire for God’s people in the UK. I long to see churches throughout our nation renewed in, bible wisdom, fervent worship and prayer, and confidence in the Gospel. I hope to spend much of my remaining time in pastoral ministry encouraging and training younger Christian leaders. Beyond ministry I love to watch sport (season ticket holder at Watford FC), enjoying running (although stumbling might be a better description of what I do these days), reading and playing computer games.
Rev Vicky Thompson
Minister of Darlington Baptist Church
I have been in various ministry roles over the last 25 years starting out in youth and schools work, then studying for masters degree in applied theology and moving onto the role of assistant minister and have been leading churches for the last 12 years. My passion is connecting churches with community. I spent 6 years as a local councillor, 5 years chairing the Sophia network (now Kyria network) supporting women in ministry. I worked on and launched a piece of national research learning about womens experiences of churchgoing in the UK. I have spoken at various events, conferences, Bible colleges and camps throughout the country. I am currently chair of churches together in Darlington and leading a local network called one voice Darlington. I also sit on the core team of the growing The Edge network reaching forgotten people in forgotten places. I am married to Barry who is also in part time ministry and part time CEO of the Darlington football foundation, I have two sport mad boys aged 15 and 11. My personnal time is spent running (I am currently training for the great North Run), weight lifting, I take a Ballet class, I love to read and Eat! My greatest passion is Jesus and making Him known beyond the walls of our churches.
Rev Dr Louise Hearn
Mine is a life worth living…but then so is yours. Everybody has a life worth living – its just a question of ‘did I live up to the opportunity?’
Born in a poor family in rural Africa, with candles for light and a fire for warmth its been a long and interesting journey to get to being a Reverend Doctor ministering in a Church in London UK. With ups and downs and successes and mistakes. Its a journey that has defined me and shaped me. But all the way through I have seen the Hand of God working in my life. My humble but beautiful beginnings left me with a great appreciation for what is importance in life. Vision, commitment and hard work, underpinned by a strong faith in God are at the core. This led me through a successful career in Adult education, my own successful private consultancy firm based on productivity enhancement and then into Christian Ministry across 3 churches and three published books. I am happily maried to my husband Ian. I have three kids (now adult in years) and three grandchildren. Three seems to be an important number in my life!