Meet the people at St Paul's

Steve Jeffrey

Senior Minister

Less than three months after the departure of Rev. Stuart Robinson and Jane, following his election as the Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, came the news that the Rev. Stephen Jeffrey was to take Stuart's place as rector of St Paul's Chatswood. Steve has been assistant minister at Norwest Anglican Church, in the Hills area, since 1999. On Wednesday April 15th Steve, with Natalie and their toddler Isabelle, commenced his new ministry.

Apart from the fact that both Stuart and Steve are passionate about sharing the gospel and growing churches, the two share common ground. During his three years at St Paul’s Stuart had an extra part-time but very demanding role in a wider sphere. He was the National Facilitator for Evangelism for the Anglican Church of Australia, and visited dioceses around Australia running missions, training ministers and encouraging outreach. And yet somehow the people of St Paul’s were not neglected and in no way felt deprived.

Steve Jeffrey also operates in a wider sphere of leadership. He is the National Director of Youthsurge, an organisation he founded to encourage and support churches around Australia and across the denominations, in their ministries to young people, to win them to Christ and to train them for leadership. He is also the chairman of KYCK, the annual Katoomba Christian Convention for youth which attracts over 5000 teenagers for hard-hitting Bible teaching and fellowship.

Steve was born in Sydney on 29th August 1969 to parents Keith and Josephine. He spent his first ten years in the lower Blue Mountains, attending school at Glenbrook. His family then moved to Narrabri (north-west NSW) and he went to Narrabri High School. As he puts it, “School and I never really agreed with each other!”  So he left early. He did manual labour on a number of larger properties but then started his own business in partnership with his two brothers (Phillip, 21 months older and Chris, 17 months younger). Together they built a piggery and sold landscape supplies, and did various contracting jobs for farmers. At 18 Steve did the first of a number of work placements with the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the Narrabri District and commenced study at Charles Sturt University to become a park ranger.

When he was 22, after years of hoping God loved him but never confident, Steve decided to attend church and about a year later became a Christian. The course of his life changed radically; six months later he started to train for full time ministry when offered a job as a ministry trainee at Narrabri Anglican. After two years he headed to Moore Theological College in Sydney. While studying at Moore Steve met Natalie and they married in January 1999.

Born in Queanbeyan on 18th April 1977, Natalie lived briefly in Sydney. The family moved to her mother’s home town of Grafton not long after her brother Adam was born. After her mum Diane married her step-father Ted Pearce they moved to a farm just outside of Grafton on the Clarence River. Another brother – Martin – was born when she was in junior high. Her home was not a Christian one but she met the Lord Jesus through school scripture and particularly through one faithful teacher who gave her a New Testament to read.  She became a Christian in Year 10 at high school but had her faith deepened and strengthened during the last two years at New England Girls School in Armidale. Her trust in Jesus and understanding of the Bible continued to develop through her bible study group while completing a B.A. at Sydney University and serving at Darling Street Anglican Church, South Sydney.

Having married Steve and settling into parish life at Norwest Anglican, at the beginning of 1999 Natalie embarked on a Masters degree in teaching at Sydney Uni. Then as a trained Primary Educator she worked for the Anglican Schools Corporation and became head of Stage 2 at Arndell College. Natalie taught for three years in that position before moving to assist Steve with Youthsurge and then on to motherhood with the birth of Isabelle at the beginning of 2008. Then in late 2009 God blessed them with a second child Phoebe.

At the outset of his ministry Steve says, “Two major things attracted me to Chatswood; a vision to grow the impact of the gospel in Chatswood, and a desire to bless the wider Church community. There will be a number of similarities in what I already do – preaching, training and leading large teams. I’ve also experienced ministry to a wide range of people in the country and at Norwest. The differences will be a new context to come to grips with (particularly the multi-cultural nature of Chatswood) and forming new working relationships.

“Leading three large organisations (St Paul’s, Youthsurge & KYCK Convention) will always have its challenges”, he said, “but there are significant teams in place for all of them. The gifting I bring to the table in each is vision, strong leadership and networking. I often feel the tension between the focus on the fine detail and the need to step back, get some head space and dream of what could be and how to get there. I truly believe that if we can combine a vision for St Paul’s with a vision for the wider church we can have a deep and enduring impact on the Australian Church.”

Steve expects to learn a lot in his new role as the rector of St Paul's. He is looking forward to leading a local church ministry team: "I believe I can contribute by leading the ministry staff team, through my preaching of God's word, and through the setting of vision and direction for this influential and diverse local church."

"A few years ago St Paul's set a target of an attendance of 1000 by 2009. Although it isn't there it certainly has taken significant steps forward so I hope to continue this vision and grow the church's gospel impact in Chatswood."

"I want to work hard on developing community at St Paul's and imparting a passion for Jesus and the lost through my preaching and vision setting," Steve says. "Naturally, I'm also very keen for St Paul's to be working hard on discipling and training the next generation for ministry."

Asked about his goals for ministry at St Paul’s and for his life as a whole, Steve stated: “My goal in life is to live for the praise of the grace of the Lord Jesus (Eph 1). My personal desire is to grow more and more like the Lord Jesus and less and less like this world. My goal at St Paul’s is to make the name of Jesus great. My plan is to bring the Bible to bear in people’s lives in such a way that they will see the glory of Christ and stake everything in this world on the world to come.”