About

Welcome to my blog. Glad you decided to visit. I hope you will enjoy the content and the community here.

I have a stack of professionally written bios but who wants to read something in the 3rd person these days?! So I’m writing this myself.

I’m currently a PhD student and Research Fellow at Durham University.

I grew up in Canterbury, Kent and have a BA and MA in Theology from Oxford University.

Following Oxford, I trained as a Management Consultant (training corporations/organisations in the use of personality profiling, stress management and team work).

Along side all the studying and consultancy training, I was involved in my other love – music and songwriting.

When suddenly offered a record deal by major label EMI and the chance to work in this unique field full time, I decided to take the career path ‘less travelled’ and ventured into full time work in the music sector.

Signed to EMI as a writer and singer I had the chance to move to the States. I jumped at the chance to experience a totally new country and culture and grew a great deal as a person due to this experience. I lived in Nashville Tennessee for four years, then in California, just South of Los Angeles, for three years.

The music industry has been a really interesting place to work, especially getting a front row seat for the knock-on effects of digital downloading and all that has brought in its wake. The music industry today looks nothing like it did when I moved to the States in 2004. What a fast, vast shift.

Christian music accounts for a huge sales sector in the States (outselling the genres of Classical and Jazz combined) so it operates on a massive scale and is sold in the British equivalent of stores like Tescos and Sainsburys. It was quite a shock to arrive in the States and discover this, when it sells on such a small scale here in the UK.

The vastness of sales is reflected in the large scale recording budgets, tours and events. The scale of it is hard to imagine if you’ve only encountered the smaller and more organic UK Christian music scene.

So I arrive there alone, at the age of 23, and was plunged into the deep end of a huge record label, recording and touring schedule. It was exciting, challenging and stretched me in ways I hadn’t thought possible.

I’ve enjoyed being part of large tours, conferences and events, frequently speaking and singing to gatherings of over ten thousand people, with occasional crowds of over twenty thousand people. It’s been a mixture of singing my own songs and speaking about subjects that interest me – like social media, the ‘digital explosion’ and how we approach these as Christians.

Exciting moments in my musical life so far have been…hearing that the music I’ve written and shared has impacted people’s lives…getting labelled as ‘One To Watch’ by Billboard Magazine…an album I contributed to gaining ‘Gold’ sales status…having a number 3 album in the American Christian Music iTunes chart..having a top 100 album in the overall American iTunes chart…singing at the California Prayer Breakfast after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s address….speaking on C. S. Lewis at a Disney event marking the launch of their Narnia exhibition…and many more. I’m grateful for all of them.

It’s also been a joy to share the stage with fantastic people like Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, Michael W. Smith, Delirious, Rebecca St James, Switchfoot, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Gungor, Newsboys, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes and many others.

A growing desire to return to studying led me to move back to the UK and begin knocking on doors about a PhD. People shook their heads in disbelief that I would walk away from a successful music career Stateside just so that I could go back to University! But I knew it was what I wanted to do and part of what will shape the direction of my future career.

After a year of exploring options at several excellent Universities, I decided upon Durham and began my doctoral studies in January 2012.

Alongside my PhD work I also consult organisations on their use of Social Media. Watching the explosion of Facebook and Twitter, while living in California where it was all birthed, taught me a great deal about online marketing. Twitter actually contacted me back in their early days as one of their initial, heavy users of their App. They called EMI and said they were enjoying my tweets, which encouraged me.

I could have made Social Media Consultancy a full-time career (and might one day if I decide not to stay in the academic world), but for now I’ve decided not to as I need to give plenty of attention to getting my PhD.

The companies I consult include Spring Harvest (the UK’s biggest Christian annual conference) and Compassion UK (a charity that facilitates child sponsorship).

The area I am researching for my PhD is the interaction between Christian ethics and the online environment. I’m examining how we behave online and why. It’s fascinating stuff.

I have other strong areas of interest in research too – the Christian mystics and contemplative spirituality being one. I studied under Benedicta Ward at Oxford – one of the leading authorities on mysticism, especially the Desert Fathers. My love of silent retreats, liturgy and ‘high church’ worship all flows from this.

I’m also really interested in Feminism and a feminist reading of the Bible (to read my thoughts on this topic, click here).

Philosophy is another love of mine. I studied it a little during my undergraduate years, but have become fascinated by it again recently. I often read philosophy books during my spare time (does that make me a sad geek?!) I’ll be looking for ways to incorporate some of it my PhD as there are strong overlaps between philosophy and technology.

As well as being a PhD student, I’m also a Research Fellow at Durham University, which involves teaching and training students in Theology, and being part of a research hub which explores the academic implications of spirituality and technology.

This blog is where I discuss anything and everything related to my life….my reflections on Christian spirituality, the role of women in the Church, the relationship between spirituality and technology (i.e. my PhD), about new music I’m writing or have discovered from others, and about the randomly amusing stuff of life.

I hope you enjoy the posts and leave a comment to add your voice to the discussions.

People have met each other on here via the comments section and then driven across the country to meet face to face! So it’s a genuine community where friendships are birthed and robust discussion takes place.

I get several thousand visitors to my site each day, but the community who enter into discussion through the comments section is a smaller group, so if you add your voice to the conversations I’ll be able to get to know you.

Follow me on Twitter for daily updates, or on Facebook if you’re a non-Twitterer. Thanks again for visiting.

Awards this blog has won:

- Christian Blog of the year 2010: All About Worship Awards (USA)

- Christian Blog of the year 2011: All About Worship Awards (USA)

- Christian Blog of the year 2011: Premier New Media Awards (UK)