Who’s Who

Gareth Russell – Senior Pastor: gareth@grandunionchurch.org
Read about Gareth

Gareth was born in Glasgow and lived in his native homeland until the age of 21. He studied marketing at the Univeristy of Strathclydeand after completing his degree ventured on a magical mystery tour that took in Carlisle, Uganda, California, and ended up in Milton Keynes as Label Manager for an independent music label. He spent four years in Milton Keynes before he married his beautiful wife, Andi, and they both promptly moved to India, where Gareth worked as Commercial Director for a Christian distributor, retailer, and publisher.

Gareth and Andi spent 18 months in India before he was offered the position of Managing Director of Authentic Media back in Milton Keynes – a position he enjoyed for two years. Since then, he and Andi, as well as pastoring the church, work with various organisations including Hillsong, World Vision, and Operation World and advise on marketing and distribution strategies.

Gareth is passionate about building community, genuine relationship, and whole life discipleship. He also supports the MK Dons, but we’ll keep quiet about that one.

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Andi Russell – Senior Pastor: andi@grandunionchurch.org
Read about Andi

Andi Russell is a communications & PR professional, having always worked in the media previous employers include GMTV, Murdoch Magazines and Emap Media working across a range of titles some of which were Elle/Elle Deco and in complete contrast the former Smash Hits!

Living in Milton Keynes on and off since 2003 she most recently worked for international charity World Vision for seven years managing their PR & media communications. This was mostly in the UK HQ but also in Asia when in 2006 not long after marrying Gareth, they moved to live and work for 16 months in Hyderabad, India. This time also included a rare and fascinating work trip to North Korea. Andi also learnt a little Hindi in India, which came in handy while driving there and ‘politely’ asking other drivers and wandering cows to be careful and not hit her.

Andi took some time out from her career a number of years ago to work for a previous church in London and has also completed a year’s theology course. Currently a joint Director for Marketing & Media consultancy, Jersey Road Ltd, Andi is also a keen reader, swimmer, music lover, ‘West Wing’ fanatic and traveler. Andi is passionate about Jesus, social action and seeing people live in true freedom.

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Merrick Hartslief: Read about Merrick

Merrick hails from South Africa and still wonders how he ended up in Milton Keynes and even loving it. In South Africa, Merrick was very involved with Vineyard churches where he was worship leader at Metro Vineyard. It was at Metro that he was part of the leadership team that planted New Song Vineyard, Cape Town, and the annual New Song Festival.

No-one is exactly sure what Merrick does for a living but it has something to do with HR and IT and he calls himself a consultant. When he is not travelling on work trips you will find him commuting to London or enjoying the benefits of working from home.

Merrick describes his most redeeming quality as his wife and two daughters. Making them all laugh is his favourite pastime.

To ensure he leads a full life Merrick also plays bass for local cover band Candid Replica and cannot wait until his 2 girls are old enough to join him on the slopes in winter and water-skiing the rest of the year.

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Lucy Hartslief: Read about Lucy

Lucy is a proud wife and mum to two lovely girls. She came to Milton Keynes in 2004 with absolutely no intention of settling. After meeting her husband here, buying a house, mastering the grid system and enrolling her eldest child in a local pre-school, she thinks she might stay.

Before Lucy was knee-deep in plasticine and yoghurt, she was a lawyer. Lucy worked as a corporate solicitor specialising mainly in mergers and acquisitions. The long hours prepared her for motherhood.

Lucy joined the Vineyard Church in 2004 and loved it pretty much from the start. Her passions are Jesus and family. Her ‘mini’ passions are reading, walking, chocolate and wine. She also water-skis and plays golf, but her husband would likely dispute that statement.

Lucy is a leader and trustee of Grand Union Vineyard.

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Dale Small: small@grandunionchurch.org
Read about Small

We call him Small (Seriously that’s his nickname!)

The newest, youngest and most attractive member of our team, Small has lived in Milton Keynes most of his life. Raised and educated here before leaving for a better life….only to return and find us.

After leaving 6th form he moved to the far away land of Northampton and embarked on a career working as a sound technician, spending most of his time touring the UK and Europe with bands. He finally discovered what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the summer of 2008 whilst working at a music festival. After a 6 month stint as a schools worker for a Christian Charity and several more tours of Europe he moved to Canada and studied at Catch the Fire Toronto School of Ministry.

He returned from across the pond in spring 2011 and joined the Vineyard that Autumn, taking up position as Youth and Children’s Pastor at the start of 2012.

Small is passionate to see the youth and children of our community live a radically God driven life, clear in their identity as Sons and Daughters of God.

In his spare time Small runs a tabletop wargaming club and is a huge American football fan. He can also often be seen on many a cold morning running around fields near the M25 waving a sword in the air dressed as a knight.

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Jan McGowan – Office Manager: jan@grandunionchurch.org
Read about Jan

Jan has been married to Barry for 40 years, has 3 Children and 4 Grandchildren.

Jan was born in Bishop Auckland in the North East of England but later moved down south in 1985 because her husband was head hunted to start an electronics division of a company in Amersham. She spent her youth signing in folk clubs (believing that she was Joan Baez) and supporting Sunderland Football Team

Her first job was working as a civil servant in a benefit office. After children then spent 25 years working for what was Abbey primarily in HR as a Recruitment Consultant and lastly as Project Manager in their e-commerce team. She took early retirement/redundancy and came to help out in the Church office in 2004 during her redundancy leave and is still here!!!

Achievements which she is proud of was getting a Degree in Personnel Management in 1994 after 3 years of study and working full time at the same time.

Gave her life to God on 23rd October 2003 over the phone – it’s a long story but she’ll write a book about it one day!

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