Sharing creativity, community and faith in Wales

Inviting you to support me in a new step from September 2025 as I join the Growing Churches Programme, plus upcoming conferences and speaking engagements

Helping connect with festival-goers at this year’s Narnia-themed Hay Festival Outreach in Hay-on-Wye

Just a quick preamble… here on Bigger on the Inside, I write about culture and stories from philosophical and spiritual perspectives as a Christian, but hopefully in a way that’s hospitable to readers of all beliefs. Whatever your beliefs or spiritual outlook, I hope that this space is welcoming to you!

This update has more of a faith-based focus so if that’s not your thing don’t worry – I’ll be back to discussing topics like science fiction, AI, creativity and so on soon. But I hope you might be interested in what I’m doing and how my faith informs my perspective.

I’ve also got some speaking engagements coming up on AI and on writing/publishing – keep reading for details!

A new step

I’m excited to share that I’m starting a new chapter in September 2025, as I join the 12-month Growing Churches Programme with the Wales Leadership Forum.

Through this, I’ll be receiving training and support, and developing part-time ministry working alongside my church, Lounge Gospel Community, a “missional community”-based church plant.

I’ll be focused on creative outreach and Christian cultural engagement in Pontypridd and beyond, including seeking opportunities to support and train Christians across churches in the area. I’d love to invite you to support this work.

Here’s a video introducing what I’ll be up to…

Read on to find out how you can stay updated, and for more details on what I’ll be doing.

Stay updated

If you’d like to find out more and support me in what I’ll be doing, please sign up to my supporters newsletter, which I’ll be running separately from this list.

As well as receiving some funding from WLF, I also need to raise personal financial support of about £8,000 for the year to help fund me on the 12-month programme. If this is something you would consider, please subscribe above to receive details.

I’ll also be continuing with some freelance work to help support me during the programme – and keeping on writing here at Bigger on the Inside as part of my personal engagement with culture.

What will I be doing?

Reaching people with Jesus takes imagination. I’m going to be putting that into practice, and helping others to do the same. Here’s a bit more detail on what that might look like, though I expect the details will evolve along the way!

1. Local Creative Outreach in Pontypridd and beyond

I’m working with Lounge to develop creative outreach opportunities. This might look like Narnia-themed events (making the most of the 75^th anniversary of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!), or maybe hospitality and open discussion groups like Estuary Conversations, which I currently run at Parc Arts in Treforest, or something else as I work through with the church what will best serve the local community.

I also hope to equip others in the church and neighbouring churches in south Wales to step into creative mission, identifying opportunities for engaging creatively with local communities.

2. Exploring and Sharing Creative Outreach

I plan to visit 6–10 creative outreach projects in Wales and beyond, writing up what I learn to share with the wider church, through articles, video content, or podcast episodes. My aim is to encourage and resource others to think differently and boldly about mission in a post-Christian culture.

3. Growing the Hay Festival Outreach

This year I volunteered as a helper with the Hay Festival Outreach, run by Bethesda Church in Hay-on-Wye during the Hay Festival. This year’s Narnia-themed outreach was a great example of creative evangelism, but I’m keen to work with the outreach team to help deepen the cultural engagement of the outreach next year, by curating talks and events that are in the spirit of the festival and engaging with the questions festivalgoers are thinking about.

My background in publishing and networks across the arts and theology world put me in a strong position to build this into something with long-term impact – think a “Hay Faith Fringe” programme to engage in the wider cultural conversation.

Why creative outreach?

The Growing Churches Programme is focused on training evangelists in Wales. If you’re not a Christian (or even if you are!), then “evangelism” might be a word to make you feel nervous, conjuring images of shouty people with megaphones on the street corner.

But what I’m passionate about is creating space for meaningful conversation between Christians and the wider community, building bridges through arts, storytelling and connection.

Our culture is wrestling with not just major environmental and political crises but a deeper, more fundamental meaning crisis. Many people feel lost and hopeless, isolated and lacking in community.

I believe the Christian faith is both true and also powerful to address the cultural challenges we face. It offers hope and a path for spiritual transformation, through the grace and forgiveness of Jesus, that we in our culture desperately need.

But making Christianity meaningful to people, rather than yesterday’s news, requires imagination.

It takes building trust and connection in community, and a genuine commitment to listening as well as speaking.

There’s an important place for disagreement and challenge, of course – the message of Jesus is one that should challenge all of us deeply – but I believe that’s best done in the context of respect and relationship, rather than shouty provocation.

Wales also has a rich culture and heritage, soaked in Christian influence. From the National Eisteddfod which was hosted last year in Pontypridd where I’m living through to contemporary music and poetry and much more, Welsh culture offers many opportunities to engage with life’s big questions.

My aim is to make the Christian story a larger part of the wider cultural conversation in Wales and beyond – not to shout others down, but to respectfully listen and to engage, in order to commend Christianity as meaningful, life-giving and true.

Say hello if you’re at Hutchmoot UK this week!

Tomorrow (Thursday 10th July) I’ll be off to the Hutchmoot UK faith and creativity conference! It will be my fourth year there — if you are about do say hello and have a chat.

You can read about my experiences there as a first-timer here:

Keswick Unconventional: Seminars on AI and creativity; Writing and publishing

I’m speaking at Keswick Unconventional in the Lake District at the end of the month! I’m doing a seminar on AI and a panel on writing and publishing – if you can make it along, it would be great to see you there.

Created and Creating: Can Christians Use AI Faithfully? Monday 28th July, 3–4.15pm, The Foundry

In this session, Caleb Woodbridge explores how we avoid idolatry, honour the dignity of artistic work, and foster authentic creativity in a world becoming increasingly reliant on generative AI.

Writing and Publishing: What to do with the idea for a book? Tuesday 29th July, 3–4.15pm, The Foundry

A writer (James Cary), an editor and former publisher (Caleb Woodbridge) and special guests give realistic practical advice on how to write books – fiction and non-fiction – edit, publish and promote them.

Reaching 300+ subscribers – thank you for reading!

My subscriber count continues to rise steadily, passing the 300 mark recently – thanks so much for reading! If you appreciate what I’m doing, please do share my newsletter with other people you think might enjoy it.