Ben Bradford
Ben is the pastor at SREC, he joined the eldership in September 2024.
Ben was born in New Zealand to missionary parents. He has lived most of his life near Oxford which is where he met his wife Rachel. Ben and Rachel lived in Hong Kong for 7 years, which is where their three children were born.
Ben originally trained as a Sport Scientist and worked in the fitness industry for a time; following that he retrained as a PE teacher and worked in schools in the UK and Hong Kong until 2018 when the Lord opened the way for him to begin in full-time church ministry. He was a youth pastor in Gloucester first and then, after moving to the US for 2.5 years, he trained at the Master's Seminary in LA and graduated with his Masters of Divinity in May 2024. He has a passion to see God's word preached, faithfully, verse-by-verse, and to be used however the Lord wills in Banbury and beyond; Ben also works with Grace to You, a ministry that seeks to support and train pastors in Europe.
Ben loves reading (particularly the puritans and church history), sport (particularly basketball, tennis and golf), being outdoors, walking, hanging out with family, excellent coffee and, like John, is always happy around a fire with meat cooking.
Please feel free to contact Ben via the website if you have any questions about Christianity, the bible, the church, what we believe, or anything else; he would love to have a conversation with you.
John Gardner
John is one of the elders at Southam Road Evangelical Church having been a member there since 1997.
He, and his wife Wendy, live on a farm near Shipston on Stour where John has farmed for most of his working life. They have three adult children.
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Now in the building trade John enjoys walking his cocker spaniel, looking after his ducks and hens and growing vegetables.
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John much prefers meeting face to face, anything to avoid sending an email!
He loves getting people together, preferably around a bonfire or BBQ.
Brice Plavonil
I was born on a little island called Martinique, located in the Caribbean sea.
No wonder how I got myself in here but surely God had a plan.
I studied in Toulouse in the South of France where I also became a true Christian. Meeting with God in my student room the night of 6th December 2013.
Since then my life was put in good order. I graduated a Master in applied Maths although today I would not be able to integrate the Logarithmic of X.
I work as a Software Engineer.
I like practicing Tennis and watching the NBA.
God blessed me with the nicest kids on this planet and also a very clever wife.