People

Role at SMBC:

Jonathan is part of the SMBC Centre for Cross-Cultural Mission and lectures in missions units. He and his wife, Barb, also coordinate SMBC’s In-Context program, facilitating a small team of students and recent graduates who live close-by to each other in a near-by suburb in order to gain experience in intercultural living and team-work.

Prior to SMBC:

Jonathan worked as a small and then large animal veterinarian in Australia before undergoing theological and linguistic training to prepare for reaching pastoralists. He then moved with his family to East Africa for thirteen years, mostly serving as part of a church planting team among an unreached group of cattle-herders. After returning to Australia, Jonathan resumed veterinary practice part-time, while serving Canberra churches in missions education/mobilisation, before pursuing further theological studies. In 2009 he moved to Sydney to join the faculty of SMBC and has been teaching full-time ever since.

Academic Interests:

Missions - particularly the integration of word, deed and character in our making God known to the nations, including the least-reached nomadic peoples of the world. He is currently particularly passionate about teaching Spiritual Formation for Cross-cultural Settings, Teaching in Intercultural Settings, Cross-cultural Field Education, Making Disciples Across Cultures and Gospel, Cultural Anthropology & Ethnographic Research.

Research:

• Missional Hermeneutics in the Light of Luke’s Interpretation of Scripture, M.Th.(Hons) thesis, Charles Sturt University, 2015.

Other Ministry:

• Jonathan has had the privilege of sharing God’s word with churches and other gatherings in East Africa and Australia.
• Seminars at SMBC Missions Conferences, as well as speaking at missions camps and other events for university students in NSW and Victoria
• Over the past seven years Barb and Jonathan have had the privilege of sitting with, and listening in-depth to learn from and encourage, many cross-cultural workers who serve in difficult contexts in Central Asia, South Asia and North Africa. They have published some of their findings in Missiology: An International Review.

Personal:

Jonathan is married to Barb (also a graduate of SMBC) and they are truly blessed with: two amazing adult children, a wonderful daughter-in-law and son-in-law, two beautiful granddaughters and two energetic young grandsons. Besides spending time with their family, they enjoy exploring God’s creation by foot, cycle, sail and snorkel, as well as belonging to Clemton Park Baptist Church. In 2024 Jonathan had the new experience of singing Handel’s Messiah with a choir of 600 and is exploring the possibility of further singing in the future.