Enjoying God, Making Friends & Changing Lives

Who We Are

Today we gather together people from right across Tyneside on a Sunday as well as in homes throughout the week. We have a strong mix of outreach, social action, discipleship mission and kids activities that all stem from our vision to be a church family that is enjoying God, making friends and changing lives.

Behind all that activity is a group of 100+ enthusiastic and hardworking volunteer leaders who make stuff happen! Supporting them and leading the church is our team of five elders, led by Ian Galloway.  Our elders team work together to raise up and release other people into leadership and to steer the church towards everything that God has called us to do and be.

Elders Team

Ian leads the team and is married to Heather, a local GP. Having come to Newcastle to study Medicine, Ian went on to plant what would become City Church. Ian loves teaching and serving other churches in the North East as well as reading, doing up houses, drinking good wine and scuba diving. The Galloways have five children and live in Newcastle.

Dave Lyall became a Christian as a student in Durham and came to Newcastle to help to start a new church in 1989. Today Dave is married to Jill and lives in the west end of the city and works as an IT manager for the government. David leads our Iranian community and is passionate about sport & explaining the Christian faith to people from other nations.

Simon grew up in Newcastle and came to Christ in his 20s. Simon is a prolific reader, cyclist and a massive fan of Newcastle United, good theology and seeing the whole church engaged in God’s mission. Simon is married to Janice and has two grown-up daughters. Simon leads our Executive Team that serves the church by helping leaders to step faithfully towards our vision in all areas of church life.

Andy grew up in Liverpool, studied in Newcastle and then after 2 years serving churches in Eastern Europe returned to Newcastle to teach R.E. in a high school. Today Andy is married to Ros, has 3 children and works for City Church full-time, overseeing the pastoral life of the church, training and supporting group leaders, and developing new ways to draw the wider church into reaching the City.  Andy loves to study and preach, has a wicked sense of humour and supports Liverpool.


Duncan came to Newcastle as a student and currently works for the Church of England supporting churches to do outreach and mission. He is married to Susanna and also serves on our preaching team.

Staff Team

  • Bobbie Pearson – Reception & Events
  • Sally Hill – Facilities Manager
  • James Morrow – Facilities Assistant
  • Carlos Rosales – Facilities Assistant
  • James Shepherd – Lead Pastor
  • Simon Warren – Executive Pastor
  • Andy Bramhall – Sundays & Communities Pastor
  • Ken Riley – Worship & Creative Pastor
  • Tom Norrington – Communications Pastor
  • Denise Cole – Reception & Safeguarding Officer
  • Linda Ogg – Executive Assistant to Ian Galloway
  • Peter Young – Finance Officer
  • Sarah Davies – Finance Assistant

IMPACT Interns

  • Sarah Doherty – Sarah is serving us this year as part of our student leadership team
  • Dan Ball – Dan is helping out with new communications projects, refugee DropIn & Youth work in Byker
  • Emma Fukar – Emma is mainly giving her time to Action Language classes helping refugees and asylum seekers to improve their English.

FP Impact is a year of training and serving in local churches that are part of the NewFrontiers family.  It’s a brilliant way to discover your gifts, grow in character and leadership skills.  You can check it out HERE.