Pastors and people
Pastor Sue Aveyard studied at the Nazarene Theological College (NTC) in Didsbury and came to Bolton First Church of the Nazarene in 2005 as Youth Pastor. In 2006 she became Pastor with responsibilty for our church as part of the ABBA (Atherton, Bolton 1, Brownlow Fold, Ashton) ministry team. Since June 2009 she has been co-Pastor of
our church alongside Rev Clive Burrows and was ordained at the District
Assembly in 2009.
Pastor Sue originally comes from Leeds. She chose to place herself in God’s hands at the age of 12 after spending time with an aunt who had also become a Christian. Her aunt’s Pastor who was a Baptist Minister looked for a church for her near her own home and found her The Church of the Nazarene in South Leeds. This became her home church where God gave her a family who would encourage and support her throughout her growth not only in maturity but also in faith.
She is married to Andrew who is also a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. They have been married for 26 years and have two sons: Stuart and Ross.
After marrying they moved away from Leeds to various parts of the country due to work commitments before returning to Leeds in 1989 and returning to the church. Then in 2001 life changed once again when Pastor Sue, closely followed by Andrew, was called to become a Pastor. Bolton first Church is her first pastorate.
You may also point to "about us" and click "Mission and History"
Pastor Clive Burrows was born in the Baby-Boom year of 1946, his parents'
youngest child. The family moved to Little Hulton when he was six and that is where
he was brought up.
He left engineering at Trafford Park to study theology at our Nazarene College in
Didsbury, graduating in 1970. He and Grace (a nurse) were married in 1969. They
pastored Nazarene churches in Middleton, Manchester, Queensbury, W. Yorks, and
Lancaster during which time Clive qualified as a High School teacher and their first
two children (Alistair and Philippa) were born.
They served as Nazarene Missionaries to Papua New Guinea from 1975 – 1984,
serving in the Bible College there (Grace also teaching in the School of Nursing at
our Nazarene Hospital). In their furlough year (1979) John their youngest son was
born and Clive studied for his MA at Lancaster University.
In 1985 they went to European Nazarene College in Büsingen where Clive taught Mission Studies and Grace taught English as a foreign language. Then after a year teaching Missions in Nazarene Theological Seminary (USA) they returned to the U.K. and pastored in Watford and Didsbury before Clive was appointed District Superintendent in 2002. In March 2009 he relinquished his position as DS and in May we welcomed him as a part time member of the pastoral team here in Bolton where he takes a responsibility for the adult ministries and plans for consolidation and outreach.
Since May 2009 he has also undertaken work on behalf of the Regional director which in 2010 was extended
to include considerable responsibilities for the work in Eastern Europe and the CIS (ex Russia).
Clive will relinquish his Regional duties from the end of May 2011 but he will continue to give Bolton first church the benefit of his expertise and considerable experience.
We have a friendly congregation of people from various backgrounds. The morning service generally welcomes between 50 and 70 worshippers, though the monthly Family Service and Uniformed Groups Parade can see 80 to 90 people. We have a small number of people who have been around since the church was established and quite a few who have spent their whole lives as part of our fellowship. On a typical Sunday the ages of our people range from three (sometimes less) to eighty-three (maybe more?). Children leave us for Junior church at the halfway point and we have a creche for the very young.
Our organists are the son and grandson of the original organist who built up our very fine instrument by collecting sets of pipes from redundant organs all over the country, the completion of this task being overseen by the elder of our present father and son duo.
We are part of the British Isles South District of Nazarene Churches a group of fifty churches with about 1600 members, located from Lancashire and Yorkshire to the south coast and part of the worldwide Nazarene Church which has 1.9 million members in 24,000 congregations in 156 world areas.
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