Equipping Pastors Worldwide (previously Christian Books Worldwide) is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 14th March 2006 and registered as a charity on 13th January 2009.
Governance Structure
Trustees
EPW’s Board of Trustees has ultimate responsibility for the strategic leadership and the management of the affairs of EPW in accordance with its Articles of Association and applicable law (including company law and charity law). It has five scheduled meetings each year and meets on other occasions as necessary. The Board delegates the running of the charity to an Executive Committee under the leadership of the Executive Director.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee formulates the vision and strategic direction of the charity in collaboration with the Trustees. Once agreed by the board, the Executive Committee executes the strategic plan and delegates day-to-day implementation to the Working Group, a sub-group of the Committee. The Executive Committee comprises all the principal department heads (both paid staff and volunteers) and meets approximately once a month. The working Group meets weekly.
Ministry Advisory Panel
The Ministry Advisory Panels offers guidance on how best to train pastors and which books are likely to be effective in the majority world. Most panel members have experience of overseas ministry and a sub-group within the panel reviews books being considered for distribution by the charity. There is at least one member of the trustee board and one member of the Executive Committee on the panel. The panel seeks to meet every other month.
Meet the Board
Chairman
Richard Gray
Having joined as a Trustee in April 2022, Richard was appointed Chairman of Equipping Pastors Worldwide in July 2023. Prior to moving into the voluntary sector, Richard was an experienced and versatile general counsel with 30 years of global commercial and legal experience gained within private practice and major global financial services companies. He has a huge breadth of experience in managing significant issues in many different jurisdictions across the globe.
Deputy Chairman
Stefan Cantore
Having been Chairman of Pastor Training International, Stefan was appointed to the position of Deputy Chairman on the formation of Equipping Pastors Worldwide. Prior to working in university business schools as a management academic Stefan has had careers in senior NHS management and public sector consultancy. He has served the Lord in his local churches in Guildford and Sheffield as well as acting as a trustee and chair for a national Christian charity over many years.
Director
Olawale Akinrogunde
Wale, as he is known, became pastor of Grace Church Walthamstow in April 2021, having been a church planter based there for the previous five years. He joined the CBW board in March 2022 with a strong desire to use his insights into the church in West Africa to help CBW equip under-resourced pastors in that region, and he now plays that role for EPW.
Director
Robin Asgher
Robin is Pastor of Cranford Baptist Church, West London, a church-planting situation set among many diverse ethnic groups. He is married to Muno and has two children, Rohan and Myra. Originally from Pakistan, Robin is a keen and experienced evangelist to Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims, and he brings first-hand in-country knowledge to EPW’s work in South Asia. Robin has authored many multi-lingual tracts which are distributed at home and abroad, particularly in South Asia.
Director
Kenneth Brownell
Ken is minister of East London Tabernacle Baptist Church. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities he also teaches church history at London Seminary, chairs the committee of the Pastors’ Academy, and regularly visits Burma and Thailand to lecture and preach. Born and brought up in the United States, he previously served at Cholmeley Evangelical Church in North London. Formerly a Trustee of Pastor Training International, Ken moved to Equipping Pastors Worldwide on formation of the new charity.
Director
Chris Embleton-Smith
Chris was brought up in Argentina and, after a short service commission in the Royal Artillery, he managed a factory in Mozambique. As a surveyor, he has worked with many overseas institutions in the City of London where he attended and benefited from the teaching ministry at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate. Having handed over the work of coordinating conferences at Pastor Training International, Chris now concentrates on strategic thinking for the long-term growth of EPW. He has organised a succession of book-ministry projects in Uganda, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and he currently has responsibility for EPW’s Francophone work.
Director
Kabwe Kabwe
Kabwe is pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Ndola, Zambia. He is involved in training church leaders and pastors from under-resourced communities at the Copperbelt Ministerial College. He served for several years with Pastor Training International as an in-country trainer. He is an adjunct lecturer at the Evangelical University (formerly Theological College of Central Africa -TCCA). He serves on the board of SIM-Zambia an international missionary agency supporting local and international missionaries and Christian institutions. He is an associate editor of Reformation Zambia magazine. He is married to Songwe and has three grown up children.
Director
Jonathan Pountney
Jonathan is an independent consultant, specialising in editorial and advisory work for Christian authors and publishers. Before working in publishing, Jonathan was a University Lecturer. He has a PhD in Literature and has published research with leading academic presses. He has also held editorial posts in the secular publishing world and written broadsheet journalism.
Director
Eleanor Trotter
Eleanor is Senior Commissioning Editor at Union Publishing having held the same role at Inter-Varsity Press for 17 years. Her varied career has included commissioning titles which have won awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Eleanor lives and works in Northern Ireland.