Colin Rye

Colin was appointed Executive Pastor at Christ Church in June 2007 having previously served at Christ Church for 7 years as Church Warden.

Prior to this Colin had spent most of his adult life working for Sainsbury’s and Sainsbury’s Bank in a variety of project and change management roles.  During this time he completed an MBA at City University Business School and wrote a book on Change Management, first published in 1996.

Colin was brought up in a Christian home with both parents actively involved in Guildford Baptist Church (later Millmead).   He attended Sunday School and Crusaders and quietly accepted Christ into his life during a Cliff Richard evangelistic concert at the age of 14.  Colin married Fiona in 1987 and they moved initially to Englefield Green.  In so doing, they discovered Christ Church where they found a warm welcome, biblically sound preaching and teaching and many ministries in which they could become involved.

Having been made redundant by Sainsbury’s Bank in November 2006, Colin seized the opportunity to end his mainstream, secular career to pursue a role in Christian ministry.

In March 2007, he was contracted by Micah Challenge UK as Project Manager for the ‘Blow the Whistle’ campaign. Based in the offices of the Evangelical Alliance offices in Kennington, this was his first exposure to full-time Christian ministry working alongside organisations such as World Vision and Tearfund lobbying the UK government in a variety of ways to deliver their Millennium Development Goals.

In October 2009, Colin was appointed a Director of the UK Board of DAI (Development Associates International) and in April 2011 became Chairman of DAI UK.

Colin is married to Fiona, who manages the Speech Therapy service for East Berkshire (NHS) and has two children, Timothy and Emily.  Time-permitting, his hobbies include home computing, video and digital photography, walking, cycling, some kayaking, theatre, cinema, films and reading.