Our Staff & Leaders
Find out a little more about the staff and leaders here at Canterbury Baptist Church. We are blessed to have such a talented pastoral team, complemented by a diverse congregation with a broad range of professional skills and experience.
Stephen Field
Senior Pastor
Stephen joined Canterbury Baptist as Senior Pastor in December 2019. He provides pastoral and strategic leadership to the Church, the Ministries, and the Staff, and he speaks most Sundays. His passion is to help people discover the ways Jesus is active in their lives and help them to participate in the good work God is already doing. He enjoys reading, movies, sports, and board games, and can often be found on Maling Road trying out all the different cafes. Stephen is married to Ruth and together they have eight children.
Natasha Sawtell
Office Manager
Natasha joins us from a successful career, training people in high quality service provision across a range of fields. She brings a personal touch to daily life at Canterbury Baptist Church, as well as providing a backbone to the organisation's ongoing operations.
Joy Marshall
Family and Community Pastor
Joy joined Canterbury Baptist as Families and Community pastor in May 2013. She leads a dedicated team of parents and carers in fostering the spiritual life of children, providing creative resources that seek to immerse children in knowing and expressing God’s always and forever love and justice. Joy enjoys the wonder of creation and is often found drawing and painting whilst contemplating the challenges and wonders of life.
Brett van Lieshout
Diaconate Chair
Brett has been attending Canterbury Baptist since 2002. During those years he has been a part of various ministries including being a current member of the leadership team since 2012. Brett has always viewed CBC as his extended family and enjoys the regular mix of old and young attendees. He's passionate about seeing the love and acceptance of Christ extended to people from all walks of life. Brett has built a career as a designer in the advertising industry, is a keen golfer and also loves to cook up a storm for friends and family. Brett is married to Kate and together they have two daughters.
Rowena Day
Deacon
Rowena started attending CBC with her husband Tim and 2 daughters when they moved back to Melbourne in 1997. She has been a member of the Diaconate for over 10 years. She particularly values the way that the intergenerational worship at Canterbury develops a sense of community. Together we want to deepen our relationship with God and more actively show love to each other and our neighbours. She enjoys reading, classical music and travel.
Jayne Geddes
Deacon
Jayne began attending Canterbury Baptist Church in 2000 and has been involved in various ministries and activities including children’s programs, facilitating a Bible study group and mission. She has been a Deacon for 7 years and is passionate about good governance, and the promotion of wellbeing for all through faith, relationships and shared experience. She enjoys gardening, art and craft, walking with friends, climbing and travel. Married to Peter they have three sons.
Harvey Wood
Secretary
Harvey and Janine transferred their church membership to CBC in 2015 attracted by its family ethos, its clear Biblical basis in teaching and practice, the warmth of fellowship and the opportunities and encouragement to serve in a variety of ministries. Harvey recently accepted an invitation to join the Diaconate and to fulfil the role of church secretary. After 20 years as a high school principal, he is now continuing his enthusiasm for education as a part-time teacher at a school specialising in students who are ‘school refusers’. In the rest of the week, he enjoys gardening, learning French, spending time with grandchildren, meeting new people, enjoying French movies, walking/talking regularly with one daughter and each year, travelling to spend time with the other UK-based daughter and exploring the UK and Europe with her.
Pete Horbury
Treasurer
Pete Horbury is the Treasurer at CBC. He’s been attending for 35 years. His faith in Jesus has been particularly inspired by the Sermon on the Mount and Larry Norman song "the Outlaw.” He loves to collect different editions of Trivial Pursuit and has an extensive Oz rock collection.
Keith Chessell
Connect Groups Leader
Keith Chessell has been involved at Canterbury since 2003 and involved in small group ministry and leadership for over 30 years. He is passionate about the importance of small groups and helping people to feel connected with God and a Christian community. Keith is married to Helen, they have three grown-up children and 8 grandchildren. He enjoys spending his spare time educating people and companies on packaging their products so they don’t negatively impact the environment.
Helen Chessell
Mainly Music Leader
Helen is the mainly music coordinator. She is a grandmother with 8 grandchildren and has been trained in childcare.
Emma Combridge
Youth Group Coordinator
Emma first attended Canterbury Baptist as an attendant of the Sunday School program in 2008, and has joined in her role as a Youth Leader as of January 2021 She organises social nights with the youth group every two weeks, including joint sessions with Camberwell Baptist Church every month, as well as starting a youth study-program during the Sunday morning service. Her passion is discovering how unique perspectives about questions or insecurities can strengthen our faith. She enjoys listening to and playing music, reading, and writing. She is currently studying literature and classics, and aspires to become a high school teacher.
Laurie Barton
Servants Ministry Leader
(Retired Baptist Minister)
Team Leader, ‘CBC Servants’.
Attending CBC with my family since 1998. Canterbury Baptist Church is where I seek to express my Christian faith and gifts, especially since my retirement from full time Ministry (as a School Chaplain) at the end of 2017. Sharing with the Servants community is a wonderful opportunity to offer and receive support, and to experience the love of Christ in action.
I enjoy sharing with family, reading, watching sport (especially ‘the Dees’), playing golf and tennis, and travel. I’m married to Wendy, and we have three children and three grandchildren.
Pauline Proctor
Worship Music Team Leader
Paulie has been at Canterbury Baptist since 2015 and is the Music Coordinator. She started singing and playing violin in the music team and then took on the role of Music Coordinator in 2016 to assist with leading and coordinating two teams of very talented musicians, sound and media people. Her role includes rostering and song selection for each service, sourcing and introducing new songs and supporting new people to join the teams and helping them find their fit. She enjoys encouraging and assisting these teams to contribute to the best of their abilities and tries to make song choices appropriate to the team dynamics, abilities and sermon themes. She also loves to explore new and varied worship music for the Canterbury Baptist Church services and is keen to encourage more young people to become involved in the music teams. Music has always been a passion in Paulie’s life, whether it be through playing in orchestras, singing in choirs, leading worship or encouraging her children to play instruments. She finds music integral to connecting with God. Paulie also leads a Ladies Connect Group that meets once a month for connection and sharing and also works part time as a Grants and Accountability Coordinator at International Aid and Development organisation Tearfund Australia. She loves how welcoming and encouraging people are at Canterbury Baptist Church, as well as its focus on trying to be present within the wider community.
Paulie is married to Rob and has three wonderful boys, Benjamin, William and Oliver. She enjoys listening to music, baking sourdough, sewing and drinking good coffee!