CHRIS SWANN, Director of Church Planting

Chris loves working with those who serve Christ’s people in leadership. He is passionate about seeing them do this in ways that express a growing personal experience of the grace of the Lord Jesus, a humble confidence that all of life belongs to Christ, and a desire for spiritual fruitfulness and kingdom impact.

Before joining City to City, Chris helped to identify, raise up and equip Christian leaders in university student ministry, local churches, hospital chaplaincy, cross-cultural mission agency, and theological education roles. He is particularly stirred by the challenge of helping people take seriously the power, purpose, and presence of God’s grace in shaping their Christian lives and ministry. In this vein, his PhD in theology examined Karl Barth’s use of the language and imagery of discipleship in the context of his late doctrine of sanctification.

Chris lives in Melbourne’s Inner North with his wife Natalie and two school-age kids, where they are part of a local Anglican church.

ANNA BOXWELL, Assistant Director of Church Planting

Rev. Anna Boxwell focuses on helping the Church Planting department strategically develop our offerings in assessment, training, coaching, and resourcing of planters, potential planters, and their teams. Anna is one of the planting pastors of an Anglican church in Canberra, and appreciated the training and support she and their team received from City to City in planting. She has led the development and delivery of courses and ordination formation training for St Mark’s National Theological Centre. Anna loves spending time with her husband and their four boisterous children at her parents’ farm. Her ministry training was from Moore Theological College, with a thesis exploring the theological ethics of embryo donation and adoption, and from St Mark’s National Theological Centre.

Anna is particularly interested in the way God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ helps us change and grow; pastoring people experiencing infertility and navigating assisted reproductive technologies; leadership and discipleship; and coming alongside the many great churches and ministries in the Canberra region, seeking to share Jesus in the most secular city in Australia. Anna loves teaching and training and watching those ‘ah-ha!’ moments our planters and pastors have during training sessions as we read our culture, our hearts, and our Bible with one another.

BETTY MARY, Admin

Betty supports the Church Planting team with administrative and marketing responsibilities, including managing event registrations, invoicing, updating the database, handling inquiries from church planters and program participants, and overseeing the team’s marketing needs.

In addition to her professional role, Betty and her husband, Samuel planted Lighthouse Church in 2019 in the city of Delhi. She also runs a small business called Inkgraved where she sells her hand-lettered art and paintings. Her deep desire for people to experience the love of Christ drives her to contribute to her community in any way possible. During her free time, Betty enjoys hosting game nights, and having deep conversations over a cup of coffee.