About Us Who we are

Alan McWilliam

Alan is passionate about Christ, passionate about the church and passionate about those who have not heard the good news of Jesus. Alan has a strong desire to see the Church in Scotland rising up to express in every way the love of God. He believes that the Lord is preparing the hearts and minds of many within the Church to break out of the current moribund patterns of Church life and instead create new patterns of Church which will be effective in communicating the gospel to the people of Scotland.

Alan studied at Trinity College, Glasgow for his B.D. and has completed his M.Th. in Applied Theology at Spurgeon’s College, London, where he was supervised by Stuart Murray Williams. His dissertation was “Let Glasgow Flourish – Creating and implementing a contextually appropriate Church Planting strategy for Glasgow”.

Alan is the primary leader within the leadership of Whiteinch Church of Scotland with overall responsibility for vision, strategy and teaching. He is also involved in Clan Gathering, the Light Project and the Presbytery of Glasgow!

He is married to Diane and has two boys, David and Steven. He is an ordained minister within the Church of Scotland and a fervant Rangers FC supporter.

Helen Brough

Helen is based in Dundee where she is developing Lattice – a missional networked community reaching women on the margins. She is married to Colin, and together for the last 10 years they have been investing incarnationally in relationships in the local community, helping the local church where Colin is the minister engage with the community, and running community networking events.

Helen completed the Invest course in 2010 which was key in enabling her to develop Lattice. Since then she has also been facilitating a network of missional pioneers and church planters which is emerging from those who've completed Invest.

Helen is passionate about Jesus – enabling people to connect with Him, be transformed, become who they've been created to be and released to be bringers of hope to the places God has set them.

She and Colin have 3 boys Peter, Andrew and Mark. She loves being in Dundee, is passionate about the community they serve and also loves the occasional (or frequent) coffee!!

Gill Wilson

Gill also came to know Forge through the Pioneer Course when it was still Invest.  She is based in Glasgow and is passionate about adventures, especially when there is snow involved.  She is involved in developing the Future Travellers process, which is a great adventure in itself.

She has one grown up daughter who shares Gill's adventurous spirit, but not her love of snowboarding!

Claire Dare

Claire was one of the first students on the Invest course and is involved in administering our core operations.  She is married to Mike and lives in Glasgow.

Scott Brennan

Scott is the team leader of Lighthouse Church, a new church planting church, with connections in Edinburgh and East Lothian, Bavaria and rural Ghana. Scott studied theology at the Highland Theological College and is passionate about the gospel being communicated in a culturally relevant way. He is a member of the Community of Aidan and Hilda, an international celtic community, and leads a huddle that includes Church of Scotland Ministers, Episcopal and Pentecostal pastors. He has a vision to see the Church in Scotland work strategically and collaboratively. He is married to Faith who leads Clan Women, they have two teenage sons.

Richard Tiplady

Richard has served in leadership roles in Christian organisations for the last 20 years. Prior to becoming Principal, he was British Director of European Christian Mission and before that Associate Director of Global Connections. He has worked as a consultant for a number of Christian organisations including Tearfund, for whom he managed or contributed to projects in Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and taught at Samuel Bill Theological College in SE Nigeria.

He is married to Irene, who is a mental health project worker for CrossReach. They have one son, Jamie, who is a computer game designer. Richard is an an alumnus of the Windsor Leadership Trust, and an Associate of the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission.

Wes White

Wes grew up as a missionary kid in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo where his parents served in medical missions. After serving as a pastor in the United States for fifteen years, Wes and his family moved to Glasgow to start the Mosaic Community, a church-plant of Christian Associates International. As well as lecturing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels Wes is the Centre Co-ordinator of Neopolis, The Scottish Centre for Theology and Ministry in an Urban World based at the college. Wes is married to Cynthia and they have five children and five grandchildren. He loves the odd mix of jazz and Gustav Mahler.

Judy White

Judy is a former Mission Development Coordinator at the Baptist Union of Scotland and is an excellent communicator and facilitator.  She lives in Stirling and was schooled in Vancouver, Canada.