Hello, I’m Andrew Irwin.

I’m a minister in the Anglican Church in Ireland, currently serving in an inner-city, urban parish in Belfast. Much of my life and ministry is shaped by that context — its history and complexity, its resilience and wounds, its questions about faith, belonging, and hope. Urban ministry is not a side interest for me; it is a calling, and a place where theology has to be lived before it is ever explained.

I began this blog in 2015 while serving with an exceptional Tearfund team in Tanzania. What started as a way of recording that season has, over time, become a space for sermons, theological reflection, and writing rooted in the everyday realities of parish life. This is where I think aloud about Scripture, preaching, mission, and the church’s vocation in places that are often overlooked or misunderstood.

Preaching sits at the heart of my ministry. I am deeply committed to biblical, expository preaching that takes Scripture seriously and speaks honestly into real lives. My theological interests centre on ecclesiology, mission, and the formation of the church in contested cultural spaces — especially how the gospel takes flesh in working-class and post-industrial communities.

This blog isn’t polished or performative. Some posts are long. Editing is imperfect. But it is written prayerfully and deliberately, out of a desire to attend to what God is doing in and through the local church.

My hope is that, as you read, you might find something here that helps you think more clearly, pray more deeply, or see the church and the gospel afresh — right where you are.

You’re very welcome.

Before entering ministry, I worked in the IT sector in Northern Ireland as a software and web developer. That background has never quite left me. I still enjoy technology, problem-solving, and the occasional bit of digital tinkering — partly to keep my mind sharp, partly as a distraction from the weightier realities of life and ministry.

That said, my deeper passion is discipleship: seeing people come to faith, grow in Christ, and learn to live out the gospel in ordinary, faithful ways. I long to see the church become what it is called to be, and to do what it is meant to do — not as an idea, but as a lived, local reality. If this small corner of the internet can serve that purpose in any way, then it has done its job.

I’m always glad to talk, so if you have questions, thoughts, or simply want to engage, please do get in touch.

Some of the older posts here reflect a formative season in 2015, when I spent three months living in Musoma, Tanzania, working through Tearfund with their partner organisation, Go Make a Difference Tanzania (GoMAD). That experience shaped me deeply and gave me a lasting love for Africa, travel, and the global church. In more recent years, that interest has continued through teaching and preaching trips with Crosslinks, including work with Anglican clergy and leaders in Abuja, Nigeria, which has further reinforced my conviction that the church is strongest when it learns from the breadth of Christ’s body worldwide.

Alongside parish ministry, I remain engaged in theological reflection and public life through involvement with the Church & Society Commission, and through doctoral work at Asbury Theological Seminary, where my focus lies in preaching, mission, and the renewal of the local church. All of this feeds back into the same question: what does it look like to be faithful to Christ, here and now?

I’ll finish, for now, with a line from Tim Challies that has stayed with me:

“Yet I am convinced the church will be healthier and those ministry sites will ultimately have better material to share if we continue to have a thriving Christian blogosphere.”

https://www.challies.com/articles/why-you-shouldnt-stop-blogging-or-why-you-should-consider-starting/

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