Gerard Kelly

A pastor, poet and missionary, Gerard Kelly lives in Normandy, France, where he and his wife Chrissie lead The Bless Network (www.blessnet.eu). UK born, Gerard has French and Irish roots and has lived in England, Ireland, Canada, France and the Netherlands. All these places have featured at one time or another in his writings.

A good number of Gerard's books have been written for the church, exploring themes of theology, mission and spirituality. Alongside these works he has published two volumes of poetry and a collection of short stories, The Whole Sky. His debut novel, The Boy Who Loved Rain was released in November 2014.

Two more recent books explore themes of theology and mission in contemporary culture. The Prodigal Evangelical was published by Lion in 2015 and followed up with The Seven Stories That Shape Your Life in 2016.

Gerard holds a Masters Degree in Evangelism Studies from the University of Sheffield and has been a member of the research staff of King's College, London and the teaching team of Redcliffe College in Gloucester. He was for 4 years the Senior Pastor of Crossroads International Church in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (www.xrds.nl) and served from 1996 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2013 on the Leadership Team of Spring Harvest in the UK (www.springharvest.org). His books have been published in the UK and the USA and translated into French, German Dutch and Finnish. His poetry has been used on BBC Radio and Television, and featured on live worship recordings from Beijing ("The Door") and the Cathedrals of Europe ("Restore"). Gerard regularly publishes short-form poems on twitter as @twitturgies.