Qualifications:

PhD in Religious Studies, Master of Counselling, Master of Education, Master of Theology, and Doctor of Ministry. He is a registered clinical counsellor with PACFA with over 20 years of clinical counselling experience.

Senior member:

Board member representative for the Christian Heritage College

Biography:

Associate Professor Stephen Beaumont is the Dean of the School of Social Sciences and School of Business. Stephen has been in professional and pastoral counseling roles with various denominations including Hillsong, Churches of Christ (Qld) and the Australian Christian Churches (ACC).

Stephen is passionate for community transformation and is active in several charities and social ventures (e.g., Joii Community). Over the past decade he has developed social enterprises (e.g., co-founded Shed 27), designed and led a range of youth intervention programs (e.g., Sailaway Adventures), served on local and national charity boards and committees.

Tanya Riches is an honorary research fellow of the Edward Cadbury Centre, The University of Birmingham and Alphacrucis College. Her PhD research with Aboriginal Pentecostals was published in a 2019 monograph with Brill entitled Worship and Social Engagement in Urban Aboriginal-led Australian Pentecostal Congregations. It investigated the links between urban Aboriginal-led Pentecostal Christian congregations’ worship practices and social justice initiatives. She won the David Allan Hubbard Award from Fuller Theological Seminary for this study. Her MPhil at the Australian Catholic University explores the theological, musicological and business practices of Hillsong music. The co-edited volume entitled The Hillsong Movement Examined: You Call Me Out Upon the Waters (2017) intentionally drew together insider and outsider scholars to examine various aspects of Hillsong Church via ethnographic method. She has edited several special edition journals and authored or co-authored over ten articles and four chapters in scholarly volumes. Until 2022, Dr Tanya Riches was Senior Lecturer and MTh program coordinator at Hillsong College, a third-party provider of Alphacrucis College. Before that, she worked at the Centre for Disability Studies, The University of Sydney.

Areas of expertise: 1. Australian Pentecostalism 2. Contemporary Worship/Liturgy 3. Lived religious experience 4. Pentecostal Theology 

Although a relatively new researcher Titus brings to the CRA a wealth of cross-cultural knowledge and a depth of theological insight.  He pastors BethelLife Church, is an Adjunct faculty member at both Alphacrucis College and the Australian College of Ministry and currently Research Project Officer at Whitley College, having worked as a researcher at the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe. In addition, Titus is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Action Research Centre Ltd which engages both researchers and industry partners in dialogue about social inclusion.

Areas of expertise: 1. Migration and labour mobility.  2. Social justice (inc. development).  3. New religious movements.  4. Social transformation.

With a PhD from Cambridge on the theology of joy, John has spent much of his professional life focused on developing best practice within the private (i.e. Christian) Higher Education sector.  In this capacity he has been Dean at Tabor Victoria (now Eastern College Australia), the Director of Learning and Teaching at the University of Divinity, and is currently employed as Academic Dean at Stirling Theological College.  John also founded the theological education stream at the ANZATS conferences and is an accredited expert with the Commonwealth’s Higher Education regulator, TEQSA.

Areas of expertise: 1. Theological education and policy.  2. Contemporary preaching and communication.

Philip has spent most of his professional life researching the sociology of religion. He has a particular interest in the spiritual and religious dimensions of culture and their expression in organisations. Not only was Philip the founding Director of the CRA, being for 31 years its Senior Research Officer, but also worked for 11 years at Edith Cowan University. Philip is also an Honorary Research Fellow with the University of Divinity and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference National Centre for Pastoral Research. He currently holds a Professorial-level position with Alphacrucis College, specialising in research methods and post-graduate supervision. Impressively, Philip has written more than 60 books and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles.

Areas of expertise: 1. Religion, society and culture.  2. Wellbeing, values and meaning-making.  3. Research methods.

Qualifications:

BA(Hons), MA, Dip Ed, MEd, BD (Hons in Systematic Theology), D. Theol

Senior member:

Co-opted to the Board as the CRA’s founding Director

Biography:

I was the founding Director of the Christian Research Association. As such, I am an active researcher in the area of the sociology of religion with an extensive publication track record. I also have extensive board-level experience including Chair of the Lausanne Researchers’ International Network (2005 to 2011) and Chair of the Kingswood College School Council (2007 to 2018).

Currently I have a number of honorary research fellowships as well as holding a professorial position at Alphacrucis College.

Finally, I am also the Executive Officer of the CRA’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).

Qualifications:

BA (Theol), MA (Theol), PhD

Senior member:

Australian Union Conference – Seventh-day Adventist Church

Biography:

Originally a Pastor (i.e. Papatoetoe SDA Church in South Auckland), I then worked in the Greater Sydney Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as church health coordinator.  In addition, I also directed the Institute of Church Leadership Development.  I am now the Ministerial Association Secretary for the Australian Union Conference, Seventh-day Adventist Church.  As such, I understand the workings of ‘Head Office’ and have a brief that extends all across Australia.  That brief being to resource leaders and create healthy church cultures.

I addition, I have recently completed my PhD on Advanced Consumer Culture and its Impact on Church Life and Faith Development in Australia.