In 1991, Dave and Jenny Gilpin came from Australia to pioneer Hope City Church in Sheffield, England. Dave was born in England and went to Australia when he was 5 years old. (His parents followed after thinking he may need some looking after.)

After attending short term Bible colleges, Dave and Jen became Youth Pastors in Brisbane and were part of the huge rise of the Assemblies of God churches in Australia. Upon seeing the Hillsborough Soccer Stadium disaster in 1989 they were prompted to church plant in the north of England in order to see the inroads the Australian church was having into mainstream society happen in the U.K.

Since that time, they have established congregations in Manchester (that has now become the Audacious City Church), Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle. The flag ship Sheffield congregation is now a part of what is known as ‘One Church in four cities’ with approximately a thousand people meeting across the congregations.

Sheffield, Liverpool and Leeds oversee Megacentre’s that provide conference facilities and community programs ranging from health and fitness to teaching English and computer skills, as well as buzzing centres for the rest of church life.

Dave’s first two books were published by Monarch and have been recently republished under the titles of ‘If You Think You Can’ and ‘Top 10 of Everything for Successful Christian Living.’ His book ‘Jesus Save Me from Your Followers‘ has proven to be popular and his first ‘humour’ book- ‘Rage Against Beige’- was bought by IKEA in the UK and spearheaded their national marketing strategies.

The principal themes Dave uses include The Power of Faith, The Power of Originality, Renewing of the Mind as well as leadership principles for church health and strength. His pastors and leaders network is called ‘bLink’ which provides monthly resources for leaders as well as an annual bLink Leadership Summit.

Dave and Jen run both the national ‘Fabulous’ Conference and the national ‘She Is Fabulous’ Conference. Jen’s particular strength is in the prophetic and she regularly speaks into the lives of churches and teams.

Dave’s in good relationships in the U.K with Stuart Bell, Steve Campbell, Dave Sheerman, Dave Carr, Dave Smith, Andy Elmes and John Greenow. He is also strongly connected with both the Australian Christian Churches and the Hillsong Network.