Phil Wilthew

Here at GodFirst we are building a healthy and safe church culture and we strongly believe that accountability is part of that. Accountability means we have invited someone external to the church to stand alongside the eldership - both to help hold us accountable in our oversight and to encourage and challenge us to pursue all that God has promised for us as a church family.

We want a church culture that has strong doctrinal foundations and excellent pastoral practices, and that is marked by humility, accountability, vulnerability, and empathy in all our leaders. We believe that having a team of elders helps keep us safe and healthy, and that an additional external voice strengthens that further.

For that reason, we have chosen to make ourselves accountable beyond the immediate eldership team to Phil Wilthew. Phil serves as an elder at King’s Arms Church, Bedford, and more widely supports churches both nationally and internationally and we have a long-standing relationship with him. In practice this means that the elders remain responsible before God for GodFirst’s doctrine, vision, pastoral health, and culture, while also welcoming the accountability that connecting with Phil brings. In addition to this specific input we also continue to receive support, wisdom, and direction from trusted external leaders from various contexts and wider connections including The Evangelical Alliance, Thirtyone:eight (safeguarding) and Association for Christians Counsellors (pastoral)

Finally, and importantly, as Phil outworks this role with us regarding accountability, we also want to honour both Phil and Carole together. We recognise not only Phil’s leadership and experience, but also the strength of their shared ministry, wisdom, and pastoral heart as a couple. We value their input and we receive them as a genuine gift to our church family.