James Henley

Team Leader

About

I’ve been with The Lab for the last three years, working to lead our small team of people and provide a vision for what we do. My two passions are mission, especially with young people, and teaching that brings the bible to life and reveals new truths about God’s story. I’m engaged to Amy, my beautiful fianceé, and we’re busy planning for our wedding next April.

Life Story

I was born in Canterbury, Kent, but have grown up from age 8 in Aberystwyth, a seaside town in West Wales. I grew up in a Christian family, and going to church regularly and being involved in church-type activities was a natural part of my life.

It was at around 13-14 years old that I really began to test my faith for myself though, and went through a big period of trying to work out how everything fitted in my mind with my faith and science, and what was believable and what wasn’t. I came to the conclusion that Christianity is pretty unbelievable. But my experience and my heart told me that God exists, because I felt I’d experienced him and felt him close to me. It was this experience of God that drove my desire to follow him and to pursue Jesus.

At 18, I left home and came to Newport for a gap-year, with plans to go to university in Sheffield afterwards, but I ended up discovering The Lab and realised, with help from some of my close friends, that God was calling me to carry on in Newport and become a bigger part of The Lab. For three years, I worked with The Lab whilst studying for a degree in Youth & Community Work and Theology, which I finished last summer. From this year, I’m with The Lab full-time.

Vision for The Lab

That it would be a community which is constantly inviting new people in, to belong to each other and to Jesus.