My name is Mike Aspinall, and I am a Non-Stipendiary Minister (NSM) for the United Reformed Church. I was ordained in 2009, becoming minister to Chapel St & Hope URC in Salford, then transferring to the ministry in East Cheshire Derbyshire Borders Missional Partnership in 2019 (where I still serve) when Chapel Street closed.
I was brought up as a Christian in an Anglican church, until I married Barbara (in 1976) when I transferred across to the URC. I served as an Elder and became Church Secretary serving for 20 years before training as a Lay Preacher.
I have had various “jobs” in the North Western Synod of URC - Property Officer March 2016-August 2024, current Vice-Chair of Synod Trust since 2017, current Convenor of Lancashire East Missional Partnership since January 2022. I also serve as a 0.49 supernumerary minister in United Stockport Methodist Circuit, serving a Methodist church and URC/Methodist LEP.
My secular employment was as a Building Services Consultant for 40 years from which I retired in August 2016.
Throughout my ministry (and life in the URC) I have always felt that the church should be in the community, part of the community, working with the community to help all in the community find God in their lives. I think it was this that called me to be NSM, continuing to work in secular employ, rather than pastoral ministry.