About

Meet Your Host

Craig Kirkby

With nearly 30 years of ministry experience as a pastor, missionary and apostolic overseer, Craig has planted churches and led a variety of community development projects, serving in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. He has worked across numerous church denominations and apostolic streams, motivated by the Father’s love and a passion for Jesus and His advancing Kingdom.

An ordained pastor with Church of the Nations International (COTN), Craig also has a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He has started three successful businesses in three different industries over the past twenty years to support the mission and ministry. Along with hosting this website, he serves as a missional consultant and coach to organisations and churches, and he spearheads the Dayspring Project and Flourish Life.

Over the next few months, the content on this website will be moved over to CraigKirkby.com.

Ministry Offerings

Flourish Life

Through Flourish Life, we seek to advance God’s Kingdom in all spheres of society by equipping His people to fulfil their prophetic destiny.

Dayspring Project

Through the Dayspring Project, we assist churches to engage missionally with their local community and to train their people to make the most of faith conversations.

How did your faith journey begin?

Growing up in an irreligious home, I secured a sports bursary after finishing school. My heart was set on becoming a professional soccer player.

Everything changed, however, in my first year of university. After an alcohol-induced car crash forced me to confront my vain, self-centred life, I surrendered my heart to God, overwhelmed by the wonder and glory of His love.

I got involved in a megachurch—the largest in Southern Africa at the time—and within two years, I was part of the executive team helping to lead the country’s biggest youth ministry.

It was a performance-based, events-driven ministry specialising in gathering crowds and getting altar-call decisions. As an all-peer leadership, we had it all: a big budget, top-tier resources, massive venues, state-of-the-art sound systems … but no spiritual fathers.

It was frenetic, loud and relentless—and I was burning out.

But then I met a spiritual father. In fact, two.

Ron Robinson patiently helped iron out my raw, ragged restlessness, and I resigned from the megachurch to join his team. Ron later introduced me to his spiritual father, Tony Fitzgerald. When I connected deeply with Tony’s ministry philosophy, Ron graciously encouraged me to walk with Tony moving forward.

It was through Tony’s ministry that I encountered two life-transforming truths that still shape everything I do: (1) the Father-heart of God, and (2) the Gospel of the Kingdom.

On this secure foundation, I began to challenge the church traditions I’d inherited and re-examine my assumptions about ministry. I started to explore how the Father and His advancing Kingdom shape all of life and purpose.

As Tony often says, when the penny drops on these truths, you’ll be ruined … and you’ll be glad.

Well, I’m ruined. And I’m glad.

Read about the remarkable God-encounter that Craig and the church he was pastoring experienced—a moment that became the catalyst for a missional thrust to the nations.
What's your ministry journey to date?

After surrendering my life to Jesus in June 1990, I took my dad’s advice and completed a Bachelor of Commerce, despite sensing a call to ministry. While finishing my degree, I studied part-time at Bible school and served on the executive team of Southern Africa’s largest youth ministry.

After graduating, I completed a teaching diploma and taught high school mathematics, business economics, accounting and Biblical studies for two years, while also overseeing the sports department of a Christian school. During this time, I was invited to start a youth ministry at the church that oversaw the school and was ordained as a pastor in Church of the Nations International (COTN) in January 1996. I married Lorna in December that same year.

Over the next three years, I served as youth pastor, grew the ministry, launched a Year of Training program for school leavers and led mission teams into Zimbabwe and Zambia.

In 1998, I became the lead pastor of a church, serving until 2001, when a powerful encounter with God—shared by the entire congregation—sparked a fresh missional thrust to the nations.

One outcome was the planting of a new church in another city, which I led from 2002 to 2008. This became the missional hub for all that followed. Another was my appointment as an apostolic coordinator, overseeing new churches and ministry initiatives across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Japan and New Zealand. (To support the growing vision, I also scratched a long-dormant entrepreneurial itch and launched a business venture in 2002.)

After relocating to Australia in February 2009 with Lorna and our two daughters (aged seven and four at the time), I coordinated a citywide unity initiative in Melbourne (2010–2011), pioneered church-planting efforts, and served as a missional consultant to churches and organisations across several states (2009–2014).

Having sold my shares in my first business to fund our immigration, my wife launched her photography business in 2012, and I started a marketing agency in 2015 after securing permanent residency and Australian citizenship.

This financial base allowed me to devote more time to study, where the Father broadened my understanding of how His Kingdom shapes not only church and ministry, but also the mind-moulding domains of society—commerce, education, economics, technology, politics, media and the arts. I’m more convinced than ever that the Message of Jesus speaks powerfully into the challenges of our time.

Today, I equip individuals, groups, churches and organisations to think missionally and partner with the Father in advancing His Kingdom.
Who are you accountable to?

Church of the Nations International (COTN) is an apostolic, relational network of leaders, churches and ministries. Founded by Tony & Marilyn Fitzgerald in 1979, COTN serves in over 50 nations around the world.

Church of the Nations does not considered itself a denomination. There is no membership to join; rather, we journey together based on shared values. If pressed, we’d consider ourselves evangelical in doctrine, charismatic in expression and missional in intent.

While Church of the Nations International holds my ordination, I also walk in covenant relationships with a number of men around the world. Tony Fitzgerald is based in the USA, Grant Willems in Japan, and Peter Steicke and Nigel Knowles are based in Australia.

These men know me well. They know what I’m like on a mission trip in a foreign land, what I’m like at home, and what I’m like sharing my heart, whether it’s in a coffee shop or behind a lectern. While we don’t always come to the same conclusion on things, we’re whistling to the same tune. Some of these relationships go back more than twenty-five years. Feel free to contact them and ask them anything you want about me.
How do you define church?
While we explore the meaning of the word translated “church” (Greek: ekklesia) in What Does Ekklesia (Ecclesia) Mean?, I try avoid crafting single defining statements of Biblical words that are rich and layered in meaning. Instead, here are four descriptions that together capture something of the heart behind the New Testament’s use of the term ekkelsia for God’s people:

a Kingdom-values based approach to viewing church essentially as relational, missional, organic and fluid rather than hierarchical, attractional, institutional and rigid—a Kingdom family, not a religious enterprise or a business enterprise.

a faith-based community, given to the simplicity and power of the Great Commandments and the Great Commission: a spiritual family; alive in the Spirit, in love with one another and on mission together.

a communal way of life together, not merely a new schedule of meetings. Receiving their cues from Father God, they do life together out of their sense of mission in the world.

a Kingdom family of spiritual brothers and sisters, served by parent-leaders who cheer others on to go further than themselves; a “safe place” for loving, living and learning, which doubles as a “launch” pad for Kingdom exploits.

There are various names given to describe this approach, such as missional church, relational church, Kingdom families, organic church, micro church, Kingdom communities and “church in the house” (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15 and Philemon 1:2). We view these phrases as synonymous terms; in fact, none of them are sufficient in themselves. Together, they paint a picture of what we’re rediscovering of the Father’s heart for His ekklesia.

For more on the ekklesia, see our Kingdom Ecclesiology series.
How do you define apostolic?
Again, avoiding one single defining statement, here are four descriptions that capture something of the heart behind the New Testament’s concept of the term “apostolic”:

a missional context in which we grasp the “big picture” of the Kingdom of God and how God’s heart for the ekklesia advances this Kingdom mandate.

a foundational grasp of the Ephesians 4:11 equipping gifts as they selflessly serve to initiate and support Kingdom communities, modelling the Father’s heart, measuring their impact—not by the growth of their personal ministry—but by how fruitful they make others.

a non-sectarian approach to the unity of the Spirit, emphasising humility, gentleness, patience and love as the building blocks of unity.

a radical commitment to brand-free relational and organic multiplication; making disciple-makers who make disciples … who make disciples, so that Jesus alone gets the glory.

For more on the apostolic wineskin, see our Kingdom Ecclesiology series.
What's your Statement of Faith?
As I serve the Body of Jesus across denominations and apostolic streams, I don’t have a formal Statement of Faith. Rather, I hold to the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as essential for doctrine and the Great Commandments (Matthew 22:37-39) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) as informing my practices. In addition, the following values are important to me:
The Father-heart and Word of God

The Primacy of Jesus’ Kingship and the Gospel of the Kingdom

The Personhood and Essential Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The Body of Christ and Unity of the Spirit

The Apostolic Mindset and Missional Ekklesia

The Hebrew Values: Parent Leadership, Spiritual Family and Verb-centric Faith

The Brother/Sisterhood and Priesthood of All Believers

Compassionate Servanthood and Good-deeds Evangelism

The Restoration Plan of God and the New Humanity

The Parousia of Christ and a Hopeful Eschatology

About

Craig Kirkby

Ministry Offerings

Flourish Life

Dayspring Project

Craig’s Story