Leadership

Calvary’s Leadership Comprises Three Key Groups

Elders

Calvary is guided by Elders, who provide spiritual guidance and support to the Church and its leadership in matters relating to theology, spiritual practices, and pastoral matters. 

Board

Calvary is governed by a Board, who provide legal governance oversight in all matters pertaining to the Church business functions such as employment, occupational health and safety, compliance, contracts, insurance, finances, and budgets.

Overseers

Calvary is strengthened by Overseers, a small group of experienced pastors who are not part of Calvary Church, but who know Calvary’s context and its leadership, and where needed, provide spiritual protection, and accountability in matters relating to the Senior Pastor. 

Calvary Australia Board

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Dustan Bell 

Board Chairperson 

As Senior Pastor of Calvary Christian Church, Dustan has been a part of Calvary since 2006, serving in various ministry and leadership roles before moving to South Africa to pioneer Calvary East London in 2018. Dustan and his wife Sarah, returned to Australia in 2019 to lead the church and its team of pastors and leaders.

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Fay Barker  

Director, Chair Constitution Working Group

Fay has served as a professional Director for over 15 years in business, civic and non-profit contexts, including RACQ Limited, The RACQ Foundation, The CEO Circle, The Townsville Hospital Foundation, Breakwater Island Trust Limited, The Townsville Chamber of Commerce, Lifeline North Queensland, Townsville Port Authority and Townsville Enterprise Limited. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a 2006 recipient of the Order of Australia Medal for service to business, the arts and local government. Fay has been a part of Calvary for more than 20 years, attending the Townsville campus.

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Peter Honeycombe  

Director

For more than 30 years, with his wife Vanessa, Peter has continued to operate their family business Honeycombes Property Group, across Queensland. 

He is both a Graduate and a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors having served in more than a dozen Board roles for industry bodies, not-for-profit charities and commercial enterprises. These include a member of the Qld Board of Trustees of the Centre of Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), Director of Townsville Enterprise Limited, Director of Mackay Permanent Building Society Limited, Director of Real Estate Institute of Qld, Director of College of the Nations a wholly owned subsidiary of Youth With a Mission (YWAM) and currently for the last 3 years Chairman of Good Shepherd Nursing Home. 

In 2005 Peter was the recipient of the Australian Institute of Management’s Qld Businessperson of the Year. Peter, Vanessa and their four children have been an active part of Calvary Townsville and Cairns over the last 30 years.

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Paul Hutchinson  

Director and Board Treasurer

Currently working as a Business Manager for a Christian School in Cairns, Paul has developed a deep working knowledge of church and school finances. Previously as Executive Manager Business Services within a large government organisation, Paul oversaw a multi-million-dollar budget and corporate portfolios of health and safety, human resources, finance, fleet and equipment and capital works including maintenance. 

In another previous role, Paul was Executive Manager Capital Works for an emergency services agency where his focus was strategic service delivery planning for the future. Paul has qualifications in project management, business management and disaster management. From 2003, Paul and his family were part of the Sunshine Coast campus, before moving to Cairns in 2014 and joining the Calvary campus there.

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Ben Paine  

Director

Ben has over 15 years experience in Banking and Finance, with his current role being Relationship Executive at Commonwealth Bank. Ben has particular interest in financial education, aiming to improve the financial wellbeing of businesses and families in his local community. Having served on the Calvary Finance Committee since 2020, Ben provides valuable commercial experience. Ben has been in fellowship at the Sunshine Coast campus since 2008, and currently serves in the children’s ministry alongside his wife Alice and their three young children.

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Pastor Matthew Pappas  

Secretary, non-voting

As General Manager for Calvary Christian Church, Matthew has been on staff at Calvary since 2010 serving in various ministry and leadership roles. In addition to being an ACC credentialed minister, Matthew also has extensive experience in the construction industry and in project management. 

Prior to working for Calvary, he held a senior management position in a large construction company, overseeing training and developing staff along with managing large commercial, industrial and residential projects with multi-million dollar budgets. Matthew also serves as a Director for Calvary Christian College, Eaton College and has qualifications through Effective Governance Australia and AICD.

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Pastor Neil Smith  

Director

Neil is the International Director of Planetshakers. Having been in ministry for almost 30 years, Neil is passionate about building the local church but believes that ministry must extend beyond the four walls of the church. He has a vision for cultural transformation across communities, cities and nations. Neil’s background in building, high-rise development and project management has equipped him to oversee many local church building projects all around the world. 

Over the last decade, Neil has also worked on community development projects, focusing on building government relationships and corporate partnerships. This has included his work as the as the CEO of Empower Australia which expanded the charity's food relief efforts in the pandemic of 2020 - giving out over 1 million meals that year. In Papua New Guinea and Fiji, Neil has spearheaded church based initiatives in partnership with governments and local bodies to bring sustainable development in the spheres of business, education, and health.

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Nathan Spicer  

Director

Nathan is an Executive Director at Christian Vision (CV), overseeing various mission initiatives across the organisation and collaborating with diverse and highly skilled teams to effectively share the Gospel. With a strong foundation in the technology industry, Nathan blends his digital expertise with a commitment to global evangelism, which comes from his time living on the mission field in Africa and his deep love for the Church. Nathan is a visionary leader with strong people skills, excellent communication abilities, and a creative approach to problem-solving. He also plays a key role in representing CV with ministry leaders worldwide. He and his family have been part of Calvary Sunshine Coast since 2009.

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Pastor Karyn Wright  

Director

Karyn and her family have been a part of Calvary since 2015. She served in various ministry and leadership roles before taking on her current position as Team Development and Wellbeing Manager for Calvary's Business Office. Holding a Bachelor of Psychology (Hons), Karyn has a professional background in community services management, social policy and organisational development along with experience in the preparation of policy and in building strong organisations. Karyn has deep interests in organisational culture, governance, community development, child protection, people focussed systems, people care, and staff wellbeing.

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