About Jackie
From the earliest days of my faith, I have been drawn to the way stories shape our understanding of God and of ourselves. They invite us to linger, to listen, and to imagine how the divine meets us in the ordinary patterns of life. This love of story has guided much of my ministry and creative work, shaping both how I see the world and how I seek to share the heart of the gospel with others.
We each draw near to God in different ways - through the beauty of creation, art or music, words of Scripture, in the service of others, or in the quiet stillness of retreat. For me, I feel closest to God when I enter deeply into the story of Jesus Christ: walking beside those who met Him, hearing their voices, and sensing how His presence transformed their lives.
My writing journey began in 2004 with Mosaic Creative, a community development consultancy run by my friend Bill Crooks, an artist and facilitator. Together we worked with churches and aid agencies in the UK and overseas, creating training resources to help churches walk alongside their communities, especially the poor and marginalised. Together we wrote several resources including our church and community engagement manual for UK churches, Stories on the Street. We used art and drama to make everything accessible, believing creativity could open hearts where words alone might not.
During this time, I began writing monologues that brought to life the people who met Jesus—and I would perform some of them in our training sessions, such as the Woman Who Touched Jesus’ Cloak, and the Woman at the Well. Afterwards, people would often say, “I felt Jesus was in the room,” or share how they recognised their own struggles in those stories. These reflections often sparked conversations about how the church could better connect with and serve its community, particularly the disadvantaged.
A few years ago I embarked on a labour of love to weave together many of these monologues to tell the whole story of Jesus’ ministry and the result is Following the Son. My hope is that others will enter into these stories afresh, feel the humanity of those who met Jesus, and marvel again at the tender, personal way He meets each one of us.
