John and Doreen Betts

John Betts is the Pastor Emeritus at the New Hope Christian Centre. He graduated from the London Bible College, where he met his wife Doreen, in the late 1960s.

 

John started his ministry in a Baptist church in the Midlands, where he worked for four years before coming to Norwich and he has stayed ever since. He has led the church in Norwich for many years, as well as working with churches in Ireland, Austria, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

 

With his wife Doreen he has run a leadership development course with African pastors and they have received requests to take the course into several other African countries.

 

John came to Norwich with a strong sense of call to establish church in the City. This call has never left him and is the reason why he is working with Transforming Norwich as chairman.

 

He and Doreen are based in Lakenham at New Hope and are heading up the New Build project there, to house the growing church congregation and the rapidly developing social action work.

 

John and Doreen have two children and three grandchildren. Their son is married; he lives and works in London. Their daughter Claire is married to Duane from Texas and with their three children, they live in Norwich and are part of the leadership team at New Hope.

 

Doreen has been a Magistrate on the Norwich Bench for 20 years. In the 1990s she was on the Probation Committee for five years. Her experience in the courts led her, with another colleague, to found the Magdalene Group, a project working with prostitutes in the city.

 

Doreen is a member of the church ministry team and has special responsibility for Community Action Norwich, the charity through which the church carries out its social action work in the local community.