Meet the Team
Senior Pastors
Ed & Michele Carter
Senior Pastors Ed and Michele Carter have a heart passion for helping people step into the amazing plans God has for their lives.
Answering a call from Psalm 78, they launched Valley Church in 2007 with a vision to empower a new generation. Ed and Michele firmly believe in the future of the local church, and its essential role in the community.
Ed is a strong leader and strategist with a gift in developing leadership potential in others. He is a dynamic speaker who communicates from the heart with energy. Michele loves people and has a passion for making church welcoming to everyone and a place people can call home.
Ed and Michele have been married for nearly 30 years and have three children, Jonathan, Thomas and Abigail. As a family they love food, adventurous holidays and skiing.
Executive Pastor
Dave Scholes
Pastor Dave is passionate about building the local church in whatever way he can.
After studying at Hillsong College, Dave joined the team at Valley Church in 2009 and has served in many different roles. Currently working as an Executive Pastor, Dave brings skills of leadership, strategy and communication to the church.
Dave is married to Mel, and together they have three daughters, Eleanor, Felicity, and Amelie.
Executive Pastor
Jo Nicol
Pastor Jo loves Jesus and His Church, and wants everyone to experience Him for themselves. She wholeheartedly believes people can discover that God is always faithful to them and has a great plan for their lives.
Jo has been a part of the Valley team since the beginning. She has leadership abilities and a 'yes' attitude that have seen her leading in many areas from cafe to youth to event design. She currently oversees our pastoral and Comms departments. She enjoys learning from the past and making future plans to see the church go forward.
Jo works part time as a nurse. She is married to Dave, and together they have two boys, Joshua and Benjamin who are full of energy and have inherited Jo and Dave's passion for church.
Service Pastors, South Preston 10:30am
Phil & Eilis Banbury
Phil and Eilis are passionate about seeing lives transformed by Jesus and cheering people on along their journey!
Phil and Eilis, who met and then were married at Valley Church, are all about people! They love nothing more than having a table full of friends and family, playing games and having heaps of fun!
Their love of church and desire to see everyone find their ministry has seen them serving on nearly every team in church - from kids and youth to service team and people.
When he’s not working, Phil loves all things sports whereas Eilis, who is part of the staff team at Valley, prefers to spend time crafting, going to the beach or falling asleep whilst watching films! But most of all they enjoy being Mum and Dad to their little boy who like them loves spending time with people.
Service Pastors, South Preston 6pm
Rick & Han Butterfield
Rick and Han love God, love life, love people and want to see them succeed in every area of life.
As a teenager Rick was one of the founding team members of Valley, and has served in almost every area of church. Han became a Christian in her early 20s and was part of the team that planted our service in Lancaster!
Rick works as a software engineer, as well as being part of our wider Comms department. You can also find him behind a drum kit at lots of our services! Han is a social worker and has a massive heart for helping people.
They now lead our 6pm service in South Preston and love seeing people find Jesus for themselves.
Service Pastors, Lancaster
Dave & Naomi Harrison
Dave and Naomi are big believers in people and who God has created them to be.
They joined Valley in 2017 and have thrown themselves in to church life.
What a pair of creatives these two are! Whether it's leading us in worship or video production, they use their gifts to serve God.
They love having people over for dinner and games and their house is always full of skateboarding and laughter as they have four boys—Joshua, Jedidiah, Asher and Elijah!
Service Pastors, North Preston
Andy & Chrissie Carter
Andy and Chrissie love people, and want to see them become all that they were created to be.
Andy and Chrissie lead our Extension Service in North Preston, which launched in 2020. They have put a stake in the ground for Valley Church and they’re excited to see the impact on the lives of those in the North Preston area. Andy is a dentist, and a very successful and strategic businessman, always looking for ways to make improvements and help the people around him to grow.
Married in 2012 Andy and Chrissie have two kids, Henry and Elizabeth, and as a family they love to spend time surrounded by friends and family, even more so if it involves good food or Disney!
Youth Pastors
Benny & Mel Clarke
Ben and Mel are passionate about young people discovering God for themselves.
They have a heart for helping others in their discipleship, in Godly living and in knowing the liberating truth of the Bible. They want each young person to discover their God-given potential and to rise up to change the world around them.
Ben is the assistant manager at Valley Coffee and Mel is a Learning and Development officer, training church leaders around the North West. In church life they have served in various ministries like Worship and Kids and as service pastors.
They have a son, Micah, who they affectionately call 'Miracle Micah' (ask them for the story!) and love spending time as a family and travelling to new places.
Kids Pastor
Ste Fern
Ste is passionate about seeing children developing a real and active faith; rising up to take their place in their generation to make the Name of Jesus famous!
Since making Valley home, Ste has served in a variety of teams in Church life and is now bringing his gifts and experiences to leading our Kids Department. He works at a local secondary school teaching maths and loves spending time filling his home with people all doing life together.
