Meet our new board member, Rachel Jordan-Wolf

Rachel has just joined the Counties board, and it “feels like coming home”.

Born and raised in Thundersley, Essex, Rachel grew up immersed in the vibrant life of Thundersley Gospel Hall, an Open Brethren church with a thriving children’s and youth ministry. Her parents, too, were brought up in Brethren churches; her mother, Dorreen, at Chomley Hall, and her father at Thundersley Gospel Hall. From an early age, Counties and Counties evangelists were a familiar part of her life.

The Gospel Hall was a great place to grow up in faith. Rachel was actively involved in children’s and youth ministry, and also helped to lead her school’s Christian Union, where several friends came to faith and joined the church youth group.

Her first experience of leadership came as a child, when she started a group called Our Faith Club, which met in a disused chicken shed at the bottom of her grandparents’ garden! There, she gathered her friends and they ran a mini church for themselves.

After completing her A levels, Rachel’s passion for evangel ism led her to serve with Youth for Christ in Norwich, working on a double-decker bus that brought the message of Jesus to he streets. She then joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM), which took her to Amsterdam’s red-light district to share Jesus with prostitutes, street people, and the marginalised. On returning to the UK, Rachel began her studies, eventually earning a PhD in Church History from King’s College London. Her research uncovered the lives and testimonies of female church planters in nonconformist churches across the UK from 1900 to 1959 – women whose powerful stories were deeply inspirational.

Rachel’s passion for evangelism continued to grow. She served with the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), an Anglican mission agency, as an evangelism adviser, travelling the country to work alongside C of E churches. She then joined the Church of England’s central team as their National Mission and Evangelism Adviser, where she spent eleven years leading research, developing resources, and speaking across the country to encourage and equip the Church in outreach.

In 2021, Rachel became the Executive Director of Hope Together, expanding her work across denominations. She now regularly speaks to leaders from Elim, Baptist, Salvation Army, and many other traditions, continuing to build unity and collaboration in mission.

With a passion for research, Rachel initiated the Talking Jesus research project, first launched in 2015 and repeated in 2022. This groundbreaking work — originally a partnership between the Church of England, Hope Together, and the Evangelical Alliance — was designed to understand what people in the UK think of Jesus, Christians, and evangelism, and to inform outreach strategies both locally and nationally. For Rachel, research is a vital tool to help the Church gain confidence and clarity in sharing the Gospel.

Rachel is married to Rev Darren Wolf, a church planter in East London, where she’s actively involved in the life and mission of their local church. One of her greatest joys is seeing lives transformed by Jesus. Just recently, she had an encounter with a young man whilst handing out Bibles on the streets with her church evangelism team. He later came to a church service and gave his life to Christ.

Rachel is passionate that others would meet her best friend, Jesus — a desire that has never left her from her youngest age. And when she’s not out speaking or researching, you might find her enjoying a bar of dark chocolate, treasure hunting in charity shops or on Vinted, or (most importantly) spending time with family and friends.