Mel and James Lynch
James and Mel Lynch studied at All Nations Christian College from 2005 to 2007 and worshipped at Christ Church. During their final year they became increasingly convinced that the Lord was calling them to give themselves to His service in Mission among the Asian & Arab communities living in Birmingham. They have three children: Toby, Zac and Lucy.
Mel works for Interserve mission agency but is seconded back to Riverside Church as a “Cross-Cultural Community Worker” in the local area. She runs a women’s project called “The Well”, which is named after the woman at the well that Jesus meets in John 4; who then returns to her village and tells everyone about Jesus, and they believe. This is our prayer for the local women too. The Well is a drop-in for local Muslim women to come and encounter Jesus through friendship, conversation, trips, activities, all with the hope of doing one-to-one Bible studies in the future.
As part of her role with Interserve, Mel also visits women one-to-one to deepen friendship and share faith, as well as continue with her advocacy work (accompanying and supporting women with anything from appointments, to domestic violence help etc).
Mel also works one day a week for Adavu www.adavu.org.uk supporting survivors of modern day slavery within the city, as a “Well-being Support Worker”.
From 2007 until May 2025, James had been working in various community projects aiming to build relationships between the churches in Birmingham and their neighbouring ‘other-faith’ communities. The most recent job was as Strategic Coordinator for Sandwell Church’s Link (sandwellchurcheslink.org.uk) and another initiative called “Opening New Doors”, which aims to provide strategy and vision for churches that are looking to adapt how they work in partnership with other organisations enabling them to fulfil their mission in an ever-changing context.
In June 2025, James Lynch started as the new CEO of Welcome Churches! James brings a wealth of experience in cross-cultural work and community engagement, most recently with Sandwell Churches Link. Based in Birmingham, he’s passionate about equipping churches to welcome refugees.
In 2018 Welcome Churches became a charity in its own right and began to train churches across the UK to use Welcome Boxes to welcome refugees and people seeking asylum as they moved into their locations. They set up a national Welcome Network, which functions as a secure online referral system, so that refugees can be referred, or self-refer, to receive a welcome from a local church in their location. This Welcome Network has grown rapidly and now over 1,100 churches UK-wide from many denominations are part of this Network. Since then, they developed training and equipping for churches; it includes training to work in hotels housing people seeking asylum, trauma awareness, good practice in self-care, training in working cross culturally, understanding the asylum system and much more.
Welcome Plus churches are specifically trained and supported to work proactively, building refugee ministry to be an integral part of their expression of church. We produce resources for churches to use such as The Welcome Course and Wellbeing videos in numerous languages. We are also developing our refugee-facing work through FindYourWelcome.org, empowering refugees to access information in their own languages about life in the UK and to refer themselves for a welcome from a local church. We are the largest organisation in the UK helping the Church welcome refugees and people seeking.
