Directors of MCSI
Robert Banks
Robert joined MCSI as its first director and dean in August 1999. At the time, Robert had been living and working in the United States for a number of years. Robert was the Homer L. Goddard Professor of the Ministry of the Laity at Fuller Theological Seminary and also the Executive Director of the the De Pree Leadership Center. The fledgling MCSI board approached Robert to invite him to head up the new venture of MCSI and he agreed. It was at this time that Robert's wife Julie was stricken with cancer and Robert's commencement as Director of MCSI was accompanied by the sadness of her death.Robert is a highly regarded New Testament Scholar of international repute and possibly the World's most famous theologian of the laity. He is the author of many books, including "Paul's Idea of Community", "Re-envisioning Theological Education", and "Redeeming the Routines". His sharp mind and his passion for connecting theology with everyday life made him an ideal director for MCSI. He worked with careful intentionality and great success to establish MCSI as a completely new type of institution in the Australian university environment.
Robert achieved a huge amount and was able to set MCSI firmly on its feet during his 4 years as Director.
Robert retired in 2004 and continues to research, write and publish. He and his wife Linda are pursuing an interest in the life and works of C.S. Lewis, and have published a study guide, The Wonderful World of CS Lewis' Narnia and organised conferences on the great Christian author.
Gordon Preece
Gordon joined MCSI in 2004, after a "hand-over" period in which he and Robert Banks worked together for a number of months. Gordon's expertise is in the theology and ethics of work and business and he was able to use this expertise to extend MCSI's course offerings in the work, ethics and business areas. Gordon also initiated a number of events, conferences and teaching seminars which gave the MCSI community access to a number of high-calibre speakers and teachers.Gordon originally comes from a small business family in Sydney, he has Masters Degrees in arts, science & society, as well as a doctorate on work ethics. He is the author and editor of more than ten books on work and ethics, including "Christianity and Entrepreneurship" and "Changing Work Values". He has lectured in universities in Sydney and Melbourne and in the US, Canada, Cambridge (UK), New Zealand and St Petersburg.
Prior to joining MCSI Gordon had worked as an Anglican minister in parishes in Sydney and Melbourne. He then worked as Director of the Residential College and Centre for Applied Christian Ethics at Ridley College in Melbourne.
Gordon brought a huge amount of enthusiasm and energy to his role as Director. After 3 years he returned to Melbourne in order to be closer to his family and to take up a position as Director of Urban Seed, Melbourne, a not for profit working with marginalized people, corporates and educational bodies.
Gordon continues to writes articles for a number of publications. He is a visiting lecturer on Ethical Risk in Finance at Macquarie University School of Applied Finance and Ethical advisor to Christian Super.
Greg Clarke
Greg came to MCSI in early 2007, having previously worked as Director of CASE (Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education) based at New College at the University of NSW. At the same time Greg was establishing (with John Dickson) the Centre for Public Christianity. His doctorate is in literature, with special interest in how theology is discussed in the arts and humanities. Greg has written books and studies on topics ranging from the Bible to sex to The Da Vinci Code to the end of the world. He is author of over 200 articles and reviews in publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald, Southerly, kategoria, Books and Culture (US) and onlineopinion.com.au. During his time as director Greg worked to extend the reach of MCSI, particularly in making MCSI courses more available and accessible to students on other campuses around Australia via online and face to face offerings.
Unfortunately, as the offerings and reputation of MCSI continued to grow, the environment in which the organisation was born, continued to change. The special arrangements that MCSI had developed with Macquarie University were no longer workable, which meant that MCSI was not able to continue operating on the university campus.
Greg now continues to work as co-Director of the Centre for Public Christianity. He splits his time between writing, academic work and public lecturing, and is primarily interested in talking about the importance of Christianity for understanding the meaning of life. Greg is married to Amelia and they live in Botany in Sydney's south-east with their three children.
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