October 2025: Rev Graham Duffin

My ministry: Rev Graham Duffin, Minister of Word and Sacrament at Loanhead Parish Church, Midlothian

Former mathematics teacher Rev Graham Duffin is set to step down as minister of Loanhead Parish Church in Midlothian at the end of the year after 36 years of service in two parishes, but plans to remain actively involved with other projects supporting the wider church, such as the Growing Youth initiative. Married to Jane, the couple have a son and two daughters.

What led you to ministry?

I joined the Church when I was 14, but when I went to university, I did stop attending for a few years although I didn't stop believing. I reconnected with church while I was training as a teacher and during that year I began feeling a call to some kind of ministry.

That led to me becoming a youth worker at Barclay Church in Edinburgh and I used that period to test my call and to discern whether it was going to be community work or youth work or ministry of word and sacrament.

During that year I decided it was ministry. That decision came from working alongside people and asking how my gifts could be used and sensing that they were better suited to full-time ministry.

For me, it was about more than just creating community connections, it was about asking how you can journey well with folk in faith and sensing I was able to do that with people, whether by leading a small group or preaching. I was given opportunities to do that at Barclay and that was what excited me.

That was followed by three years of study at New College in Edinburgh, followed by probation at St David's Broomhouse. That was very fulfilling because it was a church that was very much connected to its community. That, for me, has always been important and that cemented for me the type of church where I wanted to serve.

What attracted you to Loanhead?

My first charge was at Newmains and Bonkle Parish Churches on the edge of Wishaw and I was there for 12 years. We developed a lot of community projects, all with full-time and part-time staff, but I sensed that they had had enough innovation and needed to settle for a while.

I was looking for a church that was again connected to its community and looking to develop. Loanhead was that.

Loanhead is a very strong community and the folk in the church were committed to being connected to that community, but there wasn't a strong spiritual heart to congregational life, with no study groups or fellowship groups outside a Sunday to help people develop their faith.

Team ministry is also very important to me and there was a very good session clerk here when I came. He had managed to get other people involved and some of the congregation had set up a community café on a Friday morning. There was also a pastoral care group which was already looking after most of the pastoral needs of the congregation.

I simply built on that so things that people hadn't been expected to do before, like a children's talk or leading worship, became something they found themselves doing.

We also developed a staff team, which has always been a mix of paid staff and volunteers, most of whom have been recruited from within the congregation. This was partly funded through the local Presbytery as I was working two days a week for Presbytery - but we also got a grant from the local parish fund and donations from local folk. This has allowed us to recruit family development staff and youth and children's workers, all part-time. But the important thing is not that we have paid jobs, it is that we are building a team.

In this, sometimes it is about creating posts and then seeing who is available to fill them. Other times it's been about seeing what gifts folks have and asking them to join the church team so they can make the best use of these gifts.

What have been the highlights of your ministry in Loanhead?

The highlights have always been about the people who have come to faith and grown in faith and who you can see have really grown in life and as individuals. That has always been the real joy, along with seeing the church develop in positive ways and the congregation embrace that. We have made some fairly major changes without any significant issues.

You are taking a community forward and seeing individuals grow within that and seeing the community grow in faith. That is always hugely encouraging.

What has kept you motivated?

Part of my ministry has been outside Loanhead, working nationally and in Presbytery on change management, and that has kept things exciting, helping congregations see how God has worked in the past and what he is doing now, and how we can lean into that.

That allows me to continue to do some of the ordinary stuff at Loanhead which isn't particularly exciting, but is necessary.

I'm currently running a Growing Young cohort where we have 18 churches who are currently looking at how we "Grow Young" and what that means.

Growing Young came out of a research project which discovered some key characteristics in churches which were bucking the trend in terms of age profile and the cohort is looking at how to

shape church life so that it is a place where younger people want to be and where their faith is stimulated. We bring churches together, provide them with webinars and a coach, and encourage them to talk about what they need to change, which is as much about the culture of the church as it is about the activities the church is involved in.

For example: how are we involving young people in leadership? How many elders do you have under 45? If the answer is none, then it will be almost impossible to reach out to younger people, because they are the ones who know their own generation and will help to shape the church for their generation.

This is a long-term process so we travel with congregations for two years, help set a new direction, and during those two years they will see some green shoots, begin to see some developmental change. They are not going to turn everything around in two years, but every congregation that has been involved has been able to point at things they have taken forward and said that without the cohort, they wouldn't have made those changes.

What advice would you give to new ministers or those considering ministry?

One of the most important things I did early on in ministry was a Christians in Management course. That helped me to understand myself and the gifts I have and those I don't have, so that I need to draw on the gifts of others.

Do some work to understand your own gifts and the gifts of others.

I do a bit of teaching on APEST (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher) to help folk understand what their gifts are in those categories. My own gifting is as an Apostle and Teacher and as a result I love discovering things, seeing the patterns that are there and explaining to people how they work and fit together.

More information

If you would like to consider how God might be calling you to serve at this time, you may want to discuss further with your minister or be in touch with your Presbytery to explore local opportunities.

If you are interested in exploring a call to the recognised ministries of the Church, you can find more information on our vocations page and can contact ministry@churchofscotland.org.uk for a Discernment Conversation with one of the Recruitment Team.