Ian Packer

Ian Packer was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia in 1966, and educated at Prince Alfred College before moving with his parents and sister to Darwin, Northern Territory. Despite a desire to become a fighter pilot, he followed through on a deep and unshakeable sense that he should become involved in Christian teaching ministry.

He married Libby O'Hare in 1989 and moved to Perth. There he completed his BA (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and Sociology at Murdoch University. His honours thesis, supervised by Dr Ian Barns, was "Seeking a Community of Promise: The Ethico-Political Priority of the Ekklesia in Postmodern Public Theology": a critical comparison of the work of John Howard Yoder, Oliver O'Donovan and William Cavanaugh, looking at how their respective visions of Christian community related to their understanding of social ethics and public theology. He and Libby have four children.

Ian went on to do his M.Div through Ridley College (an Anglican college in Parkville, Victoria) and Morling College (a Baptist College near Macquarie University in New South Wales).

He has lectured at Harvest West Bible College in Ethics, Ecclesiology and Social and Cultural Trends; and guest lectured at Ridley College, Morling College, and Tabor College; and regularly taught for Macquarie Christian Studies Institute at Macquarie University in Sydney (www.mcsi.edu.au).

For two years he was a student pastor at Trinity Chapel, Robert Menzies College in Sydney; and also an interim associate minister for Pennant Hills Baptist Church. He was a member of the Social Issues Committee for the Baptist Union of NSW and ACT, a member of the Australian Public Theology Network, and a NSW representative of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand.

From 2007-2009, he was Director of Public Theology for Australian Evangelical Alliance. From 2010-2015, he worked part-time as well as Assistant Director of ETHOS-EA Centre for Christianity and Society (www.ethos.org.au) with Dr Gordon Preece, a public theology venture between Australian Evangelical Alliance (www.ea.org.au) and Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society.

He is currently working on his PhD in theological ethics on ethics and vocation.