Stephen Said
Stephen is a husband, a dad, and a founding member of the Melbourne Victory Football Club. He is involved in leading missio Dei (mdei.wordpress.com) , a missional community in Melbourne’s north east. He is employed by Tear Australia (www.tear.org.au) as National Youth Coordinator and as a sessional lecturer at Tabor College Melbourne and ACOM.

As National Youth Coordinator with TEAR Australia, Stephen’s focus is on education and public speaking (in both Christian and secular contexts) on issues of discipleship in popular culture, social justice, poverty, consumerism and the work of TEAR internationally, as well as facilitating short term exposure experiences for young adults.

As a sessional lecturer, Stephen focuses on spiritual formation in contemporary culture, ethics, gospel culture dynamics and missional leadership. He writes for numerous Christian paper and e-zines, and blogs regularly at www.neurotribe.net/blog and collaboratively with an incredibly insightful cohort at advoc8.tear.org.au.
Stephen has been involved in youth and young adult ministry initially in inner suburban Melbourne and for the last 15 years in the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne. With a background in IT and new media, and armed with a degree in Missiology, he spends most of his time helping Christians come to terms with being disciples "in" Pop Culture, rather than disciples "of" Pop Culture.

Stephen is sought after regularly to speak, write and incite people in the first world to consider holistic missional responses to the challenges of the emerging global culture.

Stephen’s Background

Stephen’s background is in the IT industry where he worked as an Internetworking Consultant for over 10 years helping organizations effectively implement Internet based technologies within their organization. Stephen’s last few years in this industry were in the world of internet startups focusing on security and new media development. He now hacks for fun!

What others have said about Stephen…

Stephen has been on team with Forge for five years now and has developed into fine missional thinker, practitioner, and strategist. As part of the team, he has played an invaluable role in developing our system, the content, and the delivery of the training that Forge offers.

Alan Hirsch

National Director, Forge Mission Training Network

“Stephen Said is one the most refreshing and original people I know. He is passionate about reinventing the Church and Christian leadership to meet the needs of a changing world.”
Steve Addison
Australian Director of Church Resource Ministries

"I love the things Forge is doing and the creative ways Stephen and the Forge team are reconnecting the church with contemporary Australian society in all its many facets. I highly recommend the Forge internship for anyone grappling with the issues surrounding the emerging church in Australian society"

Les Henson

Senior Lecturer in Intercultural and Mission Studies, Tabor College, Victoria