Chris and Jenny Lee: “We’re committed to an open, conversational approach to family life and one which affirms that our children are loved by God"

The ‘internet’s favourite vicar’ Chris Lee and his wife Jenny want to encourage Christian parents to be positive and see the good in their parenting and family life even when it is tough

Chris, can you tell us how you became the ‘internet’s favourite vicar’?

Well by accident really. It’s a long story but I was a missionary in Tanzania for a few years and was actually ordained out there before coming back and studying theology at Ridley Hall, Cambridge which is I met Jenny – she was studying theology at another Cambridge college. We got married and then I became a curate at HTB in London and then came to St. Saviours in Chiswick. I started doing some social media stuff on YouTube with my brother-in-law and eventually once I had a little bit of a platform I wondered if I could use it for the betterment of the kingdom. At that time, you could only post 60 second videos on Instagram, so I thought I’d just condense whatever I had been preaching on that Sunday or whatever I had been thinking about in the course of my day and record it. There was no conscious strategy, there was no planning, and this was before lockdown before everyone went online before any other church leaders I saw online, so I was kind of spearheading it and pioneering it.

So, this this has taken off but you’re still a full-time vicar and a full-time husband and a full-time father of three. So how do you balance all those things?

Primarily my role is a vicar. It’s what I do, what I love and feel called to. The online ministry is an extension to that. Every now and again people come to St. Saviour’s because they ……