He initially worked as a teacher in a
comprehensive school before holding posts in further education colleges in Southampton and Basingstoke. He was also an inspector in the post-compulsory sector for some years. In 1999-2000 he was Hartley Fellow at
Southampton University and in 2004 was appointed Academic Director for Lifelong Learning at
Westminster Institute of Education,
Oxford Brookes University. In 2006 he was awarded the title Professor. Gibson has been described as ‘one of that school of ecclesiastical historians... which in the late twentieth century has given fresh impetus and vitality to the revisionist view of the eighteenth-century Church...’ (John Guy in
Journal of Welsh Religious History, 1997) Gibson's championing of the ‘optimistic’ view of the eighteenth century Church has drawn criticism from historians. The debate has been most recently aired in
Reviews in History (
Institute of Historical Research London, ). His biography of
Benjamin Hoadly, though generally well received, has been viewed as an overly strong statement of the optimist's defence of a latitudinarian bishop (“a valuable if perhaps slightly overstated reappraisal of one of the foremost pillars of the Georgian religious establishment” –Robin Eagles "The Eighteenth Century" in
Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, December 2006.) In February 2008 he was appointed as Director of the
Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History. In October 2009 he was visiting fellow at
Baylor University, Texas. In April 2011 he was visiting fellow at
Yale University. In 2019–2020, he was visiting professor at
Clermont Auvergne University. ==Writings==