A Family Message
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
"Where have I come from" is a very important question to ask because it can so often determine where we end up going. At the age of 10 I found myself serving at the local Anglican Church with the Vicar (Rev. White) and a handful of elderly ladies. It was here that, strangely, I first felt called to be a vicar. In my early teens I went to the local Methodist churches - they had the worship band, the girls and also opportunities to train as a young leader and I found myself at the age of 14 leading one of the Sunday school age groups some weeks.
We moved to the local town of Wisbech and there, in my late teens, I joined the local Catholic Church and was confirmed into the RC Church.
At University I met my wife to be, Kathryn. When we bought a house in Ashby, Leicestershire we settled down in our local Anglican Church, St Helen's. St Helen's was a church where space was created. I was given space to try out leading family services, preach, run Alpha courses, whatever I wanted to try out - they created the space. In Ashby I worked with Youth for Christ. It was with them that Kathryn and I went with 12,000 young people to Manchester in 2000. We witnessed people's hearts melting when we served them not with words but with a paintbrush and a spade.
Once I had been selected for training we choose to go to St. John's, Nottingham - an open Evangelical/Charismatic College. It changed my thinking, my doing, my theology. I began to see every single Christian as a full time minister. I began to understand a little more about what it meant to be part of the Body of Christ. I began to see my role as not doer, but enabler. In Illogan I found myself challenged by God to surrender my own plans and to seek to work collaboratively. So, I begin here by looking to enable more space for others to try out their gifts as others did once for me.