CCK Life blog

Ted Tull: Cussing, drinking, ex Army born and bred Brightonian blown away by Jesus

I was born in Brighton on the 11th of September 1931. I was born within a 100 yards of the clock tower. At that time, it was a very old and very derelict Brighton. I lived in Moulsecoomb when the war came along. They weren’t sure what was going to happen and expected Germans to come over. I remember one Sunday the sirens went off,  my father barricaded the window and we sat with our gas marks on. 20 minutes later the ‘all clear’ went off. It was one of our planes coming back and so  a false alarm!

They got all the evacuees out of London – school children, young people to Brighton. We had 3 evacuees living with us for 2 years. We had a few bombs in Brighton but nothing like they had in London.

I remember on Boxing Day they dropped a few bombs next to us. It happened whilst we were eating our dinner and my father and uncles left the dinner table and ran out to put the fire out.

When the war finished I got a job as an electrician. I was 14 then. When I was 15, I took up cycle racing on a velodrome as a sport. I was in a cycle team called The Brighton and Hove Wheelers and we won the Sussex championship!

At 21, I was conscripted and went into the army for 2 years into the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers. I learnt to drive there and used to drive army trucks. I drove the CO’s car once! I got into trouble once for not securing the load down! The canon I was transporting slid down across the truck, hit the side and went over. Fortunately there was no car on the opposite side. I got 14 days for that incident.

I got married whilst I was in the army and my wife and I got a basement flat on Richmond street. It was a bit of a hole, damp and with mice. I got a job as an electrician with Otis.

I was brought up in a family that was on the booze and every weekend there was party in our house.  I was brought up to go to church. It was like that in those days, but there was no substance to my going to church. So when I got married, my natural tendency to wind down was to get a drink. My vent from the pressure of work and being married was to go down with the boys and have a drink. Drink became hard to control. I was always having ‘one for the road’. I kept getting home late and that caused friction between my wife and I.

One day, a man called Alan Guthridge joined Otis. He was a former wrestler and he started talking to me about Jesus. I would say it was a load of rubbish. I was pressed to be an atheist. I couldn’t trust something written down 2000 years. Alan used to write scriptures out for me like John 3:16 and I used to read these scriptures. They had a bit of a meaning to me but I couldn’t get to grips with it. Alan used to tell me about the end of the world, as written in the Bible. The last chapter of the book of Malachi in the Bible talks about the earth ending with fervent heat. They had just let the atom bomb off and videos of Hiroshima getting flattened were all over the TV. I never thought the earth would get melted, but I began to see that if this atom bomb was possible, anything could happen! This triggered of an interest in the Bible. When Alan would say to me why don’t you accept Jesus as your Saviour, I didn’t know what he was talking about. I used to say, you’ve become religious. He was a tough, quick tempered guy and I knew why he would be religious. Once in a fit of rage at his wife he had thrown down the door of his house. He had needed religion to calm down! But I couldn’t see my weakness.

Anyway, I went home and studied the gospel of John and when I read the trial of Christ I couldn’t say honestly that He was a madman and it was rubbish. I wanted to. I wanted to say it was like Alice in Wonderland, a story – all fabricated. But as I read it, I couldn’t dismiss it and I’d challenge anyone to read it openly and then rip it out and say it was rubbish. I couldn’t call Christ a liar. I couldn’t say I’d rather enjoy my pints than follow Jesus.

It said Jesus rose from the dead and I asked God to reveal this truth to me. I wanted to know whether there was anything more to life otherwise I may as well eat, drink and be merry. I went down on my knees and said “God please would you show me. I don’t want to be religious”. If there is truth, if a man rose from the dead, forget religion, that’s ground breaking! A man rose from the dead! I had no time for religion. I was a hypocrite myself. This resurrection blew me away.

I either had to accept that Jesus had risen again or there was no truth to Christianity ultimately. As I considered the events, I came to the conclusion that the best explanation of what is recorded had to be that they really took place. As a result I was able to joyfully put my trust in Jesus and become a Christian.

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Roy and Isabella Davey: From Peru to Brighton

Roy and Isabella Davey live in Brighton and regularly attend Church of Christ the King. Roy has recently written a commentary on the book of Romans in Spanish based on the Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones’ interpretation. Prior to that he served the churches in the jungles and hills of Peru. It was whilst he was in Peru that he met Isabella. They share their stories..

Roy: In Feb 1980, I had a break down. Before that I found that my mind was closing down and my performance at work was decreasing drastically. Yet in April that year, I met Jesus in the street! At 9:30 one night, I heard an audible voice saying “you could die tomorrow”. I knew that was true because of the drugs and alcohol that I was regularly consuming. I panicked but suddenly remembered something I had heard in Sunday School about hell. In my panic I phoned up a local pastor and asked if I could see him. It was 10:30 by then and he asked if it was a matter of life and death! Yes!…I met him and he spoke to me about Jesus Christ for an hour. I left his house and was walking home. It was like I was walking with a blanket draped around my head touching the ground when suddenly a great divine hand came down and lifted the blanket off. It was extraordinary! In that moment, I went from extreme depression to extreme elation. I was so excited I was helping old ladies cross the road, whether or not she wanted to!

I went to Bible college then. I was 37! I studied a lot there, about 15 hours a day and I loved it. Whilst at Bible College, a Peruvian lady missionary spoke about Peru needing Bible teachers and her talk stuck out to me. I used to find missionaries talks boring, but this was different. So I asked God whether he wanted me to do this and I felt lead to read a verse that was written on the inside cover of my missionary principles notebook. It was Acts 7:23, “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.” Well I was 40 and I knew that the Christians in Peru were my brothers and sisters so this gave me an inclining to go to Peru. It was 7 years before the doors finally opened for me to go. I didn’t know why though, but when I got to Peru I realised my God had delayed my trip so that He could use the time to work in my heart. I would have collapsed and come home in disobedience that first year if I hadn’t had those 7 years of preparation.

I went to Peru in 1993 and lived there for 14 years. I spent 6 years in the mountains and 8 years on the coast training people to be pastors. Most people don’t have money to go to Bible college, so the church I was linked to had its own Bible college. Pastors would come down from the mountains or up from the jungles and they would be looked after for 2 years. I would be one of their teachers. I taught from the Bible and also by living out a Christian life to them. I loved it.

I came back to England in 2007. I came back to work on the book, but we now feel that God has closed the door for us to go back to South America and stay on in England. Just a couple of weeks ago we got a visa for Isabella to stay here. I felt the Lord say ‘mission accomplished’ which is a lovely thing to hear at the end.
For young people thinking of pursuing mission overseas, don’t go unless you’re certain God has told you to go. The missions turned me down because of my age so I went out as an independent missionary. I had a lot of discouragement but I trusted God and knew it was His plan for me to be in Peru.

Isabella (Roy translating): I lead a very empty life before I became a follower of Jesus. I was a very religious catholic and went to all the masses but my life was empty and aimless. I used to read the Bible but I did not understand it. During my teenage years, my parents separated and I had to assume parental responsibility for my siblings. Around that time, some of my friends became Christians and I noticed a difference in their lives. Their faces changed, they looked happy! They invited me to go to their church. At their church, people received me with a great deal of love. It was like stepping into another world all together! When the meeting started the words of the songs spoke to my heart and when the pastor preached, he stripped my life bare. It was as if someone had told the pastor about me! I didn’t think I was a sinner in comparison to others but that night I felt like a sinner. That night I saw my life like a film and I saw my rebellious personality in even the smallest of things.

That night I chose to follow Jesus.

I had an extraordinary joy in my heart after that and my life changed completely. I asked for lots of miracles to show people God’s grace and glorify Him and I have loads of stories of God’s provision.

One evening not too long after I became a Christian, I went to a village. A mother of 8 children had died that morning. I couldn’t accept that this was God’s will to take away a mother from her 8 children. So I prayed and the mother came back to life! That resulted in many people putting their trust in Jesus.

It wasn’t always easy for me though. I was thrown out of my house when I became a Christian. I had to hide and read my Bible under streetlights in the dead of the night but God was always there to strengthen me.

He lead me to marry Roy in a very special way even though I had to wait many years before we met.

I love it here at CCK. God has used me to encourage some of the younger Spanish speaking women at CCK. My English is very poor but I want to stay on in England more than Roy!

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Doug and Alison Davis – CCK Pioneers

Doug: We became Christians when we were very young. I was brought up in a Christian home. My father was a soldier in the Navy during World War 2. He wasn’t a Christian but when he was 20, he met a Scottish guy who led him to Jesus. That had an effect when he came home after the war. He was very excited and enthusiastic about what Jesus had done for him. He would go to the docks and share. After the war, he joined the police and was involved with Police Christian Association.

I learnt a lot of things about God but never experienced God till I was 15. I was in a Baptist church in Purley. At a youth weekend, someone shared their story about how they discovered Jesus as their God and suddenly I knew Jesus was God. My life changed. And then Alison arrived!

Alison: I wasn’t brought up in a Christian home. My father was in the Air Force and was killed during the war. When she was 40, my mother became a Christian and I was dragged along to church which I found thoroughly boring! A few years later, God spoke to me at a Billy Graham crusade meeting and a year later I became a Christian. At the same time a close friend of mine became a Christian too! So we decided to find a church together and that’s how we ended up at Purley Baptist church and I met Doug!

We went out for 5 years before we got married. Doug started walking me home after church every week. It was a chemical thing! I was 16 and getting interested in guys and I saw this guy and went “Wow! He’s a Christian guy, he must be good!” (laughs) and there was no turning back!

Doug: When I first saw Alison, she had a very nice skirt on! When I told my mother she said, “Not that girl with the short skirt.” (laughs) “Afraid so mum!.” I was a lively guy. Alison’s parents were from a higher class than us, but they learned to love me.

We were 21 when we got married. I was working with British Telecom. I worked with BT all my professional life – 40 years. Before we were married, we’d ride down to Brighton every weekend on my scooter, lie on the beach, have tanned bodies for the rest of the week and then come back the next weekend! We always loved Brighton and so we decided that when we were married we’d move down. We bought a bungalow in Portslade and we had Matt and Stephanie there.

Alison: When we first moved to Brighton, we weren’t too plugged in to a church. There wasn’t a sense of community there and we didn’t feel very settled or happy. So one day, we decided to pack up and move to Australia. We lived there for two and a half years

Doug: My advice to anyone considering a move is to really pray about it and seek God first. We didn’t do that. The environment we were in wasn’t too good. The church we were in wasn’t teaching us how to live our lives and we weren’t enthusiastic about searching the Bible on how to either. I think we missed out on something over there.

We came back to Brighton and went to a church called Gloucester Place Baptist Church on London Road. Something extraordinary happened whilst we were there. A young girl had a liver problem and was on dialysis 3 times a week for a number of weeks. She had become seriously ill was about to be hospitalized. She went to pray with the Pastor and as she spoke to him, she said suddenly the Holy Spirit came on her and she was healed! The next day, she went in to Sussex Hospital was completely fine. Where earlier her face and skin were yellow and filled with marks from the injections, her skin was now clear and pink. The doctors decided to x-ray her and the doctors were stunned! The x-ray showed that she had 2 new kidneys and her notes were filed away with the heading ‘healed through prayer’. I still get emotional when I share this story 30 years after it happened.

I felt God say to me, “So what do you reckon of that then?”

She told people in church. Some were sceptical, but many shared her joy. This experience was a catalyst and a turning point for us. We decided to figure out what was going on. So we met a guy called Henry Tyler and joined up with him. And that was the beginning of CCK.

Terry Virgo then came over and we saw huge growth. Regularly, people were becoming followers of Jesus and growing in their knowledge of God. We’ve been so blessed to have been involved right from the beginning. We got totally involved. We’ve done house groups, area groups and every other kind of group. I was involved in leadership for a while. Terry guided us well and we’ve benefited so much from his wisdom over the years.

Watching our son Matt being set aside as an Elder was a special moment. We’re really for him and what he’s doing. He’s the fruit of prayer gone into his life. We’re just so happy for him and very, very proud.

I like how our church is setup with leaders who really look out for you, who are there to guide and instruct you. If you get into trouble you can always see them and they’ll try to help you out. It’s encouraging seeing young people who’ve grown in God in such a short period of time. When you’ve been around for a while, you go “Wow! Look how God’s growing them and bringing them along.” We have this young guy preaching, Joel, who I remember seeing first as a child at CCK! We’re really benefiting along with other people in the autumn of our life through how God’s developing him as our leader. These are guys God has chosen to lead us. There are always the smaller things we may not understand, but I like to look at the larger picture and see how God’s is touching and impacting people’s lives every week now.

Alison: A few years ago, I felt that I wanted to bring friends to a church that we were proud of. We’ve never felt like that about other churches we’ve been part of. We felt it wouldn’t be relevant or that religion was being preached. But CCK is so relevant to our neighbours, friends, family – it’s got everything we wouldn’t be ashamed of and would love them to be a part of. We’re so glad with what God is doing here and are so glad we have a part to play in such an exciting time as this!

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David and Gillian Moss – Trust and Triumph through Tragedy and Tribulation

David, 77, and Gillian Moss, 70, have been worshiping Jesus at CCK since 1994. David loves coming to church in his Sunday best and you always see him dressed in a suit complete with a tie and a trilby! Gillian has been involved in cleaning and maintaining the Clarendon Centre (where CCK meets on a Sunday) for the past 7 years but retires this year, much to the dismay of the Centre manager, Dan Sweetman!

David and Gillian share their remarkable stories of how they’ve coped with tragedy always trusting in the plans that God has for them.

David Moss:

I became a Christian in 1940. It was a time when Brighton beach was mined and covered with barbed wires. The arrival of the Axis forces on the beach was imminent. A preacher from Africa had come to our church and he’d brought along with him a long wooden drum. Using his wooden drum, he demonstrated how messages were communicated across the jungles. After drumming a few times, he proceeded to share the good news of Jesus Christ to us. I was suddenly aware that I was a sinner who needed a Saviour. I put my trust in Jesus that day and have never changed that since.

From my first marriage, I had 4 children. One day, my wife came to me with words that I never wanted to hear, “I don’t love you anymore. I love someone else.” I was devastated. I didn’t believe that divorce was a right thing to do, but she moved away and I finally consented only on the condition that our children would not get involved with this divorce process. So, I was left with my four children. Through the pain of it all, I trusted that God had a plan for me and that I wasn’t separated from His love.

I fell in love again and married in the early 1970’s. My wife bore us twin boys. I remember standing outside a supermarket with my twin boys when an elderly gentleman came up to me and said, “what more could a man ask for.” I thanked God in that moment for giving me such a lovely wife and my children. But just over a year after we were married, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and died. I was left with two little boys to bring up. In 1974, I quit my job to look after my children full time. God was faithful during that time and I have many stories of how He looked after me through those very difficult times.

It was then that I met my Gillian!

Gillian Moss:

I had trained to be a nurse and worked in London. I was married to a man 5 years younger than me, but that ended in a bitter divorce. I had been sexually abused by my father for 8 years as a child and struggled to be sexually intimate with my first husband. He blamed that for the divorce. From my first husband, I had two lovely boys, Robin and Adrian.

Just after the divorce, we went away for a Bible week. It was my first one ever. It was at the Bible Week that my 2 sons and I became followers of Jesus. My oldest son, Robin, seemed especially excited about what had happened.

A few months later, the three of us went on a holiday to the sea. My friend had been kind enough to let us use her cottage. On the way there, we stopped over to take a break and whilst there, my oldest son Robin asked me three questions I’ll never forget. The first one was, “Mummy, does God tell you when you’re going to die?” Being a nurse I had come across dying people who would say that they were about to die before they did. I know this is not always the case, but I had seen it happen from time to time. So I told Robin this. The second one was, “Mummy, does Jesus come to take me up to Heaven when I die?” I wasn’t too sure! So I told him that people died all over the world, so Jesus sends His angels but He’d be there in Heaven to meet me. The third one was, “Mummy, what’s it like to die?” I replied that I didn’t know as I hadn’t ever died! But I did tell him that the Bible says that there would be no pain or suffering in Heaven and he had nothing to be afraid of.

A few days later I watched him drown in the sea.

As I saw my boy drown, I felt an amazing sense of comfort, almost as if the Lord had wrapped His arms around me. I did cry buckets and mourn and I was angry and hurt, which I think are all a part of the grieving process, but through it all, I knew the love and comfort of Jesus. It was as if my son had changed his address and was in a safe place. One day I will see him again.

A few years later, I was kneeling and praying, when my younger son Adrian knelt next to me and said, “Mummy, why doesn’t God provide us with a family?” So I asked Him to do that. A few days later, I met David and his family of six children! After developing a friendship and a lot of prayer and trusting in God, David asked me to marry him, and I said yes! In 1978 we were married, and we’ve been together for 32 years now rejoicing in how good God has been to us.

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In over 30 years CCK has grown from an original group of 40 adults & children with a passion to see the authentic church restored into what is now a city centre based church regularly gathering approximately 1200 people most Sundays. Some of those original pioneers (and many others since) have stayed at CCK and helped establish and build this church on a bedrock of stability on which many generations can now stand and grow further.

To honour these hardy pioneers we’ve launched a series of interviews on this blog titled ‘Men and Women of Honour’. As we interview some of these long-standing, committed church members we hope to glean from them some of their wisdom, experience and personal challenges as they have sought to honour Jesus with their lives.

Take the time to absorb the passion and purpose that has characterised the lives of these early CCK pioneers. Be inspired and challenged…

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Amy Loizides arrived in Brighton 2 years ago to serve on CCK’s Impact team for a year. She then worked as part of the Administrative team, led by Annie Waller.  She has just left Brighton to return to South Africa before moving to America to be involved with a church there. Amy shares with Yohaan Philip about her relationship with Jesus along with some of her memories of life in Brighton.

YP: Tell me about how you came to know Jesus.

AL: Well….! I grew up in a Christian home but as happens with a lot of people, the older I got the less important Jesus was to me and things like popularity, boys, image, parties etc got more and more important. In Cape Town, South Africa (where I grew up) every year Newfrontiers ran a Summer Camp (sort of like Newday but on a smaller scale) for the youth of the churches in our area. I went every single year and every time I went I’d get all fired up for God again; I’d be really excited about the whole thing, but then two weeks later when I went back to school, I’d go straight back into my old habits – partying, gossiping, drinking and all that. Then I arranged to come to England to find a job after I finished school when I was 18 but nothing opened up! So I emailed Joel Virgo and asked if I could come to Brighton (because that was one of the few places in England I actually remembered!) and volunteer at CCK for a little bit while I looked for a job. He said no to my idea because he had a better one – he said I should do Impact for six months at CCK instead! Then on the plane on the way over I was thinking about how messy everything had gotten in my life and how much it had hurt me and I just said “Right God, I swore I’d never go to England yet I’m on a plane to England and I swore I’d never work for the church yet I’m on my way to do six months at CCK, so it seems you’ve got me right where you want me.” There was no point fighting it anymore and pursuing other things so right then and there I just surrendered my life once again to whatever God had in store for me and honestly there wasn’t anything better that I could have done or will ever do.

YP: Lovely story! So why are you leaving Brighton then?!

AL: Haha the million dollar question… In short I feel like Brighton has been sort of a stepping stone, a ‘launch pad’ if you like in the time that I’ve been here. CCK is a great place to come, get stuck in, be a part of, be trained up and move on to advance the gospel further in other parts of the world. So I’m going to North Carolina, USA for a few months…as you do. After that, who knows!

YP: What have been some of the key things you’ve learnt whilst at CCK?

AL: Man this is hard because literally my whole life has changed! Umm…

To try and do everything with your best effort – because ultimately even if you aren’t working for the church, you are working for God and so it’s worth it to get stuck in wholeheartedly and get involved wherever you can.

To trust God completely with everything no matter how big or little it seems. God’s faithfulness shouldn’t surprise me, but it always does. He might not answer or provide in the way you expect him to, but it will always be the way that’s best for you and He will never ignore you.

YP: What are some of the things you’re going to miss?

AL: I sometimes grumble about Brighton but to be absolutely honest there is not a place in the world like it. I will miss walking down the road and seeing a man with blue hair, a tie dye dress, piercings everywhere walking barefoot in the pouring rain. I will miss the Red Roaster coffee house (just by the Old Steine – visit if you haven’t already!). I will really miss the amazing friends I’ve made and the ladies (plus a few boys) who work on the admin team at CCK - they do so much that goes unnoticed, true gems!

YP: Yes they are stars! All the best then and hopefully we’ll see you soon!

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Phil Turner is part of the leadership CCK Team and is primarily involved with running the Alpha Course. He is married to Mel and they have 5 children. Phil is very passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and in this interview he talks openly with Yohaan Philip about why and how he came to be so excited about Jesus.

YP: Can you tell me a little about how you came to know Jesus?

PT: Before I became a Christian I worked at Lloyds TSB for 17 years. I wanted to build a career, get promotions, good money, a flat, a car etc  and find some sort of safety and security in my life. I hoped for the day I’d be really happy and never look back. But, the problem was that inside it was like a storm that I couldn’t get away from. I had great parents and a safe home. But there was an inner turmoil in me and as I strove for these things , even if I did get them, it left me feeling more empty, more fearful, more anxious about what the future had in store. I turned to astrology, trying to find out what the future had in store. I wanted to be happy, but never was.

After a broken relationship, a storm took place in my life that really crushed me. My safety nets were collapsing and I didn’t know where to turn to. I turned to alcohol and clubbing, trying to find a way to escape the reality of the world, thinking I’d find freedom and happiness. But the problem was that the next day I was back into the reality of everyday life. One Friday night, I remember being down in a night club on West Street with this storm really raging inside of me. I had never read the Bible at this point and was far from any understanding or looking for any form of God. And that Friday night I just said, “Jesus, I really need your help. Can you help me?” Then, this Christian friend of mine started talking about Jesus to me. I had always envied his life – whatever storms that seemed to surround him, it never seemed to affect his peace or happiness or security. I never had any security. He invited me along to CCK to a Paul Oakley concert one Friday night. I saw people worshipping and putting their hands up. Initially it seemed a bit strange, but one thing I noticed as I came out of the meeting was that these people seemed to know Jesus personally and have a depth to them. My life with all it’s clubbing and pubbing seemed very superficial. People I met made friends based on star signs. But at the church, I found a kind of safety that I had never experienced before. It was quite remarkable.

That lead me on a request to discover this Jesus. I read the Bible and the thing that nailed me was the resurrection of Jesus. There were over 500 witnesses that claimed that Jesus came to them. I realized that Jesus was really alive. On the 8^th of October 1993, I became a follower of Jesus. I’ve never been the same since.

YP: Wow! That’s quite a story. So how did you become involved with CCK?

PT: I quit Lloyds TSB about 6 years ago and had an opportunity to work at a training consultancy. The advantage of that was that I got the same pay as Lloyds, but had to work for only 2 weeks a month. I made a decision to serve and help CCK more during my free time. As soon as I became a Christian I felt that that God would call me to work full time for Him in a Church as an “Evangelist.” I didn’t know what an Evangelist was at the time. All I knew was that God put a passion in me to tell everyone about Jesus. The day after I became a Christian I went back to Lloyds and told everyone about Jesus and earned the nickname, ‘Phil the Baptist’! I worked for the consultancy for 3 years and during those 3 years, I felt my passion for the Lord grow and I learned to pray and to seek Him and to serve. At the end of the 3 years, work dried up at the training consultancy. By this time my family was growing. God spoke to me amazingly at Northampton one day that I would never work for that company again. A few days later the consultancy called me to say they were making me redundant. In the year 2000, a preacher from India, Ram Babu, came and told us (CCK) that he had never had to find a job and God had provided for all his and his family’s needs as he travelled India and the world talking about Jesus. When I heard this, I turned to my wife, Mel, and whispered to her asking her if she thought we could live this way and trust God to provide for our every need. And so, when I got made redundant, I decided to serve God and the Church full time and trust God to provide for our every need.

During that period, the provision of God was extraordinary. We learned to pray together as a family. There were times when we were so hungry and had no petrol for the car day – we were right down to the wire. We were living on baked beans. One time, the mortgage was due the next day. We all prayed as a family and a thousand pounds came through the doorway! God provided! We have lovely stories of how God used our children. One night my oldest daughter, Molly, had a dream where God told her that someone would put money through the door next day – and it happened!! We did endure some suffering, but we knew that God loved us. So during that period we grew closer as a family and learned to trust the plan God has for our lives and to follow Him in obedience. There were sometimes when we were fearful but we felt God’s love for us every time.

YP: So would you encourage people to live like this?

PT: You need to really know the call of God on your life to do this! But there are so many areas in life you need to step out of the boat and just follow Him. You don’t want to be irresponsible in this. You need to have a peace of heart and faith to know God’s in this.

YP: Tell me more about the Alpha Course you run?

PT: initially I used to be involved with Alpha on the estates, but then more recently, we’ve gathered all our resources and shifted all our Alpha courses to the heart of Brighton city. This is the 3^rd Alpha course we’ve run under my leadership in the city. It’s going fantastically well. Last week I shared on the resurrection of Jesus which is a passion of mine! We complete on the 8^th of December with a Christmas celebration. We want the alpha course to be more than just a place where people can make new relationships and discover Jesus. We want them to get stuck into Church and really grow in their faith. The next Alpha starts in spring next year.

YP: What are some of the influences in your life? What keeps you ticking?
PT: One of the major influences in my life has been a guy called Mike Springer. He was passionate about talking about Jesus. When I first began come to Church he took me under his wing and had a huge impact on me. Ram Babu, from India, is another one. I’d never seen a miracle before! But through people being miraculously healed, I saw God working through him. Joel Virgo coming in has made a huge difference in the vision of the church. Tim Keller is another huge hero of mine. Sharing Jesus in a city is a lot more complex than what I gave credit for. I have found his teachings on engaging people and honouring and then challenging their objections very helpful.

I think what ultimately keeps me going is to keep going back to the cross and the resurrection. Everyday.

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Rich Spear is the editor of the CCK Reason Blog, a new online resource that seeks to provide theologically sound answers to the questions people need answered. His passion for apologetics and Manchester Utd. were just some of things he talks about with Yohaan Philip…

YP: So tell me, how did you become a Christian?
RS: I had the privilege of being brought up by two great parents who both loved Jesus themselves, and so they brought me up teaching me about him. When I was 6 years old I realised my desire for a personal relationship with God, and so I asked Jesus to enter my life as my saviour. The next few years were steady in my growth and understanding of Jesus, but my world was turned upside down in 1994 when at the age of 11 my dad was suddenly diagnosed with cancer, was given around 2 months to live, and in April he passed away. By July 1995, my Mum had re-married and we had moved from Eastbourne to Brighton. My whole life had changed and I was just turning into a moody teenager too! I had lost something of my passion or even belief in God. This led to me telling my Mum that I didn’t believe in God anymore and didn’t feel church was for me. To her credit she just said she was ok with it and didn’t really force the issue, and this was probably quite important (I now know she was praying big time behind the scenes though).

Intellectually Christianity seemed very much at odds with what everyone at school believed, especially what we were taught in Science lessons. Because of this and a desire to be accepted and to ‘fit in’, I lied my butt off to my friends. I told them that my step-dad wasn’t a vicar (Clearly I wasn’t Einstein when it came to lying, because when your Step-Dad is a minister in the Church of England you live next door to church!) and when they found out he was, I then insisted that ‘It was his thing’ and had nothing to do with me. For me I tried to find my satisfaction in wanting to play county cricket for Sussex, and so I continued to pursue that dream above anything else. It was what I thought about all the time, it was what excited me, it was what I gave my time and money to. Although I still really enjoy cricket, it had taken the place of God in my heart. That said, I lacked integrity as an atheist (!) and carried on going to church anyway, largely because there were some attractive girls there! I started to realise I had become a total hypocrite as it had no effect on how I lived my life. I was just a social church go-er, then I would go and get drunk and smoke and try and join in with the worldly life my friends were living.

Eventually, at the age of 16 I went on an Alpha course, confronted my doubts and actually realised that there were answers to a lot of the questions that I had been storing up in my head. This led me to re-discover my love for Jesus, and I remember being both captivated and surprised that God actually wanted us to live life to the full (John 10:10), and that Christianity wasn’t just something for people old enough to have blue rinse hair, and on death’s door to be involved in. My story has been one of God’s continued faithfulness to me, and I guess in a sense I feel a bit like Peter who denied Jesus three times; by all accounts he looked to have disqualified himself from ever being used for God’s purposes. He had been unfaithful, and likewise I was totally unfaithful to God too, but he was used powerfully and fruitfully by God to bring many people to faith. That’s what you call grace. That is my prayer and hope for my own life.

YP: Wow! That’s quite a story! And how do you see yourself balancing your love for Jesus and your future career plans?
RS: I’m just about to begin my postgraduate studies to become a Secondary school Maths teacher, having worked for American Express for the last 3 years. It will be great going back to University for the next 2 years. When I went to Sussex University in late 2002 I was challenged a lot by different tough questions about my faith, and it really helped me to grow as a Christian as a result. I’ve been living with Isaiah 26:8 in my heart for the last few years about making Jesus name famous in this city, and I hope to live out as a good ambassador for Jesus when I eventually become a Maths teacher. There are challenges to being a good representative for Christ in 21st Century Brighton. It is very misunderstood. Most people think that becoming a Christian is like committing intellectual suicide, which makes Christian apologetics very important to whatever sphere of life you find yourself in.

YP: Ah apologetics! What’s that all about?
RS: It comes from the greek word apologia and in essence means providing a defence of the faith. It probably sounds very negative and as David Robertson pointed out in his recent interview, C.H. Spurgeon once said when asked about defending the bible, ‘I’d sooner defend a lion’. Really though it’s about trying to answer people’s objections to faith in Christ. 1 Peter 3:15 says ‘Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have’. It’s about being obedient to that call. In fact it’s actually something all Christians are called to pursue; it’s not for a select few.

YP: And what got you so interested in this? And how do you plan to build on your passion?
RS: Ever since God gave me a passion for sharing the good news about Jesus I realised that people had questions that needed to be answered first. This was the case from the time I set foot inside sixth form college at BHASVIC, and was even more true of being at University. I guess my passion for this area came from a desire for my non-christian family and friends to come to have this amazing relationship with God that I have enjoyed for the last 10 years or so. Secondly, it also brings greater depth to your own relationship with God. CS Lewis famously said ‘I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.’ As you delve into how belief in Christ touches every area of human life from science to morality, from pain to joy, you end up worshipping a far bigger God than you thought there was.

Reading and listening to people like William Lane Craig, Alvin Plantinga, Tim Keller, CS Lewis, Michael Ramsden, Amy Orr-Ewing, Alister McGrath and Ravi Zacharias have had a particularly profound effect on me and have given me a passion for communicating the gospel to those around me in a way that they can relate to. Recently, I began the reason blog out of a desire to give our city, Brighton & Hove, answers to the kinds of questions that prevent people from coming to faith in Christ. It started as an overflow from my Q&A slot on the CCK Alpha Course, and then we just decided to go ahead with answering some of the kinds of questions I get asked often, be it from friends or family. It has been great to have so many people reading it, and I have had some excellent articles written by people within the church too. My aim is to provide a great resource for non-christians to get their questions about Christianity answered, and also to help Christians to find credible answers they can give to their friends about tough issues. Ephesians 4:12 says that Evangelists are called to encourage God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ (The Church) may be built up. I’d really like to encourage Christians to dig deeper and find effective ways of explaining the gospel to their friends. We’ve been called as believers to actively be a part of society and not removed from it, which will often involve entering into reasoned discussion, as the apostle Paul did, with those who live around us. I’m particularly really looking forward to our first edition of Reason:Live on Sundays which kicks off on November 15th, so stay tuned for that. I’ll be part of a panel with Ruth Preston and Tim Jones, who are two excellent apologists as well. It will be a great event to invite people to.

YP: That gives us something to look forward to! Thanks for taking the time to talk Rich!
RS: My pleasure!

Graphic by Sam Liddiard

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Jon and Sally Lyndon have been a part of CCK together since 2003. Responding to God speaking to their lives, they have decided to move to Fredericton, Canada to get involved with one of the newfrontiers churches there. Jon presently works in an accounting firm and Sally works on the admin team for newfrontiers. Along with their love for Jesus, they are keen Catan players! Yohaan Philip had to chance to chat with them about their impending move and writes,

YP: Tell me a bit about yourselves and how you met.

JL: I was born in Brighton, grew up in Brighton, met Jesus in Brighton. I’m Brighton born and bred.
SL: I came to Brighton from Devon in ‘03 to study at Sussex Uni. I got stuck into CCK from my very first Sunday. Jon and I met on Brighton beach in September ‘04. We started dating at the end of ‘04, got engaged in Sept ‘05 and got married in August ‘06.

YP: And now you’ve decided to move to Canada. How did that happen?

JL: I first went to Fredericton, New Brunswick, whilst on a year-team in the USA. Friendships and connections were made but not a lot happened until God started to speak to us as couple whilst we were engaged and He put Canada on our hearts. We have also been out three times together to test this new desire(and to check we could handle the snow!). The Church in Fredericton (The Meeting Place Church) have welcomed us every single time we have been there and they have also felt that we should move to be with them.

YP: What are some of your chief aims from your time in Canada?

JL: To make Jesus known in the City of Fredericton. We love the place and can see ourselves serving the community in and out of the church.
SL: God really spoke to me at the TOAM conference this year that one of our chief aims in being ‘missional’ needs to be to serve the lead elders in our new church wholeheartedly.

YP:  What has been the most exciting thing about the move?

SL: Aside from all the church stuff, the great outdoors! Canada is huge and we’ve explored only a fraction of it. I also can’t wait to deepen the friendships we’ve already made in Fredericton and to do life with our new acquaintances.
JL: The humbling experience of playing ice hockey, baseball and building snow forts. There is so much unknown but we know first-hand the faithfulness of God and so we are excited about new friendships, new experiences and drinking coffee all day long like true Canadians of course!

YP: How would you encourage young people seeking God for a move to build His Church?

SL: We started to properly look into moving to Canada after a ‘Canada Day’ held in Tunbridge Wells in May ‘07. This was a great opportunity to hear first-hand about the churches out there. Newfrontiers hold loads of these days throughout the year for different cities and nations. I’d also recommend a lot of prayer and at least a few visits to the church you want to move to be a part of it. Pray.

JL: Keep fixed on and fascinated by Jesus. We as people want many things but we need to have more and more of a heart for what God wants. Pray and listen to God. We are called to the Nations and the ends of the earth however sometimes that means reaching out to your next door neighbor or your local community where you are. One thing which is key is to serve wherever God has placed you, get stuck in, get your hands dirty for Jesus, serve in your Church, serve in your City, serve in your workplace or place of study.

YP: That’s encouraging! Finally, what are you going to miss about Brighton?

SL: CCK has been my home for six years. The leadership team here is like having a tonne of extra parents. I’ll also miss eating Cadburys chocolate with my pals which occurs quite often in my life!
JL: My super friends, the Church here, my dear Brighton and Hove Albion and the Shahi Curry House.

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