CCK Life blog

Yohaan: Matt, your sermon at the Men’s Weekend on the Sunday morning was spoken of very highly. Thanks for being with us! Can you tell me how you became a Christian?

Matt : I was born in to a strong Christian family. My parents, John (who was an elder at CCK till he retired last year) and Sue, brought us up teaching us about Jesus from the Bible. At a young age I decided to become a follower of Jesus and accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour.

When I was in my teens, we moved to Brighton. That was my undoing! At our previous church the youth group had been small and I was one of the few who was serious about pursuing Christ – I think having to take a stand like that made me stronger. But when we moved to Brighton there was this massive youth group in which loads of people seemed to be passionate for Jesus but in reality a whole load of us just drifted into partying instead. That inevitably lead to living like everyone else did. At 17, I began to backslide, and made a complete hash of my A levels, as well as other things. I was desperate to join the army but my parents insisted I went to uni first.

After school, I wanted to have a year out and go to either India or Africa. I ended up in Swaziland in Africa working on a farm there. It was a bit disastrous and 3 months later I got kicked off after a massive clash with the man in charge of the farm. I decided to hitch hike down to Cape Town.

I was pretty miserable at this time and knew I had to sort myself out. Somewhat ironically, I was more aware of God through this period of backsliding. My rebellion made me more conscious of His presence! I met another English guy and so we hitched hiked to Cape Town from Swaziland. He was very interested in Christianity and wanted to quiz me all about it. I didn’t really want to talk about it and it made me increasingly uncomfortable. I remember being about halfway through the journey at a place called Oribi Gorge near Durban which is a very amazing natural feature and I suddenly realized that I was miserable and needed to get right with God. So by the time I got to Cape Town I had decided I wanted to get right with God.

Dave Holden was preaching in Jubilee church the weekend I got to Cape Town. And it was at that sermon that I came back to Christ. And the English guy I was travelling with became a Christian at that meeting as well!

Yohaan: Fantastic! You joined Dave Holden in Sidcup later?

Matt: It was January 1989 then and I ended up staying on in Cape Town till September. I came back and went to university in Newcastle then went back to Brighton for a year and worked at the Natural History Museum in London during that period. I went to Canterbury to do a PhD in zoology which was a disaster! I married Grace whilst in Canterbury. My supervisor for the PhD was spookily reminiscent of the man in Swaziland, who I had such a major clash with! In every way physically and personality-wise he was almost the same person. And I just couldn’t get any results going from the research I was meant to be doing. So I knew it wasn’t going anywhere. At Stoneleigh that year (1994), Dave Holden prophesied over me and that led me to chuck in my PhD and go to Sidcup to join Dave.

Yohaan: Men align themselves to men who they regard highly and respect. What about Dave Holden made you move to Sidcup?

Matt: I would never have gone to Sidcup in a million years had it not been for Dave! When Grace and I left to move there, people would say that Sidcup was a great place to live in because it’s so easy to get out of!

There was lot’s about Dave that caused me to move to Sidcup. There was this connection we had – he had been at the church in 1989 when I came back to Jesus and then 5 years later in 1994 he prophesied over me. It just seemed a great opportunity to be with him. The plan was that I was to be with him for 2 years and then go off church planting. But things changed when I got there and I stayed on for 13 years.

Yohaan: And now you lead Gateway Church in Poole. What are some of the core values around which you want your church to be built?

Matt: Generosity. A prayerful people who how know how to pray and who believe in the power of prayer. A culture which is family in the fullest sense – a place where there’s real faithfulness and trust. Our culture is very faithless and we see that in all kinds of personal relationships which is then reflected legislatively. We have so many rules and regulations in place basically because we don’t trust people. I want to build a culture where there is real faithfulness and reliability and that’s reflected in the church family and then in the biological family. Men are fathers even if they’re not literal fathers. Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘imitate me. I’m your father in Christ.’ I want to build a church full of men who can make such claims.

Something else we’re working hard on is that we’re called to be missionaries. We don’t just send missionaries to foreign countries and send them a bit of money every so often but we’re missionaries in the place where we live. I’m trying to model that myself to some degree by working hard at being with unbelievers. Having unbelieving friends should be a priority in your life.

I want to help build a church where adventure, purity and compassion are seen in our people. People who are adventurous in exercising faith and expect God to break in. A pure people who take holiness and discipline seriously. A people compassionate who reach out to the poor and needy. I want to build a church like that.

Yohaan: And lastly Matt, what do you want your legacy to be?

Matt: I have four beautiful daughters and I want to see them all faithfully following Jesus and pursuing whatever it is God has called them to with the gifts and talents they have got. I don’t want to constrain them by things I want to see them doing but I want them to know freedom to choose the path they feel God leading them into. I want them to be adventurous, bold girls who are too hot to handle by some slacker bloke!

Yohaan: It’s been great having you with us at CCK this weekend Rory. I’m sure there are some very fired up men who would like to know more about you!

Rory: I grew up in a Christian home. My first encounter with the living God was when I was 5. I had meningitis and nearly died. My grandfather who was an Anglican vicar at the time prayed for me and the power of God touched me and I was left with marks on my face. I woke up the next day out of a coma without a trace of the meningitis. I knew that God was powerful and alive and I was living with a second chance.

But I got too busy playing sport to be Christian.

I had a rugby injury when I was at school which resulted in a brain tumour. After a great sport and school career I couldn’t make this pain go away. I felt like I wasn’t in control of my body. I started having black outs and incredible pain. At the time I didn’t know that there was something wrong with my head. One day I walked into an Anglican church and knelt down at the front saying God either I want to die and be with You or if I live I’ll spend the rest of my life serving You. A week later they diagnosed the brain tumour and so I had an operation to have it taken out. But I became very sick and spent the next 18 months in and out of bed at home pretty ill.

At the time I joined the Glenridge Church International, Durban, which I now lead. Before joining Glenridge, I wanted to know that you could serve God radically and be free and live a meaningful life. I was told that Christianity was about ‘don’t do things’ but I didn’t have the power not to do them. I wanted to live a righteous life with my girlfriend and yet I didn’t know where the power came to do that.

So I met a man called Chris Wienand who led Glendridge church where I saw a true expression of Christianity – A freedom and a faith. I saw young people serving God radically and walking righteously because of Jesus. I love to see the church working. So that’s how I joined the church.

My first Sunday I was completely freaked out by the freedom and the worship so I walked out. A man caught me at the back just as I was about to step out and engaged with me and invited me back which I did.

I’ve been at Glenridge for the past 22 years now.

Yohaan: 2 things that noticeably stand out about you are your heart of compassion and generosity. How has that developed?

Rory: The description of Jesus in the Song of Solomon and in Revelation really gripped my heart. It describes Jesus as One having ‘eyes like doves’ and ‘eyes like blazing fire’. Jesus was so profoundly authoritative and yet so profoundly compassionate. At different times, Jesus did both.

In Exodus 34 God proclaims His name as ‘the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.’

To me when the church represents both the compassion and authority of God, we make an impact on the world.

The generosity comes from John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world that He GAVE’

I see very gracious people who are not generous. If you look at 2 Cor. 8, it says make sure you ‘bring to completion the act of grace.’ I believe giving is an act of grace which impacts the world. I don’t think there is a supply problem in the world. There is a distribution problem. When people say ‘where is God because of the hungry and the poor?’ it’s not because God hasn’t provided. It says in Malachi that ‘the storehouses of Heaven are full.’ I think men are blocking the doors of these storehouses by there selfishness. We need to learn generosity to unblock the storehouses of heaven and earth to reach out to the poor and needy.

Yohaan: So in what ways are you generous?

Rory: I think it’s like a stone that drops in water. The ripples go outward. First we’ve got to be generous to God. The moon has no energy but it reflects the light of the sun. Similarly as the Father blesses much, just reflect that back. Then my family must be the next to benefit. The Bible says the man must labour for his family. So I make sure that as soon as I get my salary I make sure my wife and kids benefit from that. Then to the elders and my closest friends and it carries forward from there and I believe that ripples its way outwards.

Yohaan: Brilliant. You’ve really provoked me to rethink my money! And I’ve heard others say the same too. So how’s your CCK experience been?

Rory: I’ve absolutely loved it. I’ve seen the evidence of God’s grace in amazing ways. You are a people of prayer. I came to the early morning prayer meeting and watched when the guys there prayed for one another. I found that very intriguing and wonderful. I see this amazing brotherhood and I like that. The Bible says that ‘when brothers dwell together in unity, God commands a blessing.’

I think your future is exciting. I think God is speaking. In Deut 29 it says ‘the secret things belong to God but what I reveal to you belong to you and your children.’ Being at CCK, you’re living in the incredible blessing of 25 – 30 years of revelation that God showed your fathers but God is speaking again now and you’re going to take this 25-30 years blessing to administer this season well and pass it on to the next generation. Many people are going to get blessed through you.

Preaching at CCK and the Men’s Weekend has been a great privilege for me. I love the partnership we are forging. We’d love to have Joel and your team with us. I think our partnership is going to be productive.

I love your graciousness. I love the multi generational make up of the church. Keep going and hold the line. I think to take it to the next level of effectiveness in Brighton is a very exciting thing to be watching.

Yohaan: Thanks Rory. Lastly, what do you want your legacy to be?

Rory: I want, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the finished work of Jesus Christ, to get people to the Father so that they can understand an inheritance of protection and care.

In the same way that the Father sent the Son in to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit, we would be sent into the world as missionaries to go and impact the world and reconnect a broken, lost, hurt dying world with a Father who really loves them and cares for them through the finished work of His Son.

Pete and Jacqui Jarvis: A Tale of Restoration

Jacqui’s bit:

From the moment I became a follower of Jesus as a teenager, it’s always been about people. God is about people, and it seems that whatever any of us feel we should do for Jesus, whatever we think the remit is, it’s going to involve lots of people! That goes pretty much against my natural grain, as I come from a family who would happily ‘recluse’ – so it seems that God just knew that this natural grain needed some genetic modification!!

Salvation for me was a bit of a supernatural event at 17 – I wasn’t that engaged with the nuances of eternal life, but something happened when a pastor I was listening to on my first visit to a little Pentecostal church in Brighton threw out a simple question to the congregation, “do you want to be saved and go to heaven?” I was suddenly aware that my hand was in the air – It was as if there was some unidentified someone behind me holding my arm up and it wouldn’t go down again. I’d heard bits of gospel before at the ‘Way Inn’ Coffee Bar in Brighton, often frequented by such muso’s as the hippy-styled Ishmael in the 70’s, but have to say life had shaped me into a rather cynical and hardened teen, so maybe this was God’s way of showing me who was going to be in control from now on!

Life was a patchwork of learning about God at the same time as dealing with many painful life issues. I’d grown up very fast from mid teens, including homelessness, living below the poverty line, and handling difficult relationships. By 21 I was navigating my way through an unhappy divorce, but then determined to make life work with my two lovely and lively kids to raise. In my years as a solo parent I always knew that God was looking after us and despite the challenges we had a peaceful home, the rent was paid, and my church friends encouraged me – I really knew His hand on us and I was grateful. I don’t think all my decisions in life were great and I was certain that I had to pray for wisdom like a crazy woman, (still do today) but I always knew that I was thoroughly God’s whatever happened. I recall that 1 Timothy 4 was my teacher – ‘Don’t be despised for youth, but set an example, don’t neglect the gift in me, and keep a close watch on myself’.

One day a group photo caught my attention – standing a head above everyone else was the son of a friend from the church – I was curious as I hadn’t seen him in the regular crowd. He worked away, but it so happened that he was visiting his mum a couple of weekends later, and that’s where I first met Pete Jarvis. I had no clue at that point about romance as I sat on the floor at his mum’s house and talked to him about God. I told him that God wanted Pete to know Him better and was just waiting, so why not talk to Him? Not your usual conversation I suppose, but it seemed very natural at the time. I was intrigued and apparently so was he.

Pete takes up the story:

I was in an Anglican Church choir from the age of eight but I had never heard about having a personal relationship with Jesus. The God I’d been taught about was distant and authoritarian – hardly attractive to a young lad who wanted to have fun.

My dad had TB and mum worked hard to bring up her 4 children and care for him, then at 17 I left home to work away. Ten years on in October 1977 when I was in a very demanding job and drinking a bit too much I had come to the end of my resources. It was at this point that Jacqui told me of the changing power of the Lord Jesus. I was soon led to Christ by an Anglican charismatic vicar in his study, repented of my sin and accepted Jesus as my personal saviour.

Around Christmas time Jacqui and I dated and we soon realised that we were in love and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, so with God’s promises on us we embarked on the most exciting of adventures. Over the next thirty+ years we have laughed & cried as we tried to raise our family in the best way we were able.

Back to Jaq:

We married and Pete bravely took on the challenge of step-family life. Later my old pastors told us of their utter amazement when they saw Pete for the first time – apparently they had agreed together and prayed that God would bring along a big strong man (Pete is broad and 6’2”) who loved God and would protect this little family – we were stunned again and laughed at God’s manoeuvring. It was a brilliant encouragement which has bolstered our commitment through all the years.

In 1978 we joined Hangleton Valley Church with Henry Tyler – the man who preached a sermon about mercy & grace which cut straight to our hearts. We knew this was our journey now, and so in the October with Henry and some wonderful others we began life with the Brighton & Hove Christian Fellowship at the Connaught Centre in Hove. Would you ever credit that I played guitar with a fresh faced 12 year old Matt Davis for our worship times in the earliest days (years before he morphed into James May??) And so, with Terry Virgo in the daddy seat, those early months saw us join hands with Dave Fellingham and many others with the same vision so that very soon we were taking up residence at Clarendon Villas, and the rest you know.

At home we tried to parent our kids through all those tricky stages as well as we knew how, stumbling here and there but taking bits of wisdom from sensible others, and now we have grandkids to love – that’s priceless. We’ve always had an open door, fostering lots of kids in the early years, then, having fab people living with us who became part of our family – some still are! There is often a language student or guests at our table.

Fostering new family is something straight from God’s heart we believe – it’s in the weave of scripture and fits so well for us since we were adopted by Him too. Thank Goodness! Hospitality is pretty easy as long as you keep it simple and stay unfazed when your home starts to feel like Piccadilly Circus once in a while, and God always provides enough – do try it if you haven’t yet.

Pete again:

It never ceases to amaze me that God can get a hold of two humble council estate kids and change our lives so radically and it’s such an encouragement for us that Jesus came from humble Nazareth.

One question I’m sometimes asked is ‘Do you not get bored being in one Church for over thirty years?’ and my response is always “Not one single day!” because whatever God wants us to do we do with all our hearts and whatever the future holds we will have the same attitude, to serve the Lord with all our strength. We are certain that with our current eldership we will see many, many hundreds come to Christ, who will bring many more hundreds behind them, brick upon brick, what a legacy!

While the battle of The Somme was raging in France a little girl was born ina small terraced house in the Welsh village of Loughor.   Olive Emma Howellswas born on 9 November 1916,  the daughter of William Howells, who was a gas man at the steel works, and Minnie Mardon, a migrant from Devon.  Olive was brought up in a home where prayer and the Bible and Sunday worship were important. She had early memories of going with her father to the nearby Welsh chapel on Sunday mornings.

As she grew up dark clouds of the great depression were hovering over the industrial south Wales and Will was for many years out of work.  In order to try and raise some income they scratched for cockles in the beds of the Loughor river estuary.  It was a difficult period but they found that Jesus provided for their needs.
Although Olive was brought up in a Christian family she started to be rebellious and began to drink and smoke and swear and live a life far from her Christian upbringing.  But God had his hand on her life.  During a meeting at the Salvation Army when she was 16  the Holy Spirit convicted her of her rebellion and she trusted Jesus as her Saviour. Her life was changed.

Four years later Olive left the security of her South Wales community to travel to Denmark Hill in south London to enter the Salvation Army Training College. The 1937 – 1938 session was called the Enthusiasts which reflected her keenness and desire to make Jesus known.  Her first appointment as a Salvation Army officer was to Alysbury, then to Chelsea and to Portslade where she learnt to play tenor horn and also got engaged to Ben Fellingham. They married in Gorseinon on 26 May 1943.   In 1945 David was born and Christine in 1949.
By this time Ben and Olive were not full-time SA officers but were fully involved in the Salvation Army at Aldershot where Olive led a very successful children’s and youth work.  Their home was filled with young people and young soldiers on national service in Aldershot.  39 Grange Road, Tongham was a place of hospitality. In her 40s Olive took over running the women’s work (Home League) in which many ladies came to know Jesus as their Saviour.  At the same time she used to go out speaking at various women’s fellowship, often going off on her bike to remote Surrey villages.

As time went on David married Rosie and Christine married Michael and grandsons Luke, Nathan, John, Simeon, Timothy and James came along.  She delighted in all her family and was a great encouragement to them all.  It was a lovely sight to see Olive reading to her great grandchildren Lucy, Jesse, Poppy and Ella at her 91st birthday party.  And three days before Olive went to her Lord her fifth great grandchild Audrey Mae was born.
Even though she missed Ben a lot when he died in 1993, Olive never lost her joy and continued to show love and hospitality to many of her friends at CCK.
In the last three years she has been wonderfully cared for at The Pilgrim Home in Brighton. And while her memory was dim and her joints were sore she never forgot her Saviour.  Her tambourine playing and Welsh singing entertained many. As a child Olive sang. On the street corners Olive sang.In the Salvation Army Songsters Olive sang.  And in her last weeks she would sing and pray in her bed. The singing has not stopped, for Olive is now singing among the millions worshipping at the throne of our Redeemer Jesus.

Christian Finer has been a member of CCK since he was a student and has been working at the Church for just over a year. Christian chats to Emily Sneyd about life at the CCK offices and shares his enthusiasm about coffee…

ES: Hello! Can you tell me how you became a Christian?

CF: I grew up in a non- Christian family and didn’t have any ties to Church, until I was about 12 and met a guy at secondary school whose dad was leading the Baptist church in my town. He invited me along to the youth group and it all went from there really. One Sunday they invited me to take part in a children-led service which in hindsight was a bit of a crazy move! Nevertheless, I went along to support that service and found the people were so friendly and inviting, and they kept inviting me every week. The major point for me was going on their youth weekend which was really fun- we were really naughty and my whole youth group won all the competitions like tug-of-war that were supposed to be for the under 12’s- even though we were all about 14 or 15… We’ve still got the trophy on the wall! Anyway, the important thing at that weekend was when one of the leaders shared the gospel and invited the people who didn’t yet know Jesus to join him in a prayer to ask him into their lives.  Although I’d wanted God to reveal himself to me, I had never properly asked him to, so I decided to try it.  I closed my eyes and said the prayer, and heard a voice say, ‘I want to know you’. I opened my eyes to see who’d been talking to me and was amazed to find that there was no-one there! I’d actually heard God speak to me.

ES: What a wonderful story! You’ve been working at CCK for just over a year now- what brought you here?

CF: I guess it started when I did the Impact year for the Church; it was such a great year- everyone should do it (thought I’d try to get a plug in there!). I was the operations manager for the Student Work, my main responsibilities being admin, and organising events like the student weekend away and Christmas ball. When my year finished, I was a project manager for a musical technology company in Worthing for a while, but was always praying for something closer to home in Brighton. I got made redundant which was a kick up the bum to have a proper look for Brighton jobs and found brief employment at Lloyds bank. I learned some valuable lessons there and was able to hone my people skills, but knew that ultimately, it wasn’t the job for me.  At that time, there was an increasing demand at CCK for someone to be added to the admin team. They needed someone to help organise events and to help with the increasing workload when the third Sunday service was introduced. Yeah, so that’s when I joined!

ES: So you’re the admin expert…?

CF: Well, my role is admin support, basically.  The job has changed along the way, but it’s mainly heading up the Sunday department like the teams that serve on a Sunday, and things like the Sunday coffee shop. Outside of Sunday meeting stuff, I organise a lot of the special meetings that we have, like Easter and the baby thanksgiving service, as well as various weekends away and Sent to the workplace days. I also act as PA to Elder Steve Boon, and help him with organisational things.

ES: Have you got a favourite part of the job?

CF: I get to work with a great team of guys, like Matt Simmonds in the Communications department to Dan Sweetman who looks after the Clarendon Centre, where we hold our meetings. They all make things happen, and although we all have varied responsibility for Sundays, we’re a group of guys that are committed to Christ and who love this city.
I also love what we’re doing in terms of serving this City, like volunteering as a Church at the Brighton marathon a few weeks back.  I was privileged enough to be one of the main points of contact between CCK and the marathon organisers, and really enjoyed seeing it all come together to be a fantastic day- I’m already excited for next year!

ES: What’s it like in the Church offices?

CF: It’s great fun. I love the passion of every person there; no matter what job they perform, they’re all passionate for Jesus to be made famous in this City.  And people will always go the extra mile too, there’s a great sense of team spirit. When there’s stuff that needs to get done, they’re quite happy to muck in, even stuffing envelopes if that’s what it takes! There’s always a ‘let’s get it done’ attitude which is great.

ES: What do you love about Brighton?

CF: I love the creativity here- it’s got such an energetic vibe about it and there’s always something going on. I like checking out the random music and art events, and my favourite thing about the Brighton Fringe festival is a music festival called ‘the Great Escape’- I went to it last weekend and it was awesome! Also, any of my friends will tell you I’m a massive coffee fan, so I love the cafe culture in Brighton.  Anneke and I get to live above the best coffee shop in Brighton called Taylor St. Baristas- they do professionally made coffee with this amazing latte ‘art’- It’s a quality cafe, people should check it out!

ES: So Christian, if you had to move to another country, right this second, where would you go?

CF: I should probably say something cool like New York- which looks fun too, don’t get me wrong! But I think I’d have to say Amsterdam. My wife, Anneke is from Holland, so we’ve been many times and I just love it there. It’s got a very similar energy to Brighton, in fact- it’s a very ‘happening’ city.

ES: Have you got any comedy heroes?

CF: I got to see Michael McIntyre when he came to Brighton last year and he was brilliant- what a funny guy!

Thanks Christian.

Home-grown talent, Lou Fellingham has just recorded her third solo album, ‘Step into the Light’ which will be available for purchase on May 17th. Lou sits down with Emily Sneyd to chat about the album and the upcoming album launch gig on May 24th.

Hi Lou! Everyone’s very excited about the new album, can you tell me a little about what to expect?

With my albums, I usually want to get a balance between songs that can be easily sung in Church, and songs that encourage people in their personal walks with God. I’m a real gospel girl; I love to sing about it and to see people responding to it through worship.
It’s an exciting album for me, as Nathan and I worked with the fantastic Gary Sadler to do the actual song-writing, then we recorded it in Eastbourne and it was mixed in America. I also invited some friends who are members of CCK to form a small choir to do backing vocals on some of the tracks, which was great fun to record.

Tell me about some of the tracks!

The album kicks off with the track ‘There is more’ which is a song about the gospel, and about the riches we can discover in Christ, if we respond to God’s call.  There are a couple of tracks which are great for Church worship like ‘Holy holy holy’ and ‘To God be the Glory’, which is a re-vamped, up-tempo version of an old classic.

‘Our God cares’ is a wonderful song that I actually wrote for a recently bereaved friend of mine. She isn’t a Christian, and it was so hard to watch her suffering and not know what to say, so I told her what I do know, in song; that God cares very deeply when we’re struggling through times of hardship and he yearns to comfort us through those times.

‘This is the day’ is about making time to be still and to bring the day before God in praise, before launching into it, and ‘To him who is able’ takes wonderful scripture from the book of Jude about our complete salvation and how amazing it is that we can come into God’s presence.

‘Step into the light’ is a plea for Christians to not let sin win or get bogged down in guilt and shame that results from that- it’s a realisation of the freedom that we have in Christ and the incredible love and forgiveness gifted to us in that.

There are some very relational songs on the album, of which ‘Christ in me’ is one, which speaks of the truth of who we are in God, and being assured of our hope in him through every circumstance.  ‘Amazing God’ is a new arrangement of a song written by my husband, Nathan, and ‘Let it Shine’ is a fun, up-tempo one about living for God now. It’s been so blindingly evident to me over the last few years that life is so fragile, and over so quickly that we need to immerse ourselves in the light of His truth.

Do you have any favourite tracks among them?

No! I actually love every single one for completely different reasons. Any friends of mine would tell you that I’m just terrible at picking favourites- even with my shoes! I think that with this album though, I would recommend people listen to ‘Our God cares’ as it’s such an important message- we sometimes forget how much He loves and cares for us when times are hard.

How do you go about writing your songs? Do the words come to you first, or the melody?

It’s a bit of both really. I tend to get the beginnings of a song – maybe a chorus or verse  in my head as I’m walking along or in the car, and then I sing it into my phone so I won’t forget it!  Then we sit down to concentrate on developing the song from that start point.  I always have an idea of what the song will be about, but I have a lot of creative input from others, which in this case was Nathan and Gary. I would definitely call it my album but they helped a lot to shape the songs and the album as a whole and it’s a real team effort -we wrote 9 songs in 3 days this time around!

Sheesh! Much coffee was needed there, I imagine. And how would you say this album compares to the other two in terms of style?

I think the feedback so far has been that it sounds fresh- perhaps slightly more raw than the last two albums.  It has been really fantastic to work with someone like Gary to get the songs really strong in the first place and then Mark Edwards (who produced the album) to get the arrangements really solid. We’re so excited to see what God does with it. I really hope the songs get used in churches and that God speaks to people through them.

How does it work with splitting time between working on solo material vs. working on stuff for Phatfish?

When it comes to recording albums, we generally alternate between the two, and we’ll be hoping to start work on a new Phatfish album later in the year as well, which we’re looking forward to. When playing live, it’s always the six of us (Phatfish) who play, whether we’re doing a ‘Phatfish’ event or a ‘Lou Fellingham’ event and we’ll often mix the songs up as well. It’s really all the same vision and heart – like two sides of the same coin.  In reality, most of my time is filled up with mum stuff actually as Nathan and I have two young children!

And you’re also 8 months pregnant! Are things going to tone down for a while when the new baby arrives?

In a word…no, not really! We’ve got lots of conferences coming up throughout the summer, including of course Newday, which is in August. We’ve got lots of gigs booked for the autumn too- I think every Friday night is booked in-between September and December! But God’s blessed us with such a great support network of friends and family who help us out a lot; I couldn’t leave the kids with just anyone- they have to be people that the kids trust and love. We really work hard to work the diary in a way that serves our family – and the kids love coming away to conferences with us.  We also make sure that Nathan and I both take holidays off to spend quality time with the kids.

Tell me about the gig- why should people buy tickets!?

Well, the Komedia is a great venue, and it’s going to be such a unique event. We’re going to play the entire album which is a rarity in itself, and the first time that songs are played live, there is such a buzz in the air! The arrangements of the new songs have all been done by Mark Edwards ,  so we’re really looking forward to recreating all of it live. It’s going to be a real celebration with some old favourites being played too- I’m so looking forward to it! I love singing live -  to be honest more than recording – because you can really engage with people, and that’s when the songs truly come to life.

Well, I can’t wait!  Thanks so much for your time, Lou.

If you want to purchase tickets for the album launch gig on May 24th at the Komedia in Brighton then please follow this link: www.phatmusic.net/tickets

Alison Davis has been on the CCK staff for four years now, undertaking the role of operations manager. Alison tells Emily Sneyd what life is like working for the Church, and why she likens her job to The Generation Game…

ES: Thanks for letting me intrude on a busy day, Alison!  First off, can you tell me how you became a Christian?

AD: Well, my husband’s parents have been involved with CCK since its inception, so he was involved years ago, but it was at his sister’s wedding when I really felt something special about being in church.  We were invited to attend a meeting at CCK by another couple, and we were starting to feel comfortable so we began to come on a regular basis and subsequently went on the Alpha Course. There was one night when elder, Dave Fellingham did the talk, and he gave this really great analogy about alarm clocks and whether we were putting our faith on ‘snooze’, and just continuously putting it off, when we what we really needed to do was just wake up and commit! This got to me, and so after the session I got prayed for by Wendy Virgo, and this was the point that I made head-response to the gospel.  But I hadn’t yet committed my heart, and this came out of the blue one Sunday meeting when the Holy Spirit just changed me when we were worshipping and I knew I had to respond in my heart to Jesus. That was around 10 years ago, and Matt and I have been a part of the Church ever since; we quickly joined a small group and went on to lead one up until things changed with the introduction of Zones a few years back.  Matt became an elder of the church last October.

ES: Tell me about what you do here at CCK.

AD: Before I started my job here, I was working for American Express for 14 years, and decided to take a sabbatical year, in which I started working one day a week for elder, Neville Jones.  I enjoyed it so much, went back to Amex for 3 years and then I was offered a permanent job here. I’ve been here for 4 years now doing 4 days a week and I suppose my title here would be ‘operations manager’, which involves a lot of different things. I’m not legally trained, but I do deal with a lot of the legal aspects of Church administration like insurance, licences and contracts, and I am Neville Jones’ PA so I handle anything that is required. I also deal with some of the finance aspects along with other members of staff, and do things like risk assessments which are a requirement now. CCK is actually a company, so we’re accountable to the ‘Clarendon Trust Ltd’ and its trustees who ensure that we’re doing everything we should be, like all the legal things, for example. But, we’re a charity too, so there are certain criteria in place to ensure we do what we say we do. I often envisage my job as that conveyor belt on The Generation Game (showing my age now!) where you have to remember all the items that come through one by one, and it gets harder as they keep whizzing past you!  In other words it’s very busy and varied, but I do love it.

ES: What is it like working for the Church, as opposed to working for a big company like Amex?

AD: I did have to get used to working here, it’s a totally different environment and there are some challenges, like there are with any job. But, there are far, far more positives than negatives; being able to take the time out to stop work and pray together when something comes up is just fantastic, and our weekly staff prayer meetings are invaluable too. I think the main difference is the realisation that I’m working for a bigger purpose here- I no longer have targets as such, or financial goals, but am working for God’s big picture for the church. When I was offered the job here, I was looking at a large pay cut and my colleagues at the time were just shocked! They all said though, that they wished they had the guts to do something similar- something worthwhile, that had real meaning.

ES: Is there anyone that you really admire?

AD: When I was working for Amex, I organised travel bookings for the Body Shop, and since then, I’ve really admired Anita Roddick. She was always someone I could identify with for wanting to achieve something for a larger purpose- and going to the ends of the earth to achieve that. The great thing for me is that even in the workplace I can have an ‘eternal perspective’ about what I do.

ES: What do you love about living here in Brighton?

AD: It’s the geography of it.  I actually really love horse-riding, and when I can, I ride on the Downs at the back of Shoreham. I also love the peacefulness of where I live in Hove; it can be the busiest weekend in town, but it’s so quiet in my back garden and I can even hear the sea. It’s such a privilege to be just 10 mins from the sea and the Downs, and only 45 mins from London at the same time! Although, thinking about it, I really don’t like London that much…but it’s great for other people! I love the smallness of Brighton, and yet the fact that it’s still a City within that; there are really great restaurants and cafes in which to meet friends, and  it’s a real testament to Brighton that so many people come here as students and then decide to stay here for the long-term.  It’s what I did!

ES: Me too- Brighton is the place to be! Thanks, Alison.

Ron and Chris Marchant – Servant Leaders

Ron and Chris Marchant have been members at CCK since 1991. You often see Ron welcoming people into the church building for the morning services and Chris behind the bookstore till. These pioneers at CCK are legendary servers in the church. This is their story..

Ron:

I was brought up in a disciplined family and went to Sunday School but had no real interest in Jesus. After school, I joined the Air Force  and served in Pakistan. We used to transfer refugees from Pakistan to Bangladesh and vice versa. They had all their sheep and goats in the plane and there used to be quite a stench! Mountbatten was there at the time.

I got married in 1946 but got shipped off to India 3 months later. I came back to England in 1947 and went into engineering.

I started attending a church in Southwick even though I wasn’t much of a Christian and after 2-3 years of being disillusioned, I spoke to the vicar and he said, “You need to be saved and receive the Holy Spirit”. So I went to his vicarage and he prayed for me and all my confusions went! I got very involved with church after that and eventually became an elder in the Anglican church that I was part of but things got messed up within the church. Eventually I moved out and got involved in a small group lead by a man called Henry Tyler from CCK.

My wife died shortly afterwards in the 1980’s because of a blood condition. It left me wondering why God allowed that but in hindsight, God was doing a work in me. I felt God had given me a ‘Job ‘like character, from the Bible. My story helped lead a friend to Jesus.

I was part of an Ecumenical choir lead by Heather Cowell and it was there that I met Chris and and God confirmed to us that we should get married.

We’ve now been married for 28 years and it’s like a second lifetime! God has greatly blessed us with our son Tim and our daughter Becky and grandchildren.

Ten years later I joined CCK because I saw there was great potential in all that they were doing. I didn’t take any baggage with me of eldership credentials but just felt secure and challenged in that place.

Now we’re firmly part of the CCK family, serving, being involved and being blessed.

Chris:

I was brought up in a Christian family and went to Sunday school, youth groups etc but it wasn’t until I went to college in Portsmouth that I realized I needed a personal relationship with God. I became a follower of Jesus and He’s most important to me now.

After college, I came back to Hove and joined Holland Road Baptist Church . I got baptized there and received a very firm grounding in scripture. One of the traditions we had was an annual missionary week and it was during one of those that I felt God speak to me about serving Him in another country. Some time later, a friend who was a missionary from Nepal mentioned about a vacancy in a school in Nepal . I prayed about this and knew almost instantly that God was telling me ‘to go’. I was a bit nervous and my parents were apprehensive but supportive. So I went out to fill a year’s gap but 6 weeks in to the time there I felt God wanted me to stay on and ended up staying there for 3 years 4 months!

On my return and after a year’s diploma course, I went back to Holland Road Baptist Church . I was single then and that wasn’t easy at  times but God had to get me to a place where I would be prepared to stay single.There were largely women missionaries in Nepal so I thought it would be good to get amongst some mixed company so I joined a Christian choir and it was there that I met Ron!

Ron:

When you consider the various strategies CCK has gone through, circumstances have shown we can do it better. Now we have an outward look – earlier we were building up the troops! We find the high priority is getting into the community. CCK’s a flagship in ushering change in the community. We’ve seen more of it happen as people no longer sit on the fence but get involved.

Chris:

One of the things that struck me when I went to CCK was the very visible accountability amongst the leadership team  which made me feel very secure. It is good to see them checking things out with each other. We’re not just  relying on one man. Change hasn’t always been easy but the security we have with the leadership has helped.

Ron:

Having been involved with management I’ve always had a leadership element. When I joined CCK, I went through a number of courses to equip for ministry. I was keen on being involved with leadership but I suddenly realized I was doing it for the wrong reasons! It’s a complete reversal now and I serve rather than being the leader and I thoroughly enjoy it.

For more remarkable stories of extraordinary people at CCK, please click here.

Steve Walford is an Elder and oversees many of the Pastoral ministries here at CCK. He is married to Rosie and they have four children: Lindsay, Ruth, Jonny and Grace. Steve talks to Emily Sneyd about  his vision for the City of Brighton, and who he would like to play in a movie…

ES: Hi Steve. So you’ve been at CCK for a very long time! How did you come to be here?

SW: Yes, I’ve been a part of the Church since 1980!  It was primarily because my wife, Rosie, got a teaching job here in Brighton. Rosie and I had met as students in Sheffield and then she found work down here, while I was living and working in Central London. It was while Rosie was teaching that she got introduced to what was then the Clarendon Church- she was teaching a very young Luke Fellingham! (Luke is the son of elder, Dave Fellingham and is a member of Phatfish). When Dave discovered she was a Christian, he invited her along to a meeting and Rosie enjoyed it very much.  We both attended a meeting while I was visiting for a weekend and felt very clearly that yes, this was the Church that we were to be a part of. I’d attended great Churches prior to this, but a charismatic Church such that CCK was, was new to me. It was a Church truly living out New Testament principles and was just amazing to be a part of. So we got married and I moved down here, and continued commuting up to London for a few years till I became an Elder of the Church in 1984.

ES: And your role must have changed somewhat over the years, I suppose?

SW: Indeed!  My role has always been very much pastoral and continues to be, but it’s certainly shaped by what’s happening in the Church. For example, in the early years of the Church, there came a time when we multiplied into two, then into 5 congregations across the City; one of which I led for a while. Then we came back into one congregation and met at the Odeon Cinema before moving to the Clarendon Centre.

You have to evolve as the Church grows; early on, it was a lot more about being involved directly with many different people in the Church, and now as the Church has grown in size, my responsibility is more to the other leaders of the Church.

ES: And what exactly are your main responsibilities now?

SW: I form part of the Core Team which is a group of leaders of the Church that deal with a lot of the nitty-gritty decision making. The theory of this is to keep the Elder’s jobs free from a lot of the small details and they focus on the strategic decisions for the Church. I also lead a Pastoral Team that assists fellow Elder, Steve Horne, in a variety of ways; we have a Team meeting on Tuesdays with key people from Zone life and other pastoral ministries, for example. I ultimately oversee the Children and youth work and also the Marriage and family parts of Church life. I also play a part in the BEA (Brighton evangelical alliance) – made up of 25 churches across the city.  We meet regularly to see how we can develop and get more involved in the happenings of Brighton and Hove. So I am the vice chairman of that and I lead and attend a weekly prayer meeting for Church leaders in the City

ES: What would you like to see happen in Brighton over the next decade?

SW: My passion and expectation for this Church is to see it continuing to grow with people from multiple nations, every age band, and every conceivable background. I also want to see the Church impact every area of city life; the estates, schools, local politics and health, to name but a few.

From my perspective as an Elder, I also want to see every Church member going strong in their relationship with God and becoming mature in faith and in their areas of gifting. And it is the role of us, the leaders, to equip our people for whatever God will release them into.

ES: What do you love about Brighton- have you got any favourite spots?

SW: Rosie and I love going to a pizza place called Al Duomo near The Pavilion – we’ve got a lot of good memories from special occasions that we’ve spent there- and the pizza is really good! I also love playing squash when I can.

ES: Lastly Steve, if you could play the lead in any movie, which one would it be?

SW: I’ve always loved the Back to the Future trilogy so I’d probably play the kid in that- I’d especially love to give those hover-boards a go!

Haha, maybe we’ll get them one day! Thanks, Marty Mcfly.

Neville has been a part of CCK since 1985! He has been on the staff since 2002 and became an Elder in 2008. Neville tells Emily Sneyd about what he does for the Church and what he loves about Brighton.

ES: Start off my telling me a bit about yourself, what is the Neville Jones story?

NJ: I was born locally, in Hove, so 18 years of my childhood was spent down here. We moved up to a village near Colchester when my father moved jobs, but I always felt sure that God would call me back to Brighton. Whilst I was attending college up there, I met my wife-to- be, Sue who lived in Hove as well!  We started a long distance relationship for a while, but soon after we got engaged, God spoke to me very clearly about moving back to Brighton to be part of a church here. So in ‘85, we came back to Brighton and Sue and I got married in ‘86. I began to work for the Church in 2002 and I had the great privilege of becoming an Elder in January of 2008. A lot of what I was doing then, I’m doing now!  I came onto the staff at CCK as Church administrator and essentially had responsibility for the operations of the Church- obviously it has changed with the times, somewhat, but it’s remained very similar.

ES: Can you tell me more about the specifics of your job?

NJ: I suppose I have four main areas that I head up, and four people who do a lot of the work for me! The first is the Finance of the Church which Nils de Freese deals with. I am responsible to the Elders for the setting of the budget of the Church and maintaining that budget within limits. This involves overseeing the finance team, and making sure that the offerings that come in match what we’re spending!  And I take care of the salaries of all the Church staff.

The next area is the office- which is an admin back-up office support to the Elders; I oversee Annie Waller who is responsible for that, and also the other office staff.  I also manage the staff welfare of all the church employees-and this is where Annie swoops in and takes a lot of that off my shoulders!

I deal with the operations of the Church which is where Alison Davis comes in, dealing with all the legal aspects of running a Church and doing risk assessments and such- she also assists me a lot as my PA.

I guess the fourth area would be facilities or buildings; so taking care of the Clarendon Villas, where our Church offices are, and Dan Sweetman is my right-hand man in running the team that take care of the Clarendon Centre, where we hold our Sunday meetings.

Additionally to those responsibilities, I’m a director of the Trust so I meet with the directors of the trust of the Church every 6-8 weeks, and I’m also heavily involved in the prayer-life of the Church with Joel Virgo.  Finally, I’m also an Elder! So I deal with the agendas for the Elder’s meetings and also chair the meetings themselves.

ES: Have you got a vision for the future for your areas of Church life?

NJ: My heart is to see the Church operating in the most efficient way possible, whilst retaining the sense that we’re not just a business, we’re also very much a family together. For me, it’s trying to put those two things together; we want to run things well, but still want people to feel part of the family. We’ve got to keep in mind that we’re an army as well- we’re on the move for God, to change Brighton

ES: And what do you love about Brighton?

NJ: I love its diversity and creativity-this is what Brighton is all about, and it’s such an exciting place to live. I especially love being by the sea, which I think we take for granted sometimes, and I love it that it’s caught right between the sea and the downs. We’re in a great place where we’ve got the coast but we’ve also got the hills and the scenery too. One of my favourite things to do here is to cycle along the downs- I’ve cycled the whole way in a day, twice!

ES: Very impressive! So cycling is something you like to do in your free time?

NJ: Yeah, I love it, I’d say mountain biking is my main hobby really.  I cycled the South downs’ way for the British Heart Foundation, and I had hoped to take part in the Brighton marathon last weekend but had to drop out as I injured my leg and it wouldn’t have been wise to do it. I was really proud to watch fellow Elders Steve Horne and Matt Davis take part though, as well as many other members of CCK- they did so great!

ES: Lastly, I’m going to ask you a mean question. If you had to cross the Atlantic in a canoe with one of the other Elders, which one would it be…?

NJ: Hmmm…that’s a tough one! Probably Steve Horne- I reckon he’s probably the best swimmer, and has medical training, so is most likely to be able to help me if I fell overboard!

Wise choice. Thanks Neville.