CCK Life blog

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.

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.

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.

Andy Ferrett has been working for CCK for the last 4 years. He is married to Naomi and they have 2 children together; Noelle and Joshua. Andy heads up the newly established Innovation and Technology Department here at CCK, as well as running his own company, Brightec . Andy talks to Emily Sneyd about the vision for his team and about their new home in the CCK basement…

ES: So how long have you been in Brighton?

AF: Well, I came to Brighton as a student. I was due to start my degree at Southampton Uni, when, during my gap year, I met Dave Fellingham who suggested that I visit CCK to check it out.  So I did- and it instantly felt like home to me, and I ended up switching courses so I could attend Sussex. I can remember my first evening at CCK vividly- it was around the time of the Toronto blessing here at the Church; a time where there was a very large and powerful movement of the Holy Spirit. I remember coming to that meeting and feeling totally at home. I completed my degree, and then returned home to be part of the Church in London and was a youth pastor there for a while. During that time, I got married to Naomi- but shortly after, we began to feel that London was not where we were supposed to be for the long-term, and after praying on it, we came back to Brighton. And 8 years on- here we are!

ES: Now you are head of the Innovation and Technology Department. That sounds very important! What does it involve, exactly?

AF:  It’s a very new department; we’ve only really been going for a month or so, but I’ve actually been working for CCK for the past 2-3 years heading up the production department. This involves all the technical stuff to do with both Sunday meetings and events that we host, like the PA, lighting, and AV.

With the new department, we felt that we needed to bring together all of the tech side of CCK under one umbrella department so we could manage it better, from a staff point of view as well as from a financial and management perspective.  So the new department includes managing the production on Sundays as well as the IT in both the Church offices and the Clarendon Centre, under the oversight of Church elder, Steve Boon. We also work very closely with the Communications department, led by Matt Simmonds which involves the website side of things. This in particular is in an embryonic stage, but it’s going exactly where we want it to, which is great.

ES: So your company, Brightec, just released the CCK Iphone app in February- what made you decide to do this?

AF: Well I guess we followed in Mars Hill’s footsteps (a Church in Seattle, led by Mark Driscoll)- they are the real market leaders in terms of Church technology, in being innovative and creative. We’ve got a slightly smaller budget (!) but there were two main reasons I guess: firstly, it would benefit our members at CCK, as well as visitors to Brighton who would come across our app and be able to download our content. Secondly, from a business perspective, we were looking to start developing iphone apps, and it made sense for us to use CCK as our first project- we were able to give it to CCK for free, and we also had a new project to cut our teeth on. In fact, we’ve just brought out a new app for the Brighton Marathon that’s happening this Sunday (18th April)- check it out!

ES: Have you got any long-term plans for the Innovation and Technology Department?

AF: I think in terms of the production, we basically want to continue to get better at what we do- we want our Sunday meetings and events to be excelling in terms of quality and presentation week after week. But it’s also important to have a balance there between quality and in responding to the particular meeting- we don’t want to box ourselves into a corner where we can’t respond to the Holy Spirit if he wants to do something. We have more limited resources than a company ordinarily would, and we have very different objectives- God can lead us in a direction that we don’t have planned and we’ve got to respond to that.

On the IT side of things, we want to help CCK become really efficient in the way that we work, in terms of the office environment; we want more out-of-the-box thinking, and a means for people to be able to do that.

ES: That quite nicely leads on to the Basement, which is the new home of both your department as well as the Communications team. Can you tell me more about that?

AF: Initially it was Matt and I that felt that we needed a new space to be creative in. We were sharing this little office upstairs in the Clarendon villas and it wasn’t really helping us achieve what we wanted to! We had this vision of having a small video studio in-house that came within our budget, and we also wanted a creative office space where volunteers could come in, and we could give them a desk and a computer for an afternoon. So now people have a space where they can feel at home and have a means to contribute to different creative aspects of Church life. It’s been an effort to get the basement sorted out and it’s still a work in progress, but it’s really hit the mark of where we were hoping it would be.

ES: I like it- lots of banter mixed with copious amounts of coffee!

AF: Me too, I like the vibe!

ES: You have two small children- is it difficult balancing family life with your hectic job?

AF: Er, Yes! Because I have a few different jobs, I’m currently in a very very busy season- we’re praying that it is just a season. I manage it by being careful with my time, so 80% of time, I try to be there to put the kids to bed or be there for their tea and I keep Saturdays completely free.  Any extra time I have is spent out with the family or at our allotment where I’m tasked with doing all the digging and DIY!

ES: Sounds fun! Thanks for your time, Andy.

Alan Preston is an Elder here at CCK- he is married to Marian and they have three grown-up children together. Alan tells Emily Sneyd his story, what his job entails from day-to-day, and why he is so passionate for Brighton to be a transformed City.

ES: First of all, can you tell me how you came to know Jesus?

AP: Well! I grew up in Ireland and we were a family of Ulster Protestants-my mother and father were ministers as well as my grandfather and my great-grandmother, so I was of good pedigree! I knew the gospel and what it meant from a very early age, and I went to church four times every Sunday which was as normal as eating breakfast to me!  I was in very much a bible- believing, evangelistic, fundamentalist, highly- conservative atmosphere. But, it got to a point when I was about 15, when I asked myself who was truly the Lord of my life and who took my time and attention and made my decisions.  It was then that I felt a release of new life and became passionately fanatical for Jesus, and knew that He was who I wanted to live for.

ES: And what brought you to CCK?

AP: Are you sure you want the whole story- you might be here for hours!

ES: Haha! Ok,  just give me the condensed version…

AP: Ok, well I went off to University in London to study physics, and joined a discipling movement while I was there. I then got the calling to do mission work after University, so I spent 2 years out in Africa for a mission organisation. I returned to England and was a production engineer for 5 years in Southampton where I got involved with a very fruitful student ministry where I got baptised in the spirit. Shortly after, I felt the call of God to come to Brighton, so I came to CCK and set up CCK students at the University of Sussex, while completing my PGCE. I got to evangelise and see people come to Christ, and some of those people are now currently in the Church so that’s really rewarding to see. I became an Elder of the Church in 1986.

ES: The year I was born! So what exactly does your role as Elder entail?

AP: Well, I’m one of the pastoral Elders here at CCK, and I suppose my responsibilities are split into several different compartments. The first one is that I am an Elder, which means I look after the flock as an entirety; I deal with marriage conflict and praying for the sick and things like that- in essence it means being a father to members of this Church. The second thing would be heading up the International Zone, which I love; there’s a lot of strategy involved there, in thinking of new ways to reach out to the international people of Brighton.

I’m also responsible for the front-door activities which include welcoming people as they come into the building for the Sunday meetings and overseeing the Connect teams and the Connect Area downstairs after every Sunday meeting, where people can find out about how to get involved with the different areas of Church life. I head up the Alpha and Beta courses which run throughout the year as well as doing the ‘Joining the church family’ days, baptisms and ‘Why CCK’ sessions where people can learn more about the history of CCK and what we’re about as a church.

The other part of my job I would label as ‘Miscellaneous’! I spend some time connecting with and skyping people in India, and I love to visit there when I can. I also visit and preach at other churches as well as doing some theological training.  I also oversee the Impact team, for example- I love it, they’re a fantastic bunch!

ES: Yes, and mischievous as well, I hear…!  Part of our mission statement here at CCK is: ‘In Brighton. For Brighton’. What makes you FOR Brighton?

AP: I LOVE Brighton & Hove and I love to see people saved and discipled. I firmly believe that mission starts with the place where God brought you. We need to be united in our thinking as churches in this City in trying to reach the people who don’t yet know Jesus. It’s important to do that, or you can end up in a situation where churches are just trying to grab Christians from other churches. My analogy is, if you visualise the whole Church as a cake, the cake isn’t growing in size; it’ll just be that some churches have a bigger proportion of the same cake. There needs to be a move from restoring the Church (although of course this is important) to restoring the City- and this is the phase that CCK is in as a Church, I think.

ES: And what else do you get up to when you’re not doing all of the above!?

AP: I have 3 grown-up children, so I’m a fully-fledged taxi driver in my spare time! I also love bird-watching with Marian and watching a bit of BBCnews24.

ES: Ok, last one:  Name 3 people, past or present that you would invite to an imaginary dinner party.

AP: Ok…(thinks for a while)  Number one would be W.P Nicolson- He was the last guy who brought revival to Belfast in 1920s; a truly awesome guy. The next one would definitely be the Apostle Paul; I’d ask him what on earth he was talking about!  But seriously, that guy had vision and breadth to his Christian experience that no-one else had- I’d love to just sit him down and listen to what he has to say about our present time.  The last person would be somebody totally outrageous, like Kathryn Kuhlman- I’d ask her why she was such an anointed nutter!!

ES: Thanks very much Alan, you’ve been very entertaining!

Steve Horne is an Elder here at CCK and looks after a lot of the ministry teams. He lives in Moulsecoombe with his wife, Jane and they have four children together; Bethany, Tilly, Megan and Sam. Steve talks to Emily Sneyd about why he is passionate about his job, and why it’s not wise to eat a curry before running a marathon…

E.S: Hi Steve,  can you tell me how you came to be part of CCK?

S.H: Well, I grew up in Bognor Regis, and my wife, Jane grew up in Uckfield. I worked in London for a while as a student nurse and it was friends that I made through nursing that introduced me to Church. I eventually got saved and began to get involved with the Holy Trinity Brompton Church (HTB), and did the Alpha course there. I really wanted to get married to Jane but my friends advised me not to as she wasn’t a Christian at the time, plus Jane thought it was all a bit weird then! But shortly after, she got saved here in Brighton! We were married in Uckfield and then moved to Brighton and were recommended CCK by some friends.  In fact, even before we had considered it, Jane had dreams about the Church that we would be a part of and specifically had a vision of some steps, so when we walked through the main entrance of the Clarendon Centre and saw the stairs leading up to the main hall, we knew it was where we were meant to be! I was very happy because like HTB, CCK is a charismatic church, but mainly, we both felt led to be part of God’s Church in Brighton- and we’ve been here ever since!

E.S: Fantastic. Now what exactly are your responsibilities as an Elder at CCK?

S.H: I oversee the ‘Ground war’ teams which put simply, is all the ‘People’ ministries, so; Small groups, Zones, Youth work, Student work etc. and lots of other aspects of Family life such as Counselling and the Parenting course, and also the Social-action Zone. To make this all happen, I work to a lot of the other Elders and leaders in the church, like fellow Elders, Steve Walford and Matt Davis, and I oversee a lot of different teams.

E.S: That’s a lot of things to take care of!

S.H: I guess I’ve always focused on the Church in Acts: 2 – it shows an incredible community of Jesus-loving people, looking after itself in pursuing the right things, and consequently, being added to daily. To enable this, we need to be a big presence on Sundays with our three meetings and be a real voice to the City.  But equally as important is the need to back that up with a strong community that is attractive to the people of Brighton & Hove who don’t know who we are yet. My passion is to see people saved- I love the gospel, and love to see people led to Christ. I am fully behind Joel (our lead Elder) in what he is preaching, and where he is leading us.

E.S: What motivates you as a person?

S.H: My wonderful wife and kids, as well Joel’s vision for the Church and City- what he sees and wants for us as a Church. I also love learning from the great men around me at Church. I have made sure over the years that I’ve seized every opportunity to work with as many of them as I can (like Peter Brooks, John Hosier, Peter Lyndon and Dave Fellingham etc.). They’re amazing men, and I’ve learned so much from them and continue to do so, they’re all influences of mine.

E.S: Any bad habits!?

S.H: I am absolutely terrible with names, which is quite unfortunate being a pastoral elder!  I’m also quite impulsive and talkative so there’s times when I’ve said completely the wrong thing at the wrong time…

E.S: Haha, that must be a source of some amusement at times! What’s playing on your ipod at the moment?

S.H: Everything! I’ve got some of our home-bred talent, Phatfish on there, as well as Delirious? And of course, some Queen! I’ve got a lot of dance music on there which I listen to while I’m running. I’m training for the Brighton marathon at the moment which is hard work but I really enjoy it- I’m on week 15 of the training programme at the moment so I’m getting there. I’ve done a marathon before and learnt some lessons the hard way -I ate a curry for lunch and then tried to run 23 miles, which in retrospect wasn’t the wisest plan… This year, I’ll know better.

Thanks Steve, we’ll be rooting for you at the marathon in April!

“I like to visualise the Clarendon Centre as an aircraft carrier, launching different missions for furthering the kingdom of God in Brighton”

Dan Sweetman is facilities manager at CCK and his primary job is managing the Clarendon Centre, where our Sunday meetings take place. Dan is passionate about spreading the good news of the gospel across the City, and also leads the North Hove Zone with his wife, Adrienne. They have two daughters together; Keziah and Emery. Dan chats to Emily Sneyd about his role, and why he is so excited to be part of the Church in the City of Brighton and Hove.

E.S : Hi Dan!  First of all, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

D.S: Well, I was born and bred in Brighton, and was blessed enough to grow up in the Church! My background has always been in IT- it’s not something I studied, but I enjoyed it so I worked up to being an IT manager for a while.

Then, a few years ago I felt God prompt me to work abroad for a year, so I ended up in Missouri, U.S . I worked with a Newfrontiers Church out there. I had a really great year and developed my faith, but it certainly wasn’t easy and was painful at times as God dealt with issues in my heart. My time there ended abruptly when my application for renewal of my Visa was denied, and I was forced to come back to Brighton. I was recently engaged, but my fiancée, being the amazing woman of God that she is, was happy to follow me back to England. In hindsight I can see that God was calling me back to Brighton and it was all part of His plan for my life.

Adrienne and I got married when I returned and then I got a job managing buildings and selling office space. This was an interesting time as I learnt a lot of new skills that have been invaluable in my role in managing the Clarendon Centre.

E.S: That’s quite a journey! Tell me a bit about your job- What does it involve?

D.S: I like to visualise the Clarendon Centre as an aircraft carrier, launching different missions for furthering the kingdom of God in Brighton. The Centre itself is influential because of it’s visibility in the city- It’s a fantastic tool for our mission as it gets different groups of people into the building as well as being able to offer an outstanding space to hire out for meetings and events.

The largest part of the job is our Sunday meetings; we run three services each Sunday so much of the week is spent gearing up to these big events. Another large part of my job is developing new business for the Centre and offering a great service to clients for when they want to hire out the Centre for events. Closely associated to that is overseeing the events themselves; doing the preparation, clear-up and then re-setting for the next event- it’s a lot of work! We are a relatively small team, but the team fires on all cylinders and are doing a phenomenal job. The catering and hospitality side of things is also huge for the department; Church-run events such as the Alpha and Beta courses, serve three-course meals and I again oversee a fantastic catering team.

E.S: That sounds like a lot of responsibility! How would you say your job feeds into your passion for the Church and for the city of Brighton?

D.S: I’m in a privileged position in my role; I am able to see what CCK is doing on both a macro and micro level. On a macro-level, it is seeing how the Church can serve the city as a whole; for example, for the Brighton Marathon in April, we are reducing our three Sunday meetings to just one evening meeting so that over 300 volunteers from CCK can serve at that event. On a micro-level, it is serving our smaller, local communities with the ‘Zone meetings’ that we have, and in the Small Group meetings that make up the Zones, as well as all the other activities that build community. We’re reaching out to the people who don’t yet know Jesus in such a multitude of different ways. I’m really enjoying being part of the plan for Brighton, and actively engaging the community around us. We’re not fully there yet, but God is helping us to achieve this. I enjoy being part of the grand scheme as well as getting my hands dirty.

E.S: So, do you have any influences in your life?

D.S: Jack Bauer!  Ha. He should be everybody’s influence (E.S: for the sad individuals who are not in-the-know, Jack is the invincible counter-terrorist agent in the TV series, 24). I enjoy war movies and I love Band of Brothers, I’m also looking forward to the new Series of Pacific.

E.S: Well, with your hectic job, you must enjoy your weekends! – What would be the ideal day off for you?

D.S: Well, it’s not overly exciting, but ideally I’d be sitting down, drinking a cold beer and reading a good book, maybe by John Grisham or James Patterson- something easy to read.

E.S: That sounds like  exactly what you need! Thanks very much Dan, I hope people realise just what an asset to CCK you are.

Matt Simmonds manages communications for Church of Christ the King (CCK) and is also responsible for all online communications for Newfrontiers. He is married to Jo and they have two lovely daughters, Ellie (who just turned 3) and Lydia. Jo is expecting their third child, which has kept Matt busy redecorating their house! In the midst of his very hectic schedule, Matt was gracious enough to spare Yohaan Philip a few minutes of his time to talk about the role he plays in advancing the gospel of Christ. Yohaan writes:

It’s always a pleasure talking to Matt! His cheerful countenance rarely betrays the highly stressful nature of the responsibilities he carries. At a very exciting time in the life of CCK, Matt plays a pivotal role as this massive ship is being guided across the seas. I’m excited to hear his thoughts! But first things first..

YP: Tell me Matt, what is the secret behind your ageing so slowly. A lot of men (and some women too!) would love to know what you do!

MS: Uhhh.. good sleep, fairly relaxed attitude to life? I don’t know!

YP: Thanks for that very enlightening answer. And what gel do you use?

MS: Dax Wax – it comes in a red tin, that’s all I know. Jo does all the beauty product shopping…

With that out of the way, I move on to more serious affairs..

YP: In most corporations, one of the key, underlying objectives of the communication departments would be to communicate their brand to a target audience with a view to make a profit. As communication manager for a church, what are some of your key objectives?

MS: Broadly speaking, marketing is about satisfying a customer need so that you can make an exchange. If you’re a charity, it may be an exchange of ideas or involvement, but obviously for corporations, it’s for money – trying to satisfy needs to get more money.

For CCK, or most other churches, we have a different fundamental background -  we’re communicating the gospel and not seeking a financial return.

There are three broader groups who are our audience:

• The Village – This group consists of all members committed to the church. I look to update them on news, various meetings and events that happen across the life of the church. We also aim to envision and resource them as much as we can. For instance, branding a preaching series hopefully shows that there’s a process to go through; they can read sermon notes, watch preaches online and follow the theme that the preacher is taking them on. The CCK blog as well as the ccklife blog serve this purpose. We’ve not been great at this in the past but we are trying to put things in place (like this blog) to serve church members better.

• The City- This group consists of anyone in Brighton and Hove who is not part of the church. Our different strategies and communication methods are built towards Sundays. The internet serves as people’s front door to church so you want a website that is visitor-friendly and not filled with Christian jargon and loads of information that would confuse them and put them off. Currently we are working towards a new visitor homepage for the CCK website bearing that in mind. Recently we videoed the evening service at CCK. This video will be the main feature of the home page and it will be helpful in explaining what CCK is to the unbeliever.

• The World – Thousands of people all around the world visit the CCK website. Only 30% of our traffic is from Brighton and Hove. We’re seen as Terry Virgo’s home base; Brighton is where it all started for Newfrontiers in many ways. People look to us for our resources. Preaches by Terry, John Hosier and Joel Virgo are popular downloads. We’re also looking at how can we resource the larger Christian world.

YP: You mentioned ‘preach series’. Can you tell me briefly some of the strategies used to promote these ‘preach series’?

MS: For the last few years we’ve been branding our preach series. In the autumn term later this year, Joel Virgo is going to be doing a set of preaches from the book of I Corinthians. He’s called this series ‘Alternative City’.

People are our main strategy to communicate this series. There are nearly a thousand members in our church who can be advocates for us. Historically, people have been drawn to Jesus through other people. In John 1, after encountering Jesus, the first thing Andrew does is to tell his brother, Peter, to come see the Saviour. And that’s how it works. ‘Come see’ , ‘Come find’ Jesus, look at Him – and I think that’s how Christianity has spread. This continues to work, especially in the marketing media age we live in. We can produce thousands of videos, fliers, knock on every door in Brighton, but if a friend tells a friend it still adds more credibility and weight. So, whatever clever strategies we make it never really diverts from the fact that people are most important. For the autumn season to really fly, we need small groups and zones to really own this and think up new ideas and ways to get people to church.

All the time we are trying to draw people to our Sunday meetings. Joel and the team have worked really hard to make Sundays welcoming for visitors. We want to make sure that visitors are not looking in at Christians engaging in their own private little world, but that they can come into something they can feel part of and feel it’s for them too. We’ve tried different things like have a DJ, host gigs in the lounge, serve alcohol and good coffee in our coffee shop, host a question and answer time after the preach, show videos of people’s testimonies, welcome teams, host teams to name a few! Marketing is not just promotion but it’s shaping what you have or what you do. With regards to CCK, we shape our meetings so that when people come in, there’s enough to engage them. For example if people are not into the preach but would come to the gig and say “wow! this is good”, they would then want to come back to it. Initially they may not be into the gospel but hopefully we can engage them more and more and ultimately help them find Jesus.  Ultimately, our main and most important objective is that we want to draw people to Jesus.

I also aim make use of social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. We use that as much as we can. Online social networks offer an unprecedented opportunity – we now have everyone’s friends and contacts at the touch of a button.

YP: Wow! That sounds quite exciting! Matt, your job seems quite functional and almost corporate in nature. Being a devout follower of Jesus, how do you maintain a God-centric balance in your work?

MS: I don’t see any sort of divide between my ‘work’ life and my ’spiritual’ life. True, my job may not appear to be overtly ’spiritual’ or ‘pastoral’ but essentially I’m working to communicate the gospel and to serve the life of the church and trying to make use of communication and marketing skills and technology to do this. We’re not just doing this because we feel it’s trendy. Essentially I see my role as almost that of an evangelist. I’m proclaiming the gospel whether it’s to believers or unbelievers.

YP: So you’re the church evangelist? (chuckles)

MS: (chuckles) No, I wouldn’t say that at all! But, partly I do see that as my role in communicating the gospel to people. Whether it’s a preach by Joel going on the website or the making of a new video, it’s still the gospel going out.

YP: Church of Christ the King, over 1,200 people attending weekly. How do you get people involved with your department?

MS: I’m always looking to people being involved with my department. People have different skills and can bring much to the table. Sometimes, I may have a particular job in mind and look at people fulfilling a role. Sometimes people come to me with a skill and passion and I’d build on their skills and passion. For instance, Rich Spear came to me and said that he wanted to help me out with stuff and that he had a passion for apologetics. So, we set up the reason blog and got him to run it.

There are different ways we can get the gospel out. I’m always looking for people with different creative skills and abilities who can give time, mostly voluntary, to help us out in different ways. We have been commissioned to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the world and we need everyone we can to fulfill this mammoth, powerful task.