CCK Life blog

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.

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!