Behind the Scenes: Andy Ferrett
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.
