Introducing our new Ministry Assistant

Hi all, I was asked to write a few lines about myself before coming onto staff at Immanuel. In the next few paragraphs, I hope to outline my skills, and what I hope to bring to Immanuel. Any time you see me around please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions (also keep an eye out for questionnaires as I get settled into the job).

So, to start its probably best to outline who I am and what experience I bring to the role. I am still going to be studying at Moorlands College alongside the role, many of you will know me as one of the students placed at Immanuel.

I have previously been a trainee Local preacher in the Methodist Circuit in Torbay, this involved me leading and preaching across various Churches within the circuit. I was also a steward in my local Church. A steward in methodism is similar role to that of an elder. We as stewards had to guide the Church and gave guidance to the Church council around plans for the future, ministries and building issues.

I also worked for Sainsburys for 15 years and fulfilled a lot of different roles within that from management to colleague. I was the health and safety rep for around 6 years in my time there also.

I mention all this experience as some of my role going forward is going to be admin based. Unfortunately, there is admin involved in running churches, this means that you may see me over the coming weeks walking around with a clipboard and looking at various things. Don’t panic I’m not looking at doing any building work, all I am doing is assessing all the risks within the Church and making sure we have robust assessments in place in case of any issues.

That’s the boring bit of the job out of the way, the necessity which we need just to operate the many ministries that go on. The fun bit to me is looking at where Immanuel is discipling you the Church corporately. I will be looking at getting courses going that enable better understanding of the Bible, prayer and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. This is not just to invite people into the Church and start them on the journey but also to encourage and strengthen our understanding of the Bible and key factors of our faith as a church also.

I am hoping in the coming time of working with you to establish robust discipleship practices, that not only bring new people into faith but also strengthen and encourage all of us in our faith. My goal for my time at Immanuel is to almost get to a point where my role is obsolete, in that others have come along who want to lead in certain areas, where others feel comfortable stepping out in faith and following God’s calling on there lives to strengthen not only the Church community of Immanuel but the community it serves.