Springbourne Christian Centre

People

As with all churches, there’s a lot of people involved in the work we do at SCC. Here’s some of those you might want to know – it isn’t the important people, it’s just those that have a title.

The church is structured in a fairly typical way, we have a Pastor  leading the work – he’s a full time paid worker (a bit like a vicar in CofE churches).

The Pastor and the Elders are responsible for setting the ‘spiritual direction’ of the church – they make sure we stick to the Bible and don’t go off track. They answer to God, which is pretty scary (though also to Elim HQ, which is slightly less scary).

We have Trustees, who are legally responsible for most things, and look after the finances as well. Normally the Elders are the trustees, but we have a couple of others as well.

Our other employed people are the a Youth worker (part time currently), Church Administrator and Caretaker. They’re listed down there too, so I’ll tell you about them later.

We have a whole host of other people running things in the background. I can’t name them all, or this would turn into a church directory but they’re all vital for what we do. God wouldn’t have put them here otherwise.

So, to put some names and faces to the titles:

Dave Shepherd – Pastor

It may be a bad pun, but it’s Dave’s job to shepherd the church. He’s the Pastor (that’s the closest equivalent to a vicar, for those not in the know). He’s a full time employee of the church and the person you’re most likely to see talking from the front on a Sunday. The rest of the time you’ll find him talking elsewhere to someone. He likes to talk.

It’s his job to make sure we’re all OK – he checks in on people who are ill, sorts out those who have problems and makes sure the rest of us are OK as well. He also fixes, mends, paints and does pretty much anything else that needs doing.

Dave is married to Carol, and they have 3 boys (mostly grown up now, though it depends if you catch them on a good day). Sometimes we even let him go home and see them. They’re all great and we’d be stuck without them.

Tim Howells – Elder

Tim is one of the Elders in the church. He’s not going to be for long, unfortunately because Wales called and wants him back. He’s going to Pastor a church over there in May – bad for us but good for them. Good for God too, I should add.

We’ll be sorry to see him go, but we’re exited that he’s going to get to spend more time doing something he loves for someone he loves. We expect to hear back from him regularly telling us all the exciting things. I just hope he still speaks English…

Tim is Married to Karen and has 2 boys. They’re the good ones sitting quietly.

Tom Sparrow – Elder

This is me. I was very flattered that people wanted me to be an elder, but to be honest it scares the life out of me. I was just starting to settle into it when Tim announced he was going. God obviously doesn’t want me to be comfortable.

I have a beautiful wife and 3 smallish children. They’re the ones ‘dancing’ at the front on a Sunday morning. They’re much better looking than me, so don’t be put off by the mugshot.

Jules Beale – Youth Worker

Jules is the latest addition to our ‘official’ crew. He’s working part time with the youth in the church and after only a couple of weeks (at time of writing this) I’m seeing them gathering in huddles after the service. I’m not sure what they’re planning, but I’m only hearing good things.

Jules is married to Ruth, and they are expecting their first child later this year.

Shirley Bennett – Church Administrator

I don’t have a photo of Shirley for some reason (at least not one she’d let me put on the church website). I’ll remedy that as soon as possible.

Shirley’s main job is to keep Dave organised. That’s no mean feat on it’s own, but in spare moments she also organises events, rotas, newsletters and the like. If you need something done then Shirley is normally who you would go to.

Shirley is married to Nigel and has 2 grown up girls and 2 not quite so grown up boys. I have to be careful what I say about them because Luke has edit rights to the website, and I don’t want to get into a fight.

Norma Moore – Caretaker

Norma keeps everything together in the church during the week. She put chairs out and then puts them back again. She locks, unlocks, cleans tidies and still have time to talk to Dave (not that you get a lot of choice). She’s supposed to be part time, but I never go to church without finding her there somewhere.

After hours, she has Barry and her 2 girls to look after as well. They’re teenagers (the girls, that is) so they ‘re also the official babysitting team for the church.