The latest update from CVM
A message from Steve Martin...
 Another year, another 500 + men’s programmes kicking off around the country, based at churches that are partnered with CVM! One of the really exciting things is seeing individual churches linking up with each other to produce high quality and innovative events to invite mates too to tell them about Jesus. 2013 promises to be an eventful year with loads of new projects and resources planned, along with the Cracking the Code tour, some more dates combined with New Wine and of course The Gathering in June.
Hopefully most of you will be aware that a short bearded bloke called Steve has now joined the team as the Operations Director, so we thought (probably unwisely) that we would get him to tell us a bit about himself and the journey that has brought him to Chesterfield!!!
A potted history
Hi guys. Where to start! I was brought up in Brighton but have been living near Portsmouth for the last 26 years. I joined the Royal Navy in 1979 and served for 28 years as a weapons engineer. I spent time both at sea and ashore, with my sea time spent mainly on Type 22 frigates based in Plymouth (typical as I lived in Portsmouth). I spent many a happy 6 month deployment in the Gulf, or the West Indies (it’s a hard life but someone’s got to do it) and early on in the Iceland / Faeroes gap during the cold war, looking for Russian subs! I became a Christian in my first year in the navy, and had many ups and downs as I tried to live out a Christian lifestyle whilst sharing a mess-deck with up to 50 other blokes (a bar in the corner of your ‘living room’ with porn on the telly). At one point I ended up in the RN Prison, but that’s a story for a regional day! I hooked up very early on with the Naval Christian Fellowship (NCF), who link Christians in the Navy together for fellowship and prayer - basically NCF runs a network within the RN to support and encourage Christians in their outreach and witness. This was a real (literal) Godsend, which not only kept me on the straight and narrow, but also introduced me to my wife Helen. We have two sons, one working with a church plant in Chesterfield and the other in the Royal Marines Band. I eventually left the RN in May 2007 and took over running NCF – what goes around comes around as they say!
Hooking up with CVM
I first came across CVM about ten years ago, and went along to a couple of the conferences. There was obvious synergy with spending months and months in a tin box at sea with 270 other blokes! The whole idea of the four levels; making mates, introducing them to Jesus, telling them more and seeing them become committed was what we had been doing on board ships for years. The thought of transferring this concept to Churches and men’s groups really resonated. With a few others we started a group at our church, which has now been running for 6 years (last time we were in our ‘adopted’ pub the barmaid called me aside and said ‘Are you REALLY from the Church, coz we’re not sure … you are just so normal’ – we were well chuffed!). We have hosted 3 regional days, and at the end of 2011 I took on the job as CVMs Southern Area coordinator, whilst still holding down the NCF job. It has been brilliant meeting so many guys across the South, and seeing blokes getting passionate about sharing their faith with their mates. When Carl asked me to consider the Ops Director role last year, it didn’t take Helen and I long to realize that this is where we were being called for the next phase of our journey. So here we are, relief appointed to take over NCF on 1 May, house sold, new one bought, and looking to move up to Chesterfield in April. No turning back now.
The future
It’s a great team that I’m joining. Demands on their time and skills have risen dramatically over the last couple of years and my role will very much be one of supporting and releasing them from stuff that they have been doing by necessity, to concentrate a little more on what their core skills are. There is so much that we are looking at; battles against things like the porn industry; growing plans for on-line evangelism; further volumes of the Manual to be published, along with the Code Bible for blokes; investigating working with prisoners and ex-offenders; the Demolition Squad are writing a book on Apologetics that will help you in your discussions on the usual topics that come up over a pint! Demands across Scotland, Ireland and Wales are growing along with the international work in Cambodia, India, Canada, Columbia and South Africa. We have got the ongoing Cracking the Code tour, and are working on a new Evangelistic resource called the Crazy Way. Finally The Gathering in June is taking shape … looking for 1000 blokes this year! More info on this stuff is on the website or follow the links on this E mail …
We are so thankful to God for all the demands on CVM – we must be doing something right … but to do it all we need the dosh … if you want to support the work you can do so here...
Look forward to meeting you at a Regional day or the Gathering, and if there is time I will ‘spin you the dit’ about RN prison …. feel free to drop us an e-mail, we love to hear from you.
Cheers and blessings
|
|
|
