As we start a new academic year, I just wanted to write a quick blog post about the CCC team with the key people and who does what.
First key person…the CCC Family. Every one of us!
I don’t say this flippantly or just for the sake of saying it. I really mean it. As the Apostle Paul outlines in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, the church is the body of Christ. Christ is the head but we (followers of Jesus) are the presence of Jesus on earth, representing him to those around us.
Paul uses the analogy of the church being a body to say a few important things:
- Everyone in the body has a part to play; we all have a role!
- Everyone in the body is vital if the body is to function well, even the seemingly insignificant unseen parts of the body… they’re indispensible to the body working well.
- Not everyone has the same role in the body. If we did have the same role it would be a very unhealthy body!
- We must be less concerned with what other people’s gifts/roles are and more concerned about using whatever gifts we have to glorify God and benefit the church.
So who is the first key person in the CCC team…? YOU! I mean it. Please do come and talk to us if you want to get more involved, if you have ideas or gifts that are not being used. Those of us on staff or in other roles of leadership are here to ‘equip the people for works of service’ (Ephesians 4:12). We are not to do all the work ourselves.
If you’re not currently plugged into CCC, the best place to start is to come to our Connect Night – https://www.christcitychurch.ie/connect-night/
City Group Leaders and Sunday Team Leaders
These guys are great servants of CCC – putting their time and energy into organising our missional communities and ensuring that our Sunday Gatherings run smoothly. To learn more about those involved do check out:
- City Groups & Leaders – https://www.christcitychurch.ie/city-groups/
- Sunday Teams & Leaders – https://www.christcitychurch.ie/christ-city-life-joining-a-team/
Greg: Treasurer
After 6 years of brilliant and faithful service Justin Anderson is handing over the reigns of the finances. He will still be involved in an advisory role but Greg Sykes has taken on the day-to-day managing of the finances, as well as the planning of the budget for 2019, organising the AGM and ensuring we are good stewards of our income and expenditure. Like Justin, Greg is a volunteer and will therefore be aided by Ola for a lot of the work.
Maffy: Our New Apprentice!
Matthew (Maffy) & Emma Baskin are joining us from Donegal/Strabane and are newly married this summer. Emma is working as a primary school teacher and Maffy is doing our 12 month Apprenticeship program. Maffy has recently finished his degree at the Irish Bible Institute and is looking to get trained up to become a pastor and maybe in time a church planter.
As an Apprentice he’ll be working part-time for the church and his main roles will be around:
- Welcome & Integration – City Groups, Sunday Gatherings
- The Intro Course
- Discipleship
Over time, we expect his role to grow and for him to take on more areas of responsibility. We’re delighted to welcome him and Emma to Dublin and CCC. Maffy has written a short blog about himself, which you can read here – Maffy’s Blog
Vanessa: Communications Officer and Student Worker
Vanessa has now done our internship and apprenticeship and we are delighted to welcome her part-time onto the CCC staff. Her main areas of responsibility are:
- Communications
- Sunday Set Up/Down (teams)
- Students
- Christians in Sport
- Admin & Events
Ola: Staff, Volunteer and Events Manager
Ola has just finished her first year with CCC and is continuing on staff, taking on some more hours and greater responsibility. She has four primary areas of responsibility:
- Internship/Apprenticeship Manager, including line-managing Vanessa
- Volunteer Care Coordinator
- Administrator and Events Coordinator
- Discipleship & Pastoral Care
Leanne: Senior Leader
Leanne has the unenviable role of being my wife and putting up with me 7 days a week (can you imagine how exhausting that must be?!!!). Since we planted the church we have worked as a team; right from making the move over to Ireland, to everything that has been involved in getting the church up and running. On top of organising my life and picking up the many pieces I leave behind (no mean feat!), she has in effect volunteered part-time for the church for the last 4 years since we launched.
Leanne and I were thinking and praying about CCC whilst on holiday, looking back over the last four years and thinking through the next four and asking God to guide and to help us move forward. We were considering how to be faithful and fruitful in the mission he has called us to, to make disciples, raise up leaders and plant churches in Dublin and Ireland. And I asked her what she felt her role in church was…and should be. What does she want to do?
She commented that as a mother to Jacob and Annabelle she has one big overarching responsibility (to care for them and ensure their flourishing), without any one specific task (being a mother involves a hundred tasks!) and that it feels similar with CCC. She feels like a ‘spiritual mother to the church’ where she is involved in lots of things, whether connecting with people or doing certain jobs, without having a specific role. So in the last 6 years she has helped/led the Children’s Team, the sung worship (she couldn’t even play guitar before arriving in Ireland!), she has preached, led meetings, done set up/down, organised the marriage enrichment courses, met with dozens and dozens of people and so on and so forth. I thought that ‘spiritual mother’ was a great job title but Leanne refused…so we have gone for Senior Leader…which feels much less grand!
And that obviously leaves me and I imagine my role is fairly self-explanatory as the pastor of the church. Hopefully I will be able to provide some leadership and vision to help steer it all.
So hopefully that gives you a sense of the team and how the role of each of us, as I said at the start, is not to DO everything, but to support and enable every member of CCC to use their gifts, so that everyone is participating and that the church is both growing internally and reaching out into the city.
If you have any questions, or want to get more involved, don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us.
And let’s pray that 2018-2019 is a year where God matures us, strengthens us and grows us in Christ, as a community and in our mission for him. The prayer of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:16-21 feels very apt:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasureably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.