Dave
My name is Dave and I was born at a very early age. I grew up in Shrewsbury in a family where both my parents were Christians. In terms of my own faith I guess that gave me a head start because I always knew God was real and I saw by my Parent’s lives that the impact of knowing a living God was very real. We had spent two and a half years in Africa and had known God’s protection in a way few ever encounter. This meant even though I didn’t know God for myself I knew about Him and I knew I needed Him, I just didn’t quite know how to put it all together.
At school I was short, fat, wore glasses, went to Church and was Welsh in an English border town. Put this all together and I was as socially undesirable as you can be! I tried to make up for this by being cheeky, humorous, and sometimes plain nasty to people. I was trying to make up for the fact I didn’t always fit in by trying to alienate other people. At the age of about 12 I was in with a group of friends who used to get up to all sorts of mischief. Generally my conscience would prevent me from entering in fully but I was there with them. It started off with playing practical jokes like letting down car tyres and knocking on people’s doors then running away. Soon it had escalated and they were going around our local estates with catapults putting people’s windows through, shouting abuse at people and setting fire to derelict houses. Suffice to say at this point I knew they were bang out of order and I knew they were setting a course for their lives that was not right. I also began to realise that although I had gained respect in some ways I did not want to be breaking the law and even by being there I was risking my own future.
One Easter time we went to Spring Harvest, a Christian holiday week. The youth meetings were awesome. The worship was amazing. The teaching was stunning. I felt God move in a powerful way and I was challenged that I needed to put all my faith in God, not just have Him as a small part of an increasingly complicated life. I just felt so compromised. I knew about God but I didn’t know Him. We sung a song about God breaking our chains and setting us free. I told God I was sorry for what I had done wrong and asked Him to forgive me. I felt freedom, true freedom, for the first time. Someone had given me a verse in a card of John 8 verse 36 which says ‘If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’ This verse has shaped my life ever since.
I got back to Shrewsbury and started to change the way I lived. I looked for new friends and got closer to people in the Church. The lads I used to hang around with started smoking, then it was quickly drugs, and by the time I went to university two of them had criminal records. God really dragged me away from a difficult situation, and raised me up into a time of real blessing. He had set me free and I was free indeed.
I did well at School and went on to Sixth Form. In 1994 there were some really powerful Church meetings happening and I was deeply moved. I knew the power of God in a way that I could not deny. I was broken. To experience the power of a holy God is just breathtaking, it changes you, it consumes you. All of us my age who experienced those meetings carried on with our faith and although spread over the country we are serving God in local Churches and staying close to Him. From leading worship in a Church plant in Edinburgh to leading a cell group at South West London Vineyard, from the Church administrator at Barnabas Community Church to the Church Administrator at Trent Vineyard in Nottingham, from playing the drums at Pioneer People in Cobham to helping with KidzKlub at West Birmingham Family Church, leading the Youth at Barnabas and leading worship at an independent Church in Plymouth, all those who experienced God at that time have gone on to serve Him.
Sixth Form was a great time as I led the Christian Union and was College President. I was being myself and was accepted for it. I was mostly doing what God wanted and it showed in the way He blessed what I did.
I then went on to Aston University, taking a placement year in Nottingham with Boots in their head office and then back to Shrewsbury for a gap year. I had a job with Accenture, a management consultancy to go to after my year out. I came back to Shrewsbury to serve the Church that had served my peer group so faithfully. I wanted to put something back in for a year where we had all received so much.
Then my plans really did get turned upside down. The leaders of the Church talked to me about the possibility of me not going to Manchester for my job but actually staying at the Church here in Shrewsbury to work as an administrator. This was the hardest decision of my life. I had a job at The Times Newspaper’s number one graduate employer, I was the envy of all my friends and was looking at a six figure salary by the age of 30. I really needed to know what God was saying.
Then at the end of a Sunday morning meeting someone who could have had no idea about my choices came up to me and said ‘I was praying and I felt God say He doesn’t want you to move but he wants you to stay in Shrewsbury’ Then at Cell group that week another person took me aside and said ‘I was praying and I felt God say to me that I had to tell you He wants you to stay at Barnabas because he is opening up a role for you here’. I was shocked. I really was astounded. The message was coming through loud and clear!
I went to see my friend in Nottingham, and was just plucking up the courage to take the Barnabas opportunity when I prayed ‘God, I’m gonna do the Barnabas stuff, please confirm it’ As I opened my eyes the worship leader stopped playing and prayed ‘God, thank you that in your word you say that when the Son set’s us free we will be free indeed, and please help us to understand that more and more’�. There it was, the verse, my verse, John 8:36, the reason I was set free from my guilt and shame for this part of my life was to serve the Church here in Shrewsbury as an administrator.
I am not perfect, far from it, I am working hard with my discipler to change my character, to understand God better and to be more real in my faith. All the way through this process I have failed in different ways, I have allowed myself to be distracted, I have gone off on my own and made a mess of things. But God is faithful, He has called me for a purpose. I don’t want anything other than what God wants for me, I have tried it on my own and it is awful, I never want that to happen again. My non Christian friends think I am crazy, absolutely crazy, but I know that I am following the path that God has for me and even though I had to count the cost for my own life it is utterly insignificant compared to the excitement and fulfilment in knowing that I am serving God where He wants me and that I am opening up a new part of His plan for my life.
Being a Christian is not an easy option. It is not a crutch for the weak. Far from it. You need to be strong. You need to face your issues. You need to give up things that don’t fit in. You need to stand up for what you believe in and take the flack when it comes. Being a Christian is about a loving relationship with a living God and is the greatest privilege a human being can have. It’s not an easy option, but I cannot express to you how much it is worth it.
Keep the faith,
Dave