"You're a worship leader?" he said in a broad Northern Irish accent."Yeah, yeah, I have been for a while. Haven't led for a bit though." I replied, slightly hesistantly.
"That's fantastic, mate. Well, would you'ze fancy leading here one Sunday?"
"Yeah, that'd be great."
I swapped contact details with the Irishman, with his fair hair and funny little 'soul-patch' beard perched just below his bottom lip, and thought nothing more of it as he walked away. Within minutes he was back.
"Jimmy, mate, I've managed to double-book myself for next weekend. I don't suppose there's the slighest chance you might be free to lead the worship here would you?"
I was a vistor. My friend was drumming in the band. Now, I was being asked to lead worship at a church I barely knew but for some unkown reason I agreed to cover.
The following week, with a makeshift band I led the songs. After the service I was asked if I was going to the meeting on Tuesday. It turned out that the worship leaders were meeting the following Tuesday and, seeing as I was now one of the worship leaders, it made sense that I was there.
And I've been here ever since.
Previously, I'd been beaten up and cut deep by the last church I was involved in; a church where I didn't fit. It was arguably the most painful experience of my life. I was totally disillusioned with church. How could Christian's claim to follow Jesus and yet be so narrow minded, so cruel, so heartless? I was never angry at God because he hadn't done anything wrong. But I was pretty much done with Church... until that conversation with Andy Flan on the stage at Church.co.uk three years ago; triggering a chain of events that saw me go from visitor to part of the family within the space of a week . Old wounds were gradually healed here. Forgiveness was allowed to brew here. People here quickly became my friends and helped to pick me up, dust me down and help me get going again.
I've been part of CCU for three years now and as my role here has developed, from visitor, to worship leader, to student on placement, speaker, running a small group, helping co-ordinate the worship team, being invited onto the Church Leadership team, being employed to develop the music and arts work... all the way along I've never stopped being grateful for the way this church played such a part in my recovery. Being part of the leadership of this church is a real privilege for me and every day I try and give something back to the community that gave so much to me.
Thank you Church.co.uk. And here's to the next chapter...
