My adventure with Oxford Community Church has had some distinct ‘chapters’ of different activity over the years, one of which has been my employment as a full-time administrator since 2010, supporting the people and ministry of the church in very practical ways. This particular chapter is now coming to an end, and so I wanted to share with you all a brief summary of what has led to this decision.
In late 2019, Steve and Bev started talking to me and Georgie (my wife) about whether we felt the call of God into eldership at Oxford Community Church, and as we prayed and talked together, we realised that my admin job would probably be a constraint on this, because there would continue to be an expectation – and my own entrenched habits! – that would exert a ‘gravitational pull’ towards practical service at the expense of building relationship, being available for people, and growing into being a spiritual father. During the following months, we then had our second daughter (and there was a pandemic too!), so although that process of preparation for eldership slowed, we still felt that it would be prudent for me to seek a new career, freeing me up to engage in being an elder to the greatest extent possible!
Fast forward to early 2022 and with clarity of my call into eldership, it was agreed that I should take periodic time off in order to work on this career change, and start to plan how I would hand over the wide portfolio of knowledge, experience, and responsibilities that I had accumulated over the prior decade or so. This was one of the kindnesses of God, as His timing has allowed for a good, long lead-time for us together (as a staff team) to process all of that peacefully! In May that year, I was appointed as an elder, and as expected, started to feel the tension between the demands of my admin (paid) and elder (voluntary) roles. My slow progress in finding a new job was a real frustration to me, partly because I didn’t really know what job I wanted, and partly because I was short of time to really give it the attention it deserved!
In late 2022, after applying and not being selected for the exact same job I had held before working for OCC, I decided to re-train, so Georgie and I agreed to reduce my working hours from June onwards, to give me a free day each week to do that. All the while I was praying (albeit sporadically!) about God opening opportunities and dreaming of things I’d love to do but with no clear route to access them.
Then in December last year, I unexpectedly got a message from the owners of a small software company based in Australia, whose customer I had been for almost two years. They asked whether I was interested in a ‘Community Manager’ role with them, noting that I was already doing that work in their support forum as a contributing volunteer, and asking if I’d like to be paid for it (and to work for them full-time). This role had been right at the top of my list of dream jobs that I had no idea how to achieve, but it had been in my prayers and God heard me!
I accepted that Community Manager job offer as a self-employed contractor just before Christmas, and started paid work one day a week for them, handing in my resignation to OCC in January and beginning a focused set of discussions and activities around handing over really well! Now that I’m in my last couple of weeks of employment with OCC, I am deeply grateful for the support and patience of my colleagues through this marathon of a career change. I’m immensely thankful for God’s timing and guiding hand, and also excited to see who God will provide to Jenna and Bec to help them build an admin team that will be the right shape for His future plans for this local family of believers. I’m also looking forward to greater flexibility and capacity in my heart, my mind, and my diary, to expand into the eldership role that God has called me into, for the good of everyone in Oxford Community Church and all the people with whom we’ll connect in the years ahead.
This is by no means the end of my OCC story, and I am excited to see what more God has for me!
