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Interview with David Redbond: (12th October 2010)
David Redbond is the senior Pastor of Ashingdon Elim Church
Rochford Life: David, how long have you been an Elim minister?
David: Thirty years. I was brought up in an Elim church from the age of about eight, and when eventually I became a Christian, I got involved in my local church. From there, as a twenty-five year old, I was asked to take over the responsibility for the youth work for Elim in the Essex county and then out of that, at thirty two, I was then approached by the church where I am now, to join their ministry team and was subsequently appointed to the position where I have served ever since.
RL: You have a much wider ranging ministry than simply the minister of a church, these days, don't you?
David: Yes, I also now have a regional responsibility which means that I am there to support, to advise, and some respects to get involved in trouble shooting, in Elim churches that are based in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, East London, Kent and East Sussex.
RL: But this wasn’t full-time was it? You used to have a secular job?
David: Yes, for a large part of my life, as well as leading the church, I was involved in Insurance where I was development manager for a well-known large Insurer.
RL: That must have put a lot of pressure on you, running two things side by side throughout that time?
David: It did create ‘interesting’ challenges and it meant that in the terms of both churchmanship and from a point of view of managing your life – for in my case there was a family with four children – it meant recognising that you cannot do everything and, therefore, you need to build teams and you need to develop people so that its not all centred around you, that its centred around releasing people to the aims and desires of what you are looking for.
RL: You’ve retired from the Insurance world now?
David: Yes, I was fortunate enough at the age of fifty to be one of those people given a company pension and allowed to stay at home doing nothing – but that’s not exactly how it turned out!!!
RL: Can you tell us, for the average person out in the street, that word, ‘Elim’, what does it mean?
David: Elim, certainly to many people in the street means nothing, but in fact it is the name of a place. It’s a reference to a place found in the Old Testament, which is in the first part of the Bible, and this particular place was, in fact, an oasis. When the denomination of Elim came into being, the founding fathers of that day saw very much the church organisation that they were wanting to develop and build, was to be one that was very much rooted in the concept of being an oasis for people, to be able to discover that there could be in life, a place of refreshing, a place of rest, a place where they could take time out, a place where they could build up strength, a place where they could discover that there’s more to life than just the rat race.
RL: Normally we hear the words Elim and ‘Pentecostal’ put together. Pentecostal?
David: Pentecostal is another Bible word, this time from the New Testament and it refers to the time in the life of the early Church when God, the Holy Spirit, was poured out on the Church, given to the Church, and as a result of that people experienced the supernatural power of God and we, as a group of churches, believe that still we can experience God’s power and God’s blessing that way, through the Holy Spirit.
RL: Are there Elim churches all over this country?
David: There are Elim churches, not only all over this country but all over the world. In this country there are now just under seven hundred Elim churches scattered across the UK and in Ireland, but we have churches in most of the nations of the world
RL: So you are a fairly substantial Christian denomination?
David: Yes, we are quite large, and from a point of interest, of how the Government sees us, because of the financial resources that we have, we figure quite highly as far as the Charity Commissioners are concerned.
RL: So the church is a charity?
David: Yes, the church is a charity.
RL: Your church building that has got ‘Elim Church’ on it, at the top end of Ashingdon Road, nearing the top of Ashingdon Hill, is that the building you use most of the time?
David: That is the building we use for most occasions and for activities during the week and for our Sunday evening, but for our larger service which takes place on Sunday morning, we use the Ashingdon and East Hawkwell Memorial Hall which is almost opposite. Our services at Ashingdon and Rayleigh and Southend (because we have churches we are responsible for in each of those areas) are 10.30am in the morning and Ashingdon also has an evening service which is at 6.30pm.
RL: If someone comes to the Memorial Hall morning service, say, what’s going to happen when they arrive? What are they going to find?
David: When they turn up, they hopefully will feel very much welcomed and at home, and there will be people to greet them and give them a sense of not being lost but being part of a group of ordinary people who very much feel we are part of a big family. There will be lively music with a group of musicians led by a keyboard, but we also have guitars and drums and clarinets and flutes. We even now have a Cello. They will find that there will be facilities for young children; there will be activities for older children and teenagers and there will be, within the programme, a message or talk that will be for the adults lasting on average about twenty five minutes. Then, at the end of it all, which is usually about an hour and a half, it will be finished off with tea, coffee, soft drinks, cakes and biscuits. We love to eat together so we have lots of food events as well. The talks can now be accessed through our website and they are regularly downloaded as podcasts. I am told that since we have been doing podcasts through iTunes, we had just over 17,500 individual subscribers who are downloading our sermons, and our sermons have in total been downloaded about 875,000 times within about six months.
RL: How would you sum up your Christian faith?
David: I believe as Christians it’s not just following some sort of religious ritual; it’s about a real and vibrant relationship with the God who loves us and cares for us. I believe we have to be real. Life itself is at times tough but God is concerned with us in whatever part of our life we are going through and whatever we might be experiencing. I believe that church, and indeed being a Christian, should be fun as well as having a serious side. I believe as Christians, as well, we should not just be involved in church things but in other activities as well, enjoying God’s world. I’m a very keen fisherman, so as an angler I usually manage to get off fishing at least once a week. Also my wife and I are very keen narrow-boaters so we also go and spend time on a narrow boat we part own, several times a year.
RL: To conclude, why does your church exist?
David: Our church exists to seek to help people in their spiritual journey so that they might come that step nearer to discovering that there is a God who loves them, there is a God who wants to be in relationship with them and that he is ready and willing to engage with them, and for them to encounter him, if they take the time and are wanting to discover for themselves this Being that is so awesome and so amazing and who has changed so many of our lives.
RL: David, thank you so much?
David Redbond is the senior Pastor of Ashingdon Elim Church
Rochford Life: David, how long have you been an Elim minister?
David: Thirty years. I was brought up in an Elim church from the age of about eight, and when eventually I became a Christian, I got involved in my local church. From there, as a twenty-
RL: You have a much wider ranging ministry than simply the minister of a church, these days, don't you?
David: Yes, I also now have a regional responsibility which means that I am there to support, to advise, and some respects to get involved in trouble shooting, in Elim churches that are based in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, East London, Kent and East Sussex.
RL: But this wasn’t full-
David: Yes, for a large part of my life, as well as leading the church, I was involved in Insurance where I was development manager for a well-
RL: That must have put a lot of pressure on you, running two things side by side throughout that time?
David: It did create ‘interesting’ challenges and it meant that in the terms of both churchmanship and from a point of view of managing your life – for in my case there was a family with four children – it meant recognising that you cannot do everything and, therefore, you need to build teams and you need to develop people so that its not all centred around you, that its centred around releasing people to the aims and desires of what you are looking for.
RL: You’ve retired from the Insurance world now?
David: Yes, I was fortunate enough at the age of fifty to be one of those people given a company pension and allowed to stay at home doing nothing – but that’s not exactly how it turned out!!!
RL: Can you tell us, for the average person out in the street, that word, ‘Elim’, what does it mean?
David: Elim, certainly to many people in the street means nothing, but in fact it is the name of a place. It’s a reference to a place found in the Old Testament, which is in the first part of the Bible, and this particular place was, in fact, an oasis. When the denomination of Elim came into being, the founding fathers of that day saw very much the church organisation that they were wanting to develop and build, was to be one that was very much rooted in the concept of being an oasis for people, to be able to discover that there could be in life, a place of refreshing, a place of rest, a place where they could take time out, a place where they could build up strength, a place where they could discover that there’s more to life than just the rat race.
RL: Normally we hear the words Elim and ‘Pentecostal’ put together. Pentecostal?
David: Pentecostal is another Bible word, this time from the New Testament and it refers to the time in the life of the early Church when God, the Holy Spirit, was poured out on the Church, given to the Church, and as a result of that people experienced the supernatural power of God and we, as a group of churches, believe that still we can experience God’s power and God’s blessing that way, through the Holy Spirit.
RL: Are there Elim churches all over this country?
David: There are Elim churches, not only all over this country but all over the world. In this country there are now just under seven hundred Elim churches scattered across the UK and in Ireland, but we have churches in most of the nations of the world
RL: So you are a fairly substantial Christian denomination?
David: Yes, we are quite large, and from a point of interest, of how the Government sees us, because of the financial resources that we have, we figure quite highly as far as the Charity Commissioners are concerned.
RL: So the church is a charity?
David: Yes, the church is a charity.
RL: Your church building that has got ‘Elim Church’ on it, at the top end of Ashingdon Road, nearing the top of Ashingdon Hill, is that the building you use most of the time?
David: That is the building we use for most occasions and for activities during the week and for our Sunday evening, but for our larger service which takes place on Sunday morning, we use the Ashingdon and East Hawkwell Memorial Hall which is almost opposite. Our services at Ashingdon and Rayleigh and Southend (because we have churches we are responsible for in each of those areas) are 10.30am in the morning and Ashingdon also has an evening service which is at 6.30pm.
RL: If someone comes to the Memorial Hall morning service, say, what’s going to happen when they arrive? What are they going to find?
David: When they turn up, they hopefully will feel very much welcomed and at home, and there will be people to greet them and give them a sense of not being lost but being part of a group of ordinary people who very much feel we are part of a big family. There will be lively music with a group of musicians led by a keyboard, but we also have guitars and drums and clarinets and flutes. We even now have a Cello. They will find that there will be facilities for young children; there will be activities for older children and teenagers and there will be, within the programme, a message or talk that will be for the adults lasting on average about twenty five minutes. Then, at the end of it all, which is usually about an hour and a half, it will be finished off with tea, coffee, soft drinks, cakes and biscuits. We love to eat together so we have lots of food events as well. The talks can now be accessed through our website and they are regularly downloaded as podcasts. I am told that since we have been doing podcasts through iTunes, we had just over 17,500 individual subscribers who are downloading our sermons, and our sermons have in total been downloaded about 875,000 times within about six months.
RL: How would you sum up your Christian faith?
David: I believe as Christians it’s not just following some sort of religious ritual; it’s about a real and vibrant relationship with the God who loves us and cares for us. I believe we have to be real. Life itself is at times tough but God is concerned with us in whatever part of our life we are going through and whatever we might be experiencing. I believe that church, and indeed being a Christian, should be fun as well as having a serious side. I believe as Christians, as well, we should not just be involved in church things but in other activities as well, enjoying God’s world. I’m a very keen fisherman, so as an angler I usually manage to get off fishing at least once a week. Also my wife and I are very keen narrow-
RL: To conclude, why does your church exist?
David: Our church exists to seek to help people in their spiritual journey so that they might come that step nearer to discovering that there is a God who loves them, there is a God who wants to be in relationship with them and that he is ready and willing to engage with them, and for them to encounter him, if they take the time and are wanting to discover for themselves this Being that is so awesome and so amazing and who has changed so many of our lives.
RL: David, thank you so much?
Churches
Ashingdon Elim Church
Ashingdon Elim Church
Ashingdon Elim Church
535 Ashingdon Road, Ashingdon, SS5 3HE
535 Ashingdon Road, Ashingdon, SS5 3HE
Pastor David Redbond
01702 548438
dave@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Simon Law
01702 204326
simon@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor TonyTween
01245 600138
tony@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Dean Courtier
01702 544179
dean@ashingdonelim.co.uk
01702 548438
dave@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Simon Law
01702 204326
simon@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor TonyTween
01245 600138
tony@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Dean Courtier
01702 544179
dean@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor David Redbond
01702 548438
dave@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Simon Law
01702 204326
simon@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor TonyTween
01245 600138
tony@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Dean Courtier
01702 544179
dean@ashingdonelim.co.uk
01702 548438
dave@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Simon Law
01702 204326
simon@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor TonyTween
01245 600138
tony@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Dean Courtier
01702 544179
dean@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor David Redbond
01702 548438
dave@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Simon Law
01702 204326
simon@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor TonyTween
01245 600138
tony@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Dean Courtier
01702 544179
dean@ashingdonelim.co.uk
01702 548438
dave@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Simon Law
01702 204326
simon@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor TonyTween
01245 600138
tony@ashingdonelim.co.uk
Pastor Dean Courtier
01702 544179
dean@ashingdonelim.co.uk
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