06th July 2009
13 years at Elim Loughborough...
Paul Stevens and his wife Annette have served this fellowship faithfully over the last 13 years. Here is a little of his story.
Paul's first job (apart from being a message boy complete with basket in front of his bike) was as an Environmental Health Officer in County Antrim. He spent 10 years honing his communication skills lecturing in food hygiene and his relationship skills dealing with a range of people from business professionals to very needy people living in reduced circumstances.
Just over 20 years ago Paul Stevens took up an appointment as Administrative Assistant to the International Missions Director at Elim International HQ in Cheltenham. Previous to that he had been pastoring South Belfast Elim in Donegal Pass for just over 8 years. Incidentally, from the age of 11, apart from two years at Elim Bible College in Capel, South Belfast, or Apsley Street as it was originally called, was his home church.
So at the mature age of 40 he headed from shores of Northern Ireland taking with him his wife Annette and three children then aged 4, 8 and 12 respectively. His punch-line in convincing his family to move to England was that for the next four years they could visit "all those interesting places in England without the Irish Sea complicating travel and adding to the cost".
Working under the leadership of Brian Edwards, Paul got involved in the promotion and finance of Elim Missions. To his skills of pastoring and preaching he added budgeting, graphic design and layout, audio-visual production and script writing, office management and loads of other bits and pieces. But what he liked best was being in contact with Elim's overseas workers ensuring that they were adequately supported and making regular contact with them. Paul actually had the first modem at Elim HQ - it was handed to him and he was instructed to find out how it worked because it would be useful to send telexes!
Paul functioned as an Elder in the Cheltenham church for about 9 of his 11 years there and enjoyed involvement without responsibility! He preached there as well as around many of the churches in England and Wales - even the odd brief excursion to Ulster and Scotland.
After 11 years it became clear that his time at HQ was at a close. The attraction of getting more "hands on" in church life led him to resign his post and apply for stationing in a church. He was offered a church in the East Midlands, Loughborough and accepted it.
Elim Loughborough was not in a good place when Paul arrived. The congregation were disheartened and some of the leadership were either under pastoral care or had been asked to step down. The church was in a debt and the building looked jaded and neglected. A situation not dissimilar to the one he had faced when he had come back to Apsley Street after Bible College. The task of rebuilding trust in the congregation and the reputation of Elim in this market town has taken time but it is now highly regarded in what has developed into a university town with 25% of the population students. A major refurbishment in 2000 increased capacity but the congregation has even outgrown that and is currently in the process of buying a redundant Anglican church. With Annette retiring just recently, the two of them are now heavily engaged in developing a church that impacts its community through evangelism as well as community activities such as a hostel for homeless young women, a pregnancy counselling centre now specialising more on post-abortion needs and a luncheon club for the elderly.
Retirement may be just a few years away but Paul is firmly convinced that he is in the golden age of his ministry and loving every minute of it.
