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Alex recently joined the CEM team as our new Finance and Operations Manager. We sat him down for a Q&A to help you get to know him better, including asking the most important caffeine-related question… coffee or tea?!
Tell us a bit about yourself - where you live, family, work background.
My name's Alex, I'm currently based in Birmingham with my wife, Emily, and two adopted children but we're planning a move down to London very soon! I studied film production at university and ran my own business full-time for a while and then part time, serving churches and christian charities with digital media services which I love doing. But, I also started getting more and more involved in operations and finance as I worked more closely with smaller church planting networks and a church collective over the last 5 years… turns out I love that too!
What excites you about what's going on at Christianity Explored?
I grew up going to a church that ran Christianity Explored courses, did Christianity Explored with a friend and I attended one of the Life Explore launch events, so CEM isn’t unfamiliar to me. At the end of 2023 I was in a position to look at a job change and on Christmas eve my wife found this job being advertised working with CEM. I decided not to spend my Christmas day filling in an application, but did it pretty promptly after the festivities!
Christianity Explored is doing a lot of work to lay good, stable foundations for its future plans and it’s really exciting to be part of that at this stage. I love the challenge of finding and developing logical, effective and efficient processes/solutions. With a background in film production, it’s also really exciting to be part of an organisation that is making really effective use of such a powerful medium to communicate the timeless message of the Gospel!
What are going to be your main responsibilities?
Finance is a big part of my role and I dove in at the deep end with end of year accounts to do in my first couple of months! But I’m also looking after HR, governance, safeguarding and many other important background things to get right as a stable base for everything else we do at Christianity Explored, as well as ensuring we’re being good stewards of all the generous gifts God has given us!
Do you have a favourite verse of the Bible?
1 Corinthians 10:31 - “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” It’s a verse that has shaped my career and much of my life. I’m an in-the-background person, I like to facilitate and support, and it’s a great and humbling position to be able to serve God in all that he’s doing through me, through others and through Christianity Explored.
Finally, tea or coffee?
Okay here it is… I’m very much a self-professed coffee snob! You’ll find a whole cupboard of coffee paraphernalia in my kitchen, and I’ll only step foot in a Starbucks if I really have to (sorry Starbucks lovers!).