A Change to the Team: Farewell Sam Parker

Published:

Mon Feb 8 '16

Author:

David Stroud

Tags:

church planting, Sam Parker, st peter's brighton, staff, team, worship

As many of you will know, after four and a half years of leading our worship team, Sam Parker has decided that it is time for him to move on to a new and exciting chapter of his journey.

Sam has been asked to join a team from St Peter’s Brighton who will be planting a new church in Portsmouth on the south coast. As he has thought and prayed about this, Sam has really felt God’s guidance, and as we have talked and prayed with him, we all feel that this will be a fantastic opportunity for Sam to develop a new team, and grow in his creativity and leadership.

Needless to say, we are extremely grateful for all Sam has brought to us as a church in terms of his song writing, his leadership, his creativity, and his exuberance and faith. We have benefitted hugely from his time with us, and we are sure that this new church plant will be blessed by having him on the team.

The church plant will start officially in the Summer, but Sam has been asked to move to join the team in Brighton for a few months beforehand, meaning that he will be leaving London at the end of February.

This raises the inevitable question of what this means for ChristChurch London? Sam has done a great job of developing a capable team to lead at our services, but we have also been keen to find someone who can fill his shoes and continue to lead our worship team.

As we announced on Sunday, we have appointed Rich Butt as our new worship team leader. He and his wife Lucy currently attend a church in Penge, South East London, and you may remember that Rich led worship at the Mermaid Theatre in early January. Rich will start working for ChristChurch on 16 Feb, but his first Sunday leading worship with us will be on 28 Feb, which is also Sam’s final day. We look forward to introducing Rich and Lucy to you over the coming weeks.

This is a big change for Sam, and for us, and I know that he would particularly value your prayers over this next month or so. He will be leading worship at each of our services over the next few weeks, so as you see him do encourage and thank him for all he has done to serve us.