Interview with Carrie Sandom

This is the full version of the interview conducted by email with Carrie Sandom (one of the team at The Bible Talks congregation in Mayfair, where she coordinates the ministry amongst women) for an article in the Spring 2008 issue of Changing London.

Please give a brief introduction to who you are and what you do. I was born in London and have spent most of my life here – despite brief spells in Cambridge teaching Maths in a secondary school and then working with students at a local church. In 2006 I joined the team at The Bible Talks in Mayfair which is a congregation made up of mainly young professionals in the 20-30 age bracket. My role is to coordinate the ministry amongst women – which involves studying the Bible in small groups and one to one, training the women apprentices, organising book groups, prayer triplets, weekends away and speaking at various women’s events.

What was London like as a place to grow up? Growing up in London was always an adventure. As a teenager I loved the freedom of the Tube and made full use of the many and various leisure activities in Central London. The Science Museum, ice-skating at Queensway and shopping trips to Covent Garden stand out as favourites – as well as regular trips to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea FC! I was converted through the work of the local church youth group at the age of 13 and am grateful for the vast amounts of time the youth leaders gave up to ensure I was properly nurtured. One discipleship group I belonged to met on Saturday afternoons from 5-7pm for over 3½ years – that’s real dedication for you! How do you find London now as a place to live and work? London has changed incredibly over the last 35 years. I remember some of the first Bangladeshi refugees moving next door to us in the early 70s and wondered how they would cope with all the changes and idiosyncrasies that life in London posed for them. Of course, the cultural and ethnic diversity of the city only adds to its wonderful metropolitan feel – although we still have a lot to learn from the international communities that live in London. At TBT we have a weekly International café that seeks to present the gospel to the growing number of international students living/studying in the area. In recent months we have had a growing number of Chinese students join us – many of whom are keen to find out about Jesus and His claims. Amongst the professional women there is a great deal of, often misplaced, optimism about the future and many see London as an integral part of this. The challenge for all of us who work at TBT is to proclaim Christ as the only future hope and see people who already know Him putting down deep roots into Him that will enable them to produce fruit – into eternity. What do you think are some of the advantages or benefits for the individual believer or a congregation in being in the city? One of the main advantages is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. On any given Sunday we have Christians from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the US, Japan and Korea, China, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and a fair few Brits as well. It’s a privilege to serve these men and women while they are working and studying in London and encourage them to live and stand up for Christ in a society that is becoming increasing secular and hostile to His claims. The uniqueness of Christ is being challenged on a whole range of levels and part of our mission is to equip Christians to withstand the various assaults that besiege them in the workplace especially. And some of the disadvantages? The biggest disadvantage, as with any large city, is the extent to which we can be a real community of believers. Most of our congregation live over half an hour away, if not more, and many of them will only be in London for 3-4 years. How to develop and nurture meaningful relationships is a constant problem – although our small groups and prayer triplet scheme endeavour to help. What do you think are some of the most significant issues – challenges, opportunities, realities, trends – facing the church in London? The increasing secularism of our society is a threat, as is maintaining the traditional Biblical view of the family, marriage, the role of women, the uniqueness of Christ, the sanctity of life and so on. Recent government legislation to permit clinical research into human-animal embryology is yet another example of how far our society has strayed from basic Christian values. Are there particular ways churches in London are or could be supporting or reaching out to women? The emergence of the London Women’s Convention over the last 4 years has highlighted that there is a need for women to hear the Bible taught to them by women from time to time. Many of the churches represented at the convention don’t have a Bible teaching programme for women in their churches or theologically trained women who can resource it. While the convention certainly isn’t attempting to do all that the ministry of a local church can do there is value in drawing women together to hear the Bible taught and applied specifically to them as women. What kind of training and support for women in ministry is offered through Cornhill? Are there distinctive training and support needs and approaches for women in ministry? I have been involved in teaching and training women at Cornhill for over ten years. It’s been a privilege to see so many women wanting to hold to the Biblical view of male headship, while also learning how to teach the Bible faithfully in contexts where it is appropriate for women to do so. Many of the women who have completed the course go on to work as children’s, youth, student or women’s workers and become much valued members of an otherwise all male leadership team. If men are to model complementarity in ministry appropriately then they need Biblically literate women to help them. The growth of the Proclamation Trust’s “Women in Ministry” conference in recent years shows that there are a growing number of local churches, from various denominations around the world who are encouraging women’s ministries by appointing women to their staff teams. Long may this continue! Ironically, I think history will show that it was the ordination of women to the Presbyterate in the early 1990s that galvanised many churches who couldn’t support it into making more appropriate staff posts available to women – so gender roles could be modelled properly. The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes! Has there been a change in the view of, and opportunities for, women in ministry in evangelical churches (beyond the ordination issue)? As a result of this (see above) I think Biblically literate women are viewed less suspiciously than they used to be! More and more church leaders can testify to the godly way women on their staff teams have worked within the parameters set by Scripture and found it a joyful and enriching experience. On top of this, they are sometimes surprised to find that women within their congregations are less likely to moan/complain because there is someone looking out for them who can identify with their concerns but faithfully teach the Bible to them without encouraging further moans! When women are encouraged to take the Bible seriously and have it taught and modelled to them faithfully they really will become more servant-hearted in their family, work and church contexts.