{"id":3927,"date":"2013-03-27T09:05:34","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T09:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3927"},"modified":"2015-02-16T11:15:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T11:15:07","slug":"the-driving-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/the-driving-force\/","title":{"rendered":"The Driving Force\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I speak with people about what I do with CVM I get asked the same questions over and over again: Why do you do what you do? What is your driving force? Why on earth would you want to give up a really good, well paid job and go and work for Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>As Elizabeth and I began to think about getting married and being a Christian, she obviously wanted to get married in the church. But I was thinking how can I do this? How can stand and make promises to some God that I don\u2019t even know is real? This eventually led me to start attending church on a Sunday with her, but this didn\u2019t help with the answers to my questions, in fact there were a few Sundays when I thought that the Minister was talking drivel!<\/p>\n<p>Some of the people that I encountered in the church seemed more concerned with my occupation, the team that I supported or what was my preferred drink. I saw it more as a social club with little more to offer than I could find with my mates in the pub. But my questions remained, why were they coming together as church, what made them come along each and every week and more importantly who is this God that I am going to make these wedding vows to? What was I missing? What was I not getting?<\/p>\n<p>Some people within the church organised an Alpha Course and I was invited along to hopefully answer some of my questions. Attending this course proved to be one of the best decisions that I made in my life. The Gospel was presented to me in a way that I had been searching for and choosing to follow Jesus seemed like a very logical decision to make.<\/p>\n<p>When I made the decision to follow Jesus, I was caught up in a whirlwind of emotions. I was of course overjoyed but at the same time I was incredibly disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed to me that the Church had this amazing secret that they didn\u2019t tell me years before.<\/p>\n<p>There and then I made a conscious decision to always share my faith in Jesus with everyone whenever the opportunity arises, to not be ashamed or shy about my faith no matter how counter cultural it may be.<\/p>\n<p>I am constantly wondering how many other people are out there seeking like I was but failing to find the answers, the answer that we know is Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>This is and always will be the driving force behind everything that I do!<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/the-driving-force\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I speak with people about what I do with CVM I get asked the same questions over and over again: Why do you do what you do? What is your driving force? Why on earth would you want to give up a really good, well paid job and go and work for Jesus? As [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[524,605,604,606],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/team-CVM-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-11l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7445,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/international-womens-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":3927,"position":0},"title":"International Women\u2019s Day","date":"8 March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day today \u2013 so why is Christian Vision for Men highlighting this? In lots of spheres across the world, people are working for equal opportunities for men and women. CVM is involved in this too\u2026 The problems The current average gender ratio in the UK Church is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IWD.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2387,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/amazing-grace\/","url_meta":{"origin":3927,"position":1},"title":"Amazing Grace","date":"17 March 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"David Murrow (author of 'Why Men Hate Going To Church') has discovered a church that has taken on the challenge of appealing to men with amazing results. Grace United Methodist learned how to grow again - without abandoning its traditions. You won't find a drum set in this church -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/team-CVM-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9776,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/why-bother-with-a-mens-group-part-3-of-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":3927,"position":2},"title":"Why bother with a men\u2019s group? (Part 3 of 5)","date":"9 February 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"So here at CVM we have been long-time supporters of encouraging men into men\u2019s groups, and I thought that now would be a great time to just write a few blogs about it: why we are so focussed on it and how you and your mates can benefit from them.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Smaller-Image-Part-3.jpg?fit=610%2C291&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2587,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/wanted-husbands-with-gsoh\/","url_meta":{"origin":3927,"position":3},"title":"Wanted: Husbands with GSOH","date":"5 June 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"You\u2019ve probably heard the statistics: If a child follows Christ his family will also follow in 3% of cases; if a woman follows Christ, 17% of the time, the rest of the family will follow, and if a husband follows Christ, over 90% of the time the rest of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/team-CVM-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8343,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/valentines-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":3927,"position":4},"title":"Valentines Day","date":"14 February 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you caught up in the hunt for a bunch of roses and a 2kg bar of chocolate for your significant other half? Or are you standing your ground in defiance, voicing a silent protest against the marketing and commercialisation of a day of romance?\u00a0 Or maybe, you are in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jamie-street-512689-unsplash.jpg?fit=1000%2C743&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8648,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/a-random-visit-to-the-driving-range\/","url_meta":{"origin":3927,"position":5},"title":"A Random Visit to the Driving Range","date":"4 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I quite like golf. I am not a good golfer, but I do quite like golf. Mark Twain once said that \"...golf was a good walk ruined\". I think he was wrong, though I do have to admit that in my case\u00a0golf is a good walk made 2-3 times longer.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/driving-range.jpeg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3927"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5587,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions\/5587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}