Miriam Pike |
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The Crosslinks' Web Interview, October 2007
Miriam Pike recently joined Crosslinks. She's the new Church Partnerships Coordinator.
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Miriam what were you doing before you joined Crosslinks? I was on a training scheme at St Helen’s Bishopsgate Church in the City of London. The training scheme equipped me to understand and teach the Bible- we studied some books in great depth, spending up to a year on a single book to really mine its treasure. We also studied the whole Bible in a year. This was quite a big task, but I learned loads and feel much better equipped to explain bits of the the Bible that never quite made sense before. Most of the teaching I was doing was amongst women who worked in the City. I loved doing this: I got to meet lots of people and to help them see how God’s Word could change their everyday lives in the office and give them concrete hope of eternal life with God. It sounds like an amazing two years- do you have anything left to learn when it comes to God’s word? Of course! What a ridiculous question! We’ve only ever just begun to dig into God’s Word. It is immensely rich and always has more to say. Also, it can be a real struggle to grasp the things I do know- you know, to properly grasp them so that they change the way I view the world, my thoughts, my desires and my life. Yes, I’ve always got more to learn! What impact do you hope to make at Crosslinks in your role as Church Partnerships Co-ordinator? Well, I don’t think I’ll be making an impact just yet! I think I’d be happy just to get my head round what the job entails and to become competent at it. Once I’ve done that, then I can start thinking about making an impact. There is a lot to learn and it can all seem very bewildering at times. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to facilitate mission. It’s an exciting job when I remember that the ultimate goal is for Christ to be taught all over his world. I hope I don’t forget that in the all the day-to-day work. I’d really value prayer for this. Finally Miriam, could you tell us a little bit about how you became a Christian? I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian family, with parents who love Jesus and taught me about him. When I was about six, God showed me was real, that he was both incredibly powerful, but also interested in the details of my life. I realised that this meant that I needed to live the way he wanted me to, by putting my trust in Jesus. Since then my understanding of who Jesus is and what he’s done has grown massively, and I’ve still got a long way to go! But I’m encouraged that my relationship with God is not, and never could be, based on anything I do, but is by God’s grace and completely based on what Jesus has done through his death, resurrection and ascension – which is amazing! |