Breaking New Ground – interview with Martin Tibbert

Martin Tibbert leads Open Door Church, St Neots.  On behalf of David Stroud, and working with Tony Thompson, he has recently developed a team serving churches in mid UK. We caught up with him about this new role.

•    Tell us a bit about yourself and your family
I have been married to Dawn for 21 years! We have two great daughters (I’m biased, I know); Esther who is 16 and Becci who is 14. I support Crystal Palace FC – keeps me humble!

•    How long have you been in St Neots?
We moved here, from Bedford, in 1999 to be a part of the Open Door Church.

•    How did you get involved in church leadership?
Up until eight years ago I was in the sales and marketing business, in the Graphics and Publishing industry. Then suddenly God spoke to me about church leadership. From that moment I looked for opportunities to come alongside established leaders to learn as much as I could.

•    What have you learnt over the years?
Many things of course, but mostly that God can do and does amazing things though his people when they simply believe.

•    You have recently started to lead a team serving churches. What does this mean?
I think the best way to explain it is that my role serves a number of churches on behalf of David Stroud and his team. This involves helping to grow and strengthen the established churches, whilst looking to break new ground through the planting of new ones. It’s very challenging, but I have a great team around me who support me well.

•    What are you most excited about for your local church in the coming months?
If you look back on our history you can see different seasons at Open Door - the first five years we were planted and established in the town; the next five years we planted out three times into St. Ives, Luton and Biggleswade. We now feel God is encouraging us to build and establish a strong church base here in St. Neots; a ‘weighty’ church that makes an impact on the local community; a church that becomes ‘the talk of the town’; a church that impacts this nation and the nations. We see strong links being formed with nations in Africa; particularly Zimbabwe and like many churches, we believe the next phase will require us to purchase our own building – it’s going to be fun!

•    What are the advantages of having relationship links with other churches in the Newfrontiers family?
On a personal level, it is great to have good friends whom you can call upon for their advice, wisdom and care.
On a church level, two things come to mind: Firstly, receiving and being blessed by gifted leaders and ministries. Recently Sam Poe was with us and we benefited wonderfully from his prophetic gift. Secondly, it means as church family we are caught up in a global mission.

•    Are you involved in a Bible Weekend?
Yes – Together@Shuttleworth (22-25 August). We have PJ Smyth as the speaker. I am sure it’s going to be a great time.

•    What would be your one piece of advice to a young aspiring leader?
Be faithful with the small, learn as much as you can from those around you and apply radical faith to all that you do (Sorry that’s three pieces of advice!).

•    What do you sense God is placing on your heart, and what do you think the future holds for you?
Alongside my passion and commitment to God’s work here in St. Neots, we have an exciting church planting initiative into Northamptonshire. We currently have three churches in the county but I could see us planting at least a further four churches in the coming few years.