This was supposed to go on the TCH website. It appears here instead. Martin's (front row, vile green t shirt) growth is a massive encouragement to us. So many just don't 'get it' as regards gospel ministry. Martin does. We hope one day to send him back to East London where he belongs! to plant a church.
He writes:

When I arrived in Sheffield I had preconceptions of what sort of church I wanted to ‘attend’. I wanted somewhere which did church ‘big!’. The way my home church never did. You know, the kind of place where it’s like being at Soul Survivor every Sunday. The church needed a great band and loads of people, which would encourage me just at the sight of so many people worshiping Jesus. However I came to realise that is not what I ‘needed’ at all.
The purpose of church is to not seek purely what ‘we need’ but to serve. That is: To encourage others and grow together as a collective. Community was what I needed. Furthermore I needed my choice of church to be driven by the teaching. I needed the Gospel! Not a band, but the Gospel! Something which would truly satisfy my needs, that being Jesus Christ and what he has done for me, something I would want to share. I need to be involved, not just a spectator in the back row of the church that occasionally raised their hands to praise God. That is why God called me to The Crowded House, through a desire to live in community with others sharing everything, basically living the Gospel every day and getting out there into the world to share it with those who don’t have it yet!!