Gavin Calver: “celebrate your children. Too often parents moan about how tiring kids are. But children are a gift from the Lord.”

CEO of the Evangelical Alliance, Gavin Calver, reminds us of the joy of parenting and why we should give the best of ourselves to our families

Where did you grow up, and what was your journey to faith like?

I was born in Wolverhampton, but we moved to London when I was very young. I grew up in Forest Hill, southeast London, with three siblings. It was loud, busy, very Jesus-centred and because of my dad’s ministry we got to see and hear about a lot of Christian ministry including best and worst bits.

Faith was normal at home. I never doubted God’s existence, the supernatural was natural to us. But I had to decide if faith was mine, not just inherited. For a long while I wasn’t interested. My siblings seemed perfect, while I was always in trouble. I was even banned from church at 14 for six months for being difficult and disruptive.

Petition heaven. Fast, pray, contend for your kids

When I was 17, my parents moved to America for my dad’s job, and I was not happy with that but by God’s grace 9 months later, the day after my 18th birthday party, I sat on a park bench in Forest Hill and gave my life to Jesus and because I’m an ‘all in’ kind of person I went pretty much straight to Bible college and have been in Christian ministry full time ever since, with stints at Youth for Christ and now Evangelical Alliance for the last 10 years.

It all just shows that God has a sense of humour. Everything that got me into trouble as a teenager is ……