Have you ever wondered what it means to be a 'trustee'? It might bring up pictures of dimly lit rooms and long meetings, or indeed be something that you've never really known about. EMI UK trustee Andy Mather shares some of his experience from the UK board and the things he's learned along the way.
Trustee since: December 2017
Role outside of EMI: Formerly a structural engineer but now a sustainability strategy consultant for companies and investors.
What does being a trustee involve?
Being a trustee is a fantastic opportunity to help grow things that you care about. As a trustee you have the blessing of advancing the vision of the charity through setting direction, ensuring good governance and championing all the awesome people and activities in EMI UK. As a trustee, you have the responsibility to ensure that the charity is doing what it should, and from a spiritual perspective to listen to what God is saying for it too. It's both a bit of a background role that typically isn't seen, but also is hugely important and I think a place where you can genuinely make a difference and serve (often just from your own home) the wonderful things EMI are doing around the world. At a practical level, it involves a few meetings a year and a few hours each week.
What have you learned?
Firstly, that you do not need to be a fully qualified trustee when you join! Indeed one of the core values of EMI, and a key part of how charity governance works, is about diversity and having a group of people from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to ask good questions and corporately discern the way forwards. There is a huge amount of support available to help you grow in skills and knowledge, and I have found these to be so useful for other parts of life and work too!
Secondly, that God is such an amazing and awesome God. All of creation, including EMI UK, is in his hands and as we seek his way, he provides. There have been multiple times where a situation or budget or idea seems beyond what is possible, yet God is our provider and his timing is always perfect! As a trustee I've learnt you need to pray, you need to give your best and then you need to let God move. There is a tension sometimes between wanting to be in control and keeping hold of the big vision God has given, but through faith, prayer and that diversity and experience in the trustees I spoke of before, there is always a way through!
Why should I apply to be a trustee?
Do you feel passionate about seeing God's kingdom come through design, architecture, engineering and construction?
Are you interested in making a difference and playing a key part in helping some incredible Christian ministries around the world by using your skills and growing new ones? Eg: Admin / prayer / finance / project management / leadership / communication / ...
If you feel prompted to find out more, please email info.uk@emiworld.org. We'd love to chat to you to share more and answer any questions.
It's not all serious! Some downtime with colleagues on a project trip to Uganda.