References from Pastors

I have known Martin Ruddick both as a friend and colleague for eleven years.

I first met Martin when I was at Bible College in 1996-1997 where he came to lecture on the subject of evangelism. I was immediately impressed with his humour, his gifted delivery, his passion for the subject and his practical application of preaching the gospel.

Martin and I then worked together for seven years when I became Senior Pastor of the church in which Martin was an Elder. We saw the church grow from about one hundred and eighty to about four hundred and fifty people within that period. Martin played a key role in that period of growth organising weekly evangelistic guest services and preaching at the vast majority of those events. Those years were very precious and I have never enjoyed working with anyone more than Martin. He is inspirational and a blessing to be around.

In recent years Martin has organised and run his own evangelistic missions working with local churches, helping them to set up Alpha courses and maintain an evangelistic focus.

Martin’s main gifting is evangelism, although not just speaking at events but also teaching others to evangelise, giving them inspiration and confidence.

I begin leading another church on the 1st September 2008 and I will definitely be working with Martin as much as possible in this new venture.

I cannot recommend Martin highly enough to you. He is a man of integrity, faith and vision, with a depth of biblical knowledge and understanding that I believe is outstanding.

Please work with Martin as much as you can, I guarantee you will be blessed and you will see new birth in your church.

With every blessing,

Phil Hillsdon
Co-ordinator for Tees Valley Christian Alliance,
Senior Leader, King’s Church Darlington and
Event Organiser, Just 10 North East.

Martin Ruddick is an evangelist who is enthusiastically committed to proclaiming the good news about Jesus in whatever context he finds himself. Over the past 5+ years he has visited North Berwick many times, often with a small team; he has preached, led missions, helped with our Alpha course and generally brought something of the heart of God to us and to those we are seeking to reach with the gospel. Martin’s approach is firmly grounded in his love for scripture and the body of Christ.

William Nisbet
Senior leader
North Berwick Christian Fellowship
Scotland

Over the last few years, Martin has served our church in a number of different contexts, including leading a church weekend, ministry at our main meetings, speaking at Alpha Courses and leadership training. Christians and non-Christians alike quickly warm to him. He is a gifted evangelist with a real ability to make the supernatural seem natural.

John Wilson
Gateway Church
York

I have had the great privilege of knowing Martin & his team since January 2007. From the outset I knew that his input would be significant to us at the Rivers of Life Fellowship. We have been greatly blessed and challenged too over the time we have known Martin & his team; during this time we have formed some great relationships, as many have shared their personal testimonies which have greatly blessed & encouraged the church. Martin has spoken at many of our Sunday evening services where he is loved dearly by those who hear him preach. We have also had an Alpha course which he ran with us; this was our first course and having Martin do the talks proved a great success. In September 2009 we had an outreach weekend, this was tremendous at the level of response we had. Each night Martin brought different people with some amazing stories of salvation & healing. We are now planning to do another event in September 2010 which we are really excited about. I would highly recommend Martin & the team, most importantly Christ is centred in all that they do this is evident by the anointing which comes with them, serving the Church with humility.

Jason Webb
Pastor
Rivers of Life Fellowship
Stockton-on-Tees

Martin Ruddick and Stuart Braye led a church weekend for the Haven Christian Centre, Derby, in September 2007. At the time I was the church’s minister, although I have since retired. Martin and Stuart prepared thoroughly for the weekend. They met with me and a few of the elders in the early summer, to choose the theme and begin to plan. Then a few weeks later they came and met with the whole eldership to finalise the programme. The weekend itself took place at Willersley Castle in Derbyshire, where the lovely grounds are ideal for strolling and chatting between sessions. Each session began with worship, with a local musician leading the singing. Then Martin gave some Bible teaching. Stuart contributed to a couple of sessions, notably by sharing his dramatic testimony of conversion. Martin’s talks were powerful and challenging. The Sunday morning session was particularly memorable, as it included an extended time of prophetic words addressed to individuals as well as the church. During this time words were spoken to people about physical conditions, and the testimonies afterwards included accounts of healing. We found Martin and Stuart friendly and easy to work with, and their ministry made a lasting impact of the life of the church. I would be very happy to recommend them to any church that is looking for a speaker to motivate them in the Lord’s service.

Roger Borlace
Reverend

I am Senior Pastor of Deliverance Church Mbarara, a missions-oriented church involved in church planting and located in Mbarara, a town located 295 Kilometers South-west of Kampala in Uganda, East Africa. I am also a Regional overseer of Deliverance Churches in the Western and South-Western region of our country, serving 54 Church communities. Married to Juliet and a proud father of 5 daughters. Martin Ruddick is an evangelistic inspirational minister of the gospel. Martin's ability to demonstrate the message of the power of God's love is down to earth and will not leave a searching heart distanced from God. His ministry on his visit to Africa left an everlasting touch on the lives that encountered God during his ministry. We look forward to when he comes again.

John Yawe
Senior pastor
Deliverance Church Mbarara
Uganda

Martin is a good friend of mine and our family. Being in contact with him has helped us to rediscover the power and simplicity of the Gospel. He has taken seriously Jesus' call for discipleship, involving bands of brothers while running around with the gospel, my sons amongst them. These weeks and months have been a great experience for them - and it shows as they now work actively amongst the youth in Estonia. And Martin’s humour helps while in British fog or in Estonian cold.

Alari Allikas
Pastor
Salt and Light Pärnu, Estonia / Vancouver, Canada

Martin is one of my favourite speakers! I have known him for 20 years; he has the gift of explaining truth in such a way that everyone ‘gets it’. And it’s accompanied with fabulous humour and passion. I would take my not-yet Christian friends to hear him which is the biggest compliment I can pay to his ministry.

Gary Gibbs
National Evangelism Director
Elim Pentecostal Churches

Over the years that we have known Martin. We have become not only colleagues, but Friends in Ministry and Alpha course studies. Martin has also taken great strides in uniting Men "Band of Brothers" to a common cause of preaching the Gospel in this area and worldwide. We can highly recommend Him to You.

Andy and Tracey Newlove
Pastors
Family Life Church
Thirsk, North Yorkshire

Martin has a great gift of telling stories of every day life in a way that teaches profound truths about God and his amazing grace. He has led several Alpha courses for us now and it has been wonderful to see lives transformed as men and women have responded to the good news of Jesus Christ through Martin’s preaching. Martin recently led a church weekend for us in which we encountered God afresh and which has been a great encouragement to us.

Canon Erik Wilson
Reverend
St. Barnabas Church
Middlesbrough

I would like to share my appreciation of Martin Ruddick’s ministry at Lightfoot Grove Baptist Church. We were very blessed by his clear presentation of the gospel message and were excited to see a good number of people respond to the call for the surrender of their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We were also blessed to see a number of people receive prayer for healing and a good number testified to being healed immediately. My daughter was having problems with an injured shoulder and the doctors gave her the all clear. We greatly appreciate Martin’s ministry and have invited him to come on a regular basis. We look forward to more times of refreshing with him.

Tom Richters
Reverend
Lightfoot Grove Baptist Church
Stockton-on-Tees

Martin and his team have always worked with integrity and with a heart to see souls saved and people touched by God. During an 18 month mission by Martin and his team locally to the church we saw around 12 people added to the church and some of our members healed of sickness over that period. Over this time Martin and his team helped the church run its first Alpha course which again greatly encouraged the church and was instrumental in people joining our team. We saw some new Christians birthed, some recommitments and some very gifted Christians added to our own team. Martin and Stuart were a personal encouragement to me and were willing to help and always had kingdom growth and the gospel in mind. I believe they are anointed in the area of evangelism and have a right heart, they are not trying to compete but compliment the ministry of church. We were blessed by supporting Martin in any way we could and God honoured that. I would recommend Martin and his team to compliment any church mission, Alpha course or Gospel outreach.

Robert Hughes
Pastor
One Life Church
Middlesbrough

Martin is a true man of God who lives what he preaches. He has a gift for relevantly presenting the gospel message from the heart that touches the hearts and minds of those he addresses. His ministry is blessed with healing and prophetic gifts that have encouraged many when he has been with us. Martin's witness for the Lord and his work for the Kingdom is to be encouraged.

Selby White
Reverend
Cockerton Methodist Church
Darlington

Martin is a man of engaging infectious good humour, a man well able to put over his understanding of the Christian faith in a thoughtful, simple, but yet profound way. His words very much echo the way in which he lives his life, a life lived by faith. Over the years I have known Martin I have listened to him talk and lead many group discussions. I have always been impressed by the way in which he puts over his message. It has been obvious that those listening to his words; first of all understand them through his good use of example and humour, and then secondly are inspired and often challenged by them also. I would commend Martin to you without any reservations at all.

Terry McCarthy
Chaplain
HMP Holme House

People have come to know Jesus nearly every time that Martin has ministered with us. His genuine faith-filled ministry is life changing and memorable. Martin is moreish. He is very popular both with church members and with those who have visited guest service etc. We know some people who will always make an effort to attend if Martin is the speaker.

Chris Warwick
Pastor
Eastwood Community Church
Derbyshire