Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Christians In Politics

Elizabeth: I'd be winning Wimbledon.

Jonathan: Are you a tennis fanatic?

Zoe Dixon

Elizabeth: Yes, I enjoy playing tennis, but we need some joy there for us Brits don't we.

Jonathan: Let's look at how your Christian Fellowships interact with the respective Parties and Party leaders. How do those who have the real power and influence relate to you?

Elizabeth: We are kindly hosted in their campaign headquarters, but as a fellowship we have separate governance and separate finances. Membership organisations exist separately from the Party. That is really great, because it sets you up so the main emphasis on why you exist is relational. We've enjoyed a really good relationship, which was sought, with David Cameron. When he was in opposition we would try to build relationships for him and his leadership with people from across the Christian community. That obviously included the established church, but has also included people like Andy Hawthorne from The Message. We brought in people from The Salvation Army, from lots of black led churches and the Chinese church to give his leadership a little flavour of the work that is going out on the ground. I think one of the key lessons about politics is it's about relationships, it's about serving and contributing and then you get an opportunity to influence, hopefully.

Jonathan: Zoe, how about your involvement with Nick Clegg and those around him?

Zoe: I think for us we are a few years behind in our development than CCF. For us the power is in the people and in our members. We have members who are in all levels of the party; some are just local members, but then also working as researchers in our parliament; working in our HQ and working in Nick Clegg's campaign team. I guess in that respect all those people dotted around are the go to people, so when an issue comes up that they want a Christian opinion or input on, then they're the go to people.

Jonathan: Andy does that happen much in terms of wanting a Christian opinion on certain topics or issues?

Andy: Yes it does. It's very helpful to be there at the HQ. Someone can just wander over to say, what do you think of this, what do you think of that? I would be lying if I didn't say I wish it could happen more often. Anyone listening, who does that praying thing, please feel free to pray for us. We would love the light to be brighter. We would love more people to take this opportunity. More people could become involved because, believe me, as soon as you do get involved, it's amazing how quickly you get responsibly and how quickly people ask you to be involved. It's not as scary and as difficult as people think.

Some people say, 'But I don't know if we could get involved because we couldn't agree with everything that party stands for'. To which I often say, 'Well, you don't agree with everything your husband or wife thinks and to be honest you don't agree with everything that someone in your church thinks as well'. There is one party that I agree with 100% of their policies and it's the Andy Flannigan party. It only has one member. I think we're called to work together with people we don't necessarily agree with.

There's a great opportunity at the minute. We're encouraging people to visit www.christiansinpolitics.org.uk to come along to actually get stuck in and learn a bit more. They can follow the links to our separate sites. We're there to be a family and support for people who are starting that journey, because it's not easy. We're not selling something that's easy here. We're saying, look here's an adventure that when we see people get stuck into it, we see it having amazing fruit and an amazing impact, so come and join us.

Jonathan: Are there many Christian MP's?

Elizabeth: Yes, you are here in Stoke-on-Trent and just up the road in Congleton is Fiona Bruce and just a bit nearer, testing my North West geography there is Jamie Le Foy in Stafford. There are people who are locally involved. It's about participating at the level at which you want to participate. Obviously we only have 650 MP's, so there's much merit in getting involved in the local political association to serve and to contribute to the community in that way.

We are saying if you voted in the last General Election join at least the Christian group within the party for whom you voted so that membership could last as long as your vote does for this parliament.