Annual Report 2012

Rather like that curious two headed animal in Doctor Dolittle's adventures, the Push Me – Pull You, the annual report looks in two different directions at once.

In terms of a retrospective glance at the year that has passed, the major highlight has been the establishment of a new congregation at a school in Pontprennnau. Four months into the initiative, and with an active database of 60 adults, we truly are becoming "One Church in multiple locations."

Add into the mix the ongoing ministry from Dalton Street, now in its second year, and we face the exciting challenge of being a Church with many dimensions and expressions. Pray for our Elders in this, the demands upon them in terms of intelligent, spiritual oversight, pastoral awareness and the necessary hard work, alongside busy professional lives, are very large.

The Staff changes this past 12 months have reflected that kaleidoscope. The "outs", Owen Brown to UCCF, Simon Price to Bristol, and by the summer, Tamar Pollard to Sheffield. Whereas the "ins", Pete Evans as a Trainee Pastor in the Satellite Congregation of Corpus Christi, Alison Taylor replacing Owen as the new student worker, and two new MAs (Laura and Obi). We have also during the year replaced some of our Catering and Caretaking Staff. 

The revolving door of ministry can be dizzying and yet this is the nature of gospel work in a city centre church with a highly mobile congregation. It requires each of us to do our bit - pray, give and serve, look out for and love others in Christ's name.

If that's the "Pull You" of last year, what of the prospective "Push Me" in the year ahead? 

As I write two things push my buttons. The theme of Partnership. A feature of last year, it will, I think, become a greater issue in this coming one. Discussions with Theological Colleges and Churches internationally suggest that we are moving into an era which, because of our relative size and strategic position in Wales, brings us the opportunity to work with others in training and sending gospel workers.

Of course in terms of Global Mission that has been in our DNA from the beginning. So it was an encouragement this past year to see Huw and Alison Williams take up their role in the International Church of Turin.

But the focus is now just as much upon Wales and the UK. This year gone for example, Andy and Helen Court have begun Church Planting in Leith and Owen and Rhian Brown team lead UCCF Wales. In addition a number of our own students are joining the band of Relay Workers across Wales. 

I was at a wedding in St Albans in March and met several who had spent their student years with us and are now in Leadership positions in Churches all over the UK.

We have been blessed by a ministry which attracts large numbers of people with vision, ideas, potential and resources. Many move on but some stay. All this energy and profile mean that others look to us increasingly to help them - be that smaller churches in the Welsh valleys or UK mission projects like Cardiff Asian Christian Outreach. We need to be ready with generous hearts and pockets to make the most of this season of partnership.

My other forward looking concern for Highfields is prayerfulness. I am unconvinced by the corporate prayer life of most Western European Churches of our theological hue. It’s not that there are no opportunities to pray together in groups of various sizes- look at the Highfields weekly diary! But in what is a difficult-to-measure exercise, something’s missing. Something of an expressed dependence on and need for God in all His glory and grace.

Maybe we have too much, are too comfortable, too self-reliant. Maybe we are doing too much - activism can be the enemy of prayer. Maybe in a church culture like ours where our meaningful relationships are inevitably confined, due to our size, to the members of our Small Group or network of friends, we will struggle to come together across those groups and networks to engage with God. Maybe we are merely the sum of our individual parts, in which case those personal prayer lives are dangerously flimsy? I don’t know!

What I do know is that this coming year, like every previous year, will require a praying Church.

Peter Baker