"Change is here to stay" is my motto for May!

Hopefully I'll be in China when you get this! It'll be my first time in that extraordinary country. I'm travelling with Rowland Hughes and Christian Jensen as part of a Missions visit to our Gospel Partners in Zheng Zhou and Hong Kong. Rowland and Christian are with me for the first leg before they go on to Korea.

On the way home I'll be able to spend time with Giles and Victoria Cattermole. It's possible that Giles may have been in the earthquake stricken Chinese province of Sichuan as part of the massive medical relief response, the week before I arrive. Please remember them as a family in your prayers.

As I write I'm up to my neck in crossing off a long list of 'to do' items prior to take off. Church life is busy as usual, following a recent Sunday where seven of our friends were baptised. Please pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ, that they would continue to be strong ambassadors for our Lord and Saviour in their family/ friends and work contexts.

I spent the following Monday driving around the M25 on my way to a two-day conference with the FIEC national executive council. FIEC is the body to which like the Evangelical Alliance, Highfields belongs. It is a movement of 500 local churches committed to the gospel for the nation. We are currently undergoing a radical organisational change to deliver the vision of the FIEC. Again, your prayers for us as leaders and fellow churches would be greatly appreciated as we try to serve the Lord faithfully in our various contexts.

Wednesday it was back home for our Annual General Meeting. If for whatever reason you weren't able to make it then these were the major issues covered:

• A faith-driven, not finance-driven Church. That's what Chris Street's catch phrase was as he presented the Finance report to the meeting.

This was the first time ever that the AGM had been able to see an audited, draft form summary of our financial position from last year at this stage. We are thankful to the committee for the outstanding work they have done to bring together the various strands of our accounts into a new single model.

As usual the Finance Committee would want to encourage all of us who can, to give systematically and by Gift Aid. Ask at the information desk at church or ring the office and you will be put in touch with people who can point you to the relevant forms.

As a local church we hold together the tension of being financially responsible while remaining committed to the investment of people and money in ministry.

• The tension is perhaps more obvious this year given our desire to appoint from September a full time Student Minister and four Ministry Apprentices.

The prospect of new staff is exciting as we will on the one hand have the privilege of training 4 young people, two of whom will be released to help Dai and Michelle Hankey in the new Church at Trevethin. A Student Minister will give us someone dedicated fully to this ministry, a real mission field right on our doorstep.

I have been deeply challenged by the recent print media coverage which reported on the Church attendance trends in the UK. The sobering picture is that by 2050, if the decline is not arrested, the ageing of the Church in the UK will continue to the point where it will no longer be viable. The Christian faith will only have as many active worshippers as Hindus both of which groupings will be numerically well behind the dominant Muslim Community.

It's clear then that if Churches like Highfields don't invest in the development of the Christian faith in this country through effective evangelism and intelligent engagement, particularly among the under 30's, then there is little human hope.

So as we take on these new Staff later in the year, let's pray about the spiritual health of the nation and give to the resourcing of gospel ministry through Highfields.

• In part two of our AGM, 'Mission is changing and growing' was Phil Jenkins' essential message.

He explained how the two Mission Committees (CCMC and UKAST) were undertaking a review of our giving to Mission. This has been precipitated in part by a significant shortfall in our giving in the first quarter towards those who have been serving as Missionaries the longest. In addition we are aware of the positive pressure which the prospect of three new missionaries will put on us during the coming twelve months.

Currently we are exploring the benefits of establishing a percentage of our total giving as a Church to Mission. Much work is still to be done on this, but it looks like we are heading in a new direction.

One final comment on the need to adapt and change came out of a meeting I had with Peter Brierley. Peter is now grandly called a "Church Growth Consultant". He was personally responsible for the 2005 Church Census which was the statistical basis for that recent media report on Church decline quoted above.

I met with Peter in the hope that he might be willing and able to pay us a visit as a Church Leadership. He was delighted to do so because his current passion is to work with some of the UK's larger churches in order to help them understand their particular pressure points and growth potential.

There are about 50 Independent churches like ours in the UK with more than 500 people. But the greatest challenge they face is to maintain their growth and not plateau. That's just about where we are today as we hover around the 700 mark.

The key to sustained growth, he reckoned, is the ability to express vision clearly, coupled with the ability to change your structures to allow for that emerging vision.

He's going to unpack all of this for our elders and deacons on Saturday June 21st. Pray that it will be a good day of seeing more clearly the changes we need to make.

Please pray that I'll return from travelling in the Far East and China in particular inspired and energised by the impact of the gospel in what is now the fastest growing Church in the world.

A country from where you remember in the 1950s the gospel and missionaries were kicked out and in which churches were closed down. Look at it now! You see, there are human statistics and there is the gospel and the Spirit of God - I know which one I'd back every time!

As always, in Christ