I would like to begin this report by thanking all of you who so loyally support the work here. I would like to mention every one of you by name. I appreciate you and am so grateful that God brought us together to serve Him during these years.

As always, I express my sincere thanks to Chris, David and John, my friends and fellow–elders. They are each busy men, in different ways, but they give and give of themselves.

Thank you, again, to David, for helping in the pastoral work. I’m truly thankful for his loyalty and support.

No report on 2007 could evade the parting of Marcus and Pritti. They were held in the highest esteem among us (as their farewell service demonstrated). There is no doubting that they will be a big loss. Yet that is not how I want to look at their going. My prayer is that we will be an ‘Antioch’ church, and that we will send out many people over the coming years. I feel excited that a new church is being formed in Boroughbridge. (It strikes me, by the way, that our vision for church planting may be fulfilled in more ways than one. It won’t necessarily always be about the elders deciding to do it. Of course, it might well happen that way. Yet we may also find that there are individuals who have a vision for a work in a particular place, and they go and do it because they know the call of God. Then as a church we continue in relationship with them, pray for them, and support in whatever ways we can. We are not trying to build an empire, and put our stamp on something and claim that we ‘own’ it!) I honour Marcus and Pritti, and the work they are doing. It was a privilege to have them in the church for so long. They are still part of our wider family.

During the last year we have completed ‘CRB’ checks on all our youth workers and elders/trustees. It is good to have the work completed (for the time being), and I thank those involved for their patience and help with this process.

At the time of writing, we anticipate setting up as a charity in our own right very soon.  I expect all the paper work to be with us in the next few weeks. Thank you to Bill and June for assisting us with this lengthy process. Their help and expertise have been invaluable.

We have also established a small group ministry in 2007, with groups meeting on the last Tuesday of each month. These seem to be going well, and participants are generally finding them to be beneficial. Ruth and I visit all the groups in turn. Thank you to all the leaders for your welcome, and for the great work you are doing. (Establishing a small group network was the main recommendation of the Consultation Team, which met a number of times last autumn, and communicated their findings to the elders. Interestingly, we had already decided to put a small group network in place.)

Although I am a pastor/teacher, my great desire is to see the King’s Church become more fully an evangelistic church. At this time, I feel more determined than ever to press on the evangelistic accelerator. This is not a moment to be slackening off. ( Wasn’t that an unforgettable occasion in April, when we baptised 10 people at ‘Bridge St.’? I want to see many more days like that one, and I’m sure you do too.) We are going to push on with running ‘Christianity Explored’ and ‘Stranger on the road to Emmaus’, and keep going with our other evangelistic activities. In addition to these, we are going to have four ‘guest’ services in 2008. I would like everyone to pray for someone to invite. Amazing things happen when people pray! I also want to bring together, from time to time, everyone with an evangelistic passion. We can pray together, share stories of God using us in evangelism, and dream together of what God might yet do through us in this place. These evenings (maybe a couple per year) will be open to anyone who wants to come along. However, I don’t just want ideas, but people who are willing to help make them a reality too. Above all, we need to know what the Lord is doing, and join Him in it!

We are grateful to Tim and Kathryn for doing research, on behalf of the elders, that should help us to clarify what kind of youth worker we need. Please pray for the elders as we wrestle with this issue in prayer and discussion.

Again, thank you to you all.

God bless you.

Stephen Thompson.