This is a little post that contains some BIG news!
Last night Michelle and I shared with our ‘sending’ church, Highfields, some news that we have already announced to our ‘home’ church Hill City – that we believe that God has called us to move back to Cardiff to plant a new church in a very diverse, transient and challenging area of the inner-city.
This is not a flash-in-the-pan decision. Far from it! In fact it goes all the way back to a powerful, supernatural encounter that I had with God back in April 2012. This encounter literally changed my life in a range of ways. It’s where Red Community and my passion for human trafficking ministry originate from. It’s also where this call to plant a new church finds its roots. I don’t believe that this blog is the right place to unpack all the specifics though I will be happy to share the full story with anyone who wants to know more. Furthermore, there are still a lot of unknowns and a lot of details yet to be worked out.
However, as a means of allaying fears and stopping unhelpful rumours before they start, here are a few important points:
- This move is only being made with the blessing and support of the leaders of both our sending church and our home church who have been involved in the process for over 18 months.
- I have spent much of this year working to train and equip leaders. We will not leave Hill City until we are happy that the right leaders are in place to care for the flock and continue the mission in the Eastern Valley, including a plurality of biblically qualified elders.
- We aim to retain a close, strategic and ‘apostolic’ relationship with Hill City. It seems that very few Christians have ever seen a leader leave a church in a healthy or biblical way (it’s usually a result of burning out, selling out, or getting kicked out). Our desire is to be ‘sent out’ joyfully and willingly with an open door to remain involved in the life of the church that we planted and still love dearly.
- We genuinely don’t want to leave the valley. We love it here. We love our community. We love the creation that surrounds us. Above all we LOVE the church family that we have seen grow around us in the last 8 years. This move is happening purely because we are persuaded that God has spoken to us and that not going would be disobedience.
Please do pray for our family as this is a big and daunting move for us all, but especially for the little ones. If you’d like to know more about any of this please do get in touch. All my contact info is on my about.me page.
Big love and God bless.
Dai
“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”
(Romans 15 v 20-21)