Great things are happening at Christ Church, Highfields

Great things are happening at Christ Church, Highfields

Highfields is located 15 kilometres north of Toowoomba on the edge of the Great Dividing Range escarpment. Christ Church Lutheran Church has existed in Highfields for about 150 years, in a prime location on the New England Highway. It is a beautiful church with a bell in the bell tower, which has been a witness to local people for all of those 150-or-so years.

Christ Church is part of the Northern Downs Parish which incorporates, Highfields, Crows Nest, and the rural communities of Haden and Cooyar. Our pastor, Stephen Jaensch, has been with us just on two years.  We have two preaching services per month and two lay reading services.

A faithful core

The core of our congregation is our faithful people. We have around 40 members and it is not uncommon to see three quarters of our members at church on any given Sunday. God has provided us with talented musicians, gifted lay leaders, and amazing people who read the lessons and sermons. I always come away from worship feeling uplifted by the positive vibe in our church services.

Our main outreach is via our Chaplaincy Program to the Highfields primary and secondary schools nearby. In recent years we have held special fund-raising events like ‘mystery auctions’ and ‘visiting men’s choir’ to support this vital ministry.

Five Open Doors

Recently, four of our members attended a seminar in Toowoomba hosted by LCAQD Bishop Mark Vainikka and Assistant Bishop Commission for Mission, David Schmidt. The seminar was called ‘The Five Open Doors’, which challenged congregations to collective mission under the following ‘Open Doors’:

• Open Door to Spiritual Renewal
• Open Door to the World
• Open Door to the Church
• Open Door to Collaboration
• Open Door to the Future

Our members who attended this seminar struggled at first to find which of these doors best suited our future mission. All we could come up with was, ‘We don’t know what to do, and we don’t know how to do it.’

God at work

But that night when we went home, God was already working in us and some great thoughts started coming to us in the wee hours of the morning. The very next night, we had a Church Council meeting, and in Pastor Steve’s devotion based on Matthew 14:13-21 (Jesus Feeds 5,000 People) he challenged us to ‘Keep the eyes of our faith on Jesus and not on the problem.’

I believe this was a turning point for us. It was not about getting more people into our congregation; not about doing all sorts of fancy outreach programs – it was about being more involved through a physical presence with our Chaplaincy Program. So far it had only been ‘financial’ support.  That night we made a commitment to take a proposal to our congregation, that we become more involved in the physical aspects of the program as well. We don’t know what this will look like, but we are excitedly looking forward to sitting down with the Chaplaincy Leader and working out how we can all work together for God’s glory.  How exciting is this going to be?!

Praise the Lord,
Mal Maroske
Lay Assistant at Christ Church