A New Role for Phil Walter

In recent years, we’ve made significant progress in the area of church revitalisation. Much of this has been down to the hard work, dedication and wisdom of our revitalisation co-ordinator, Phil Walter.

Phil is nearing retirement, but wants to spend the last few years of his paid work serving in his local church, and we’re delighted that from September he has been appointed Interim Pastor of Harborough Community Church, where he serves as an elder.

This is an important time for the church and Phil’s appointment is critical as the church adapts and plans for the future. It might seem strange to say that we’re ‘delighted’ to be losing Phil, but whilst we will miss both him and his contributions, we believe that the local church – in God’s economy – is where all the action is. So, we’re truly pleased to affirm him in this ‘promotion’.

Next steps in Revitalisation

His appointment clearly leaves a hole in our revitalisation work. For some time, we’ve wanted to refocus this work to be a broader strategy to stand with and support smaller churches. For some this will be an issue of revitalisation, but a smaller church support network needs to be much more than this, and together with Phil, we will be planning what this looks like over the rest of the summer and into the autumn.

Phil’s role has, in large part, been generously funded by those outside of the FIEC family, and we also want to express our enormous gratitude to God for their generosity and vision in supporting us through this season.

Please join us in thanking God for the last few years. There are churches thriving now which owe much of their health – humanly speaking – to Phil’s wisdom and input. Please also join us in praying for Phil and Ruth in this new venture, and for FIEC as we think and pray through how we will fill the gap Phil leaves behind.