Staff and Leadership

Please find below an introduction to our church leaders and members of staff.
 

Rev Tim Keightley		Andy & Hazel Barton
Tim was inducted as our minister on 6th Nov 2021		Andy and Hazel are both Trustees and head up the Children's and Youth Activities. Andy is also an Elder and Church Secretary.
Gill Kaye		Michele Gill
Gill is an Elder and Trustee and has a particular role in pastoral care and prayer.		Michele is a Trustee and our Church Treasurer.

 
We have a total of 9 elected Trustees who seek to lead the church. In keeping with Baptist tradition those in Church membership have a significant input, through bi-monthly members meetings, into Church decisions, vision and mission. We are part of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

Introducing Rev Tim Keightley

Tim joined the leadership team, first as our moderator during the Autumn of 2020, and then as our full time minister in November 2021. Follow this link to watch Induction service.

A keen hill walker and trained Mountain Leader, Tim is also a supporter of the greatest football team the world has ever seen, which is, obviously (according to Tim!), Luton Town FC. Tim is married to Jenny and they have two children and two grandchildren.
 
A qualified youth and community worker, Tim was, for 17 years, CEO of a charity in Preston, Lancashire, working with the most marginalised groups in the city: rough sleepers, street sex workers and young people at risk. Tim comes to Hemel Hempstead after six years working on a major development project for a church in London. This included looking to build supported accommodation for young people from care backgrounds and to provide mentoring and work readiness training for vulnerable young people.
 
Tim was ordained as a Baptist Minister in 1985, but has worked in mainly community settings since then. He is keen that the church understands the needs of its local community and works with the community to respond to that need where it can. Tim is relishing the challenge of working with the church so that the transforming and life-enhancing nature of the Christian faith can be lived well, communicated effectively and offered to all.
 
One of Tim’s colleagues writes:
 
When we stop and think about ‘who’ Jesus reached out to we see many were living on the margins, on the edges of society.   The woman who had been bleeding for years – Jesus stopped the important journey he was on to value her, he called her ‘daughter’ giving her a place in the family, he saw her and welcomed her.   What about the woman at the well? He went out of his way and broke cultural rules to seek her out and spend time with her. Zacchaeus up the tree – Jesus stopped in the middle of the crowd and invited himself for tea. 
 
I see something similar in Tim,  his work and ministry has been around how to reach those who would rarely walk through the doors of a church building.  I think there is something prophetic about his ministry, I believe him to be a ‘prophetic irritator’. 
 
On the beach where I live, there are thousands of empty oyster shells.  I wonder if any of them ever had a pearl inside?  A beautiful pearl can be formed from a bit of grit which irritates inside the shell, and somehow, slowly and miraculously over time, a pearl is formed. 
 
Tim is a bit like that bit of grit, he will ask you irritating and annoying questions, he will not allow you to get away with prejudice, he will challenge you if you ‘do things to and for people’ rather than with them, but what he develops and delivers slowly over time is something beautiful like that pearl.
 
A prophet is someone who lives with a holy discontent – their primary concern is God and God’s heart and values, and therefore they stir things up, challenge the status quo,  they are someone who is a catalyst for change and will challenge those around them to live differently and counter culturally. 
 
I believe Tim is a prophetic irritator, a bit of grit, irritating from within, but what will form is something beautiful.
 

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