After two previous attempts – thwarted by Covid-19 and then ill-health – the church at Hillfields, Coventry has been able to mark the 2020 retirement of Paul Watts, who was pastor for 35 years.
On 13 May, 160 people marked Paul’s service with an evening of thanksgiving and celebration with home-cooked Indian curry, shared reflections, a presentation, and an epilogue. The theme throughout the evening was to give the glory to God for Paul and his wife, Hazel who remain as members.
Just 12 members signed the letter in November 1983 inviting Paul as pastor at Hillfields (previously called Rehoboth and subsequently Lower Ford Street Baptist Church). He became pastor in 1985. For his first four years as pastor, Paul had three children under the age of nine and also continued as head of Religious Education at King Henry VIII School, Coventry.
Today, the church is ethnically diverse and meets on two sites – with two identical morning services and an evening service.
On his retirement, Watts wrote Gospel Driven Change: Navigating Reform in a Local Church (Grace Publications). Its central theme is that change is both inevitable and necessary, but must always be change only for the advance of the gospel of Christ, that all may hear it and many be saved.
