Good News, Great Joy
2023 Year End Review
Join us in fulfilling our mission to love God, love people, and make disciples through reaching the lost and loving and developing families.
2023 stewardship update
We praise God in His provision for Highlands every day, and attendance is up 29% over last year! As you scroll this page, you'll see many of the ways God is building His Kingdom through Highlands Church!
Even though giving has increased over last year, we are approximately $300,000 (about 10%) behind our budget plan. As we approach the middle of our fiscal year, we have lots of ministry ahead of us. We invite you to prayerfully consider an additional year-end gift to help Highlands continue to grow in all the ministries highlighted below as well as the many more opportunities coming up in 2024.
2023-2024 Fiscal Year Budget is $7 million.
This chart shows how our budget breaks down by ministry area.
"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
-2 Corinthians 9:7
Reaching the lost
Jesus gave the church a mission to be his witnesses to the world. Over 900 people have prepared and shared their stories of meeting Jesus through our new Foundations group study, and are now unleashed to reach out and share Jesus with the people God places in their path.
Each week we welcome about 1,500 people on to our campus to worship and study God’s word together, and we celebrated 83 baptisms. Also, this year online, people have watched over 50,000 hours of Highlands Bible-teaching content across 130+ countries around the world.
“I have learned that one of the greatest gifts is being a firsthand recipient of grace. His faithfulness to me and how He pursued me when I was doing everything He abhors is something I was never worthy of and yet His love prevailed. He has provided for me faithfully, but it also required obedience on my part.”
LOVE and GROW FAMILIES
We want to see every family growing and thriving as we love and develop families at Highlands. We’ve seen a new couple nearly every week growing through marriage counseling this year. We’re also launching new care groups for those who have been through tough experiences like addiction, relational trauma, and divorce. We also continue to grow our Groups ministry where people connect and encourage each other in the Word through deep relationships.
“I am not the man I was a year ago. This has nothing to do with my age. It has to do with my walk with Christ. With the courage only Christ can provide I, with my wife by my side, set forth on a medical journey that God had already made plans for years ago. We can only praise God that while spending time in Arizona for medical treatment we discovered Highlands Church, met many Christian friends and I attended a men’s Bible study group. During all of the cancer dealings I had the support of so, so many amazing faithful men from my group and prayers lifting me up from Highlands.”
Marriage
2024 brings a new focus on developing strong, thriving marriages that last the test of time. In our world, two out of five marriages end in divorce, but that number drops to one in 1,226 for couples who attend church once a week, and pray and read the Bible together every day. We want to strengthen marriages by seeing them commit to attending our new Engage: Marriage and Parenting ministry where they will learn to grow together in Christ.
“Our 30 + Years of marriage were fraught with disagreements, shouting, and disrespecting each other. We were staying together out of habit, but growing apart. Out of desperation we turned to Highlands and learned new tools to understand God’s design for us. With God's grace, we faced our flaws with vulnerability and allowed God to lead us in our conversations, thoughts, and actions toward each other. We allowed God’s Word to transform us and look out for not just our own interests but those of each other as well. His mercies are new each morning and our Marriage is better than it has ever been!”
HIGHLANDS KIDS
As we love and develop families, Highlands has shown and taught over 1,000 kids
through 6th Grade the love of Jesus through our kids events and weekly programming.
Students
Highlands student ministry hosts 210 students weekly in on-campus Bible clubs at public high schools.
We have 28 student leaders who have personally shared the gospel over 140 times, leading 23 new students to the Lord, and 10 baptisms.
Special Needs
Highlands desires to love and develop every family. This translates into a growing ministry to those with special needs.
Over 200 individuals with special needs have been loved and included in ministry, many of whom are now serving in the church and their community.
OUTREACH
Whether it was serving families in need at the Christian Family Care thrift store down the street, or providing eyeglasses and optical care on a mission trip to Mexico, 2024 brought so many opportunities to be Jesus’ hands and feet to people in need!
Together this year the Highlands Church family packed over 300,000 meals with Feed My Starving Children, stuffed over 2,000 shoeboxes full of gifts and the gospel with Operation Christmas Child, cared for over 500 people with prayer and optical care in Mexico, set up a permanent dental clinic at the Gem Foundation in Uganda, and so much more!
“I’ve been to Mexico before, but never been on a mission trip, so I didn't really know what to expect. This trip ended up touching my heart so much more than I expected. I left there and my heart was just so full thinking of how grateful the people were for everything, and how much they put their all into God. It made me realize how blessed we are and how we can't take anything for granted. The people we served inspired me to always keep my head up and trust in God and His plan for my life.”
Shine Theatre
Highlands has been developing an amazing theater ministry that reaches out into our community and connects families to Highlands. Over 300 cast members and volunteers have prayed together, connected in community, and spent time in the word together throughout five musical productions.
“I am not sure where else my daughter can find this type of loving, caring, Christian environment to continue to grow in her self-confidence, love of music, and now dance, and provide her such a positive social network than Shine. When she arrives at rehearsal, her shoulders lift and a smile lights her face!”
MAKE AN EXTRA IMPACT
These are just some of the ways God used your faithfulness in serving and giving to make an impact in thousands of lives this last year. Join us in continuing the work of loving God, loving people and making disciples in the new year with a year end gift!
Canadian Citizens
If you are a Canadian citizen, you can give to Highlands through the Great Commission Foundation and receive your full Canadian tax credit.
We currently have a matching grant of $140,000 CAD so that when you give
you make double the impact!