Forward in Hope

Tonight I will be preaching at the watchnight service in Glasgow Cathedral. It marks the beginning to a New Year of work for me. On January 1st I will travel north to Fort William where on the 2nd I will lead the first anniversary service of the new developing Baptist Church there. On the 3rd I travel south to Birmingham to meet with the group known as the Fellowship of British Baptists, before holding our Assembly Planning meeting on the 5th. Then it is a quick return to Scotland for a staff meeting on the 6th to launch into a year which will see many changes.

However, let me say before I get caught up in these changes, that I am really looking forward to these next 6 days. Each of these events give me great encouragement and hope for the coming year.

The fact that hundreds of Christians will gather in Glasgow Cathederal tonight, from all sorts of denominations, is a reason for hope. "How good it is when God's people dwell together in unity." So often we have allowed theological difference to be the basis of disunity, rather than uniting around the fact that we all believe those ancient creeds that declare Jesus Christ as the Son of God. (I could go on but you get the point)

I receive great hope from Fort William Baptist Church who have had Sunday attendances this past year where their building struggled to contain the amount of people who chose to worship with them, and who saw 5 people baptised by immersion: new signs of life in a small highland church.

The Fellowship of British Baptists is another area of great hope for me. This group has taken on a new sense of importance. Is it possible that the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Scotland and Wales and the community of the BMS World Mission could not only get on but could come to love and support one another in real ways? There is a new depth to relationship amongst us, a new desire to support one another, a new dawn of joined up thinking and acting that says we are better when we work together.

More hope comes as I think of planning the next assembly. As the creative team of Scottish Baptists and BMS staff join together, encouraged by the assembly in October we dream about the coming year. What message does God want to bring to us? Who will He speak to as we gather? What new challenges will people take up? What will He say to us corporately? Our God is a God who communicates with us in planning and at the event and that gives me great hope.

And then I'll get back to the team at Aytoun Road. A team which gives me hope. People called, gifted and experienced. A team that will go through several major changes in the coming year, changes that will make us quite vulnerable at times through the process of change. There will be days when we feel that things are out of our control. There may even be desperate days when the plans that we have made fail. These prospects fill me with hope because it is in these times we tend to turn to the Lord. It is in vulnerable, desperate, challenging times that we seek his strength, wisdom and support. It is so easy to do the stuff that we are able to do on our own. However there is more hope when the stuff that we do is enabled by Him who alone can give us strength.

Thanks for following the blog. I pray that your New Year has many indicators of hope and that if you find yourself in times of weakness, challenge or vulnerability that you will know the strength of our Lord and Saviour.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."