The latest church to join the Baptist Union of Scotland is Stranraer Baptist Church. This past Sunday they celebrated their 26th anniversary and my visit with them was a huge encouragement to me and, I pray, also to them.
Stranraer as a town is about to face a huge change in its economy and infrastructure when the last boat to Belfast sails later this year. Encouragingly the Baptist church seems well placed to help the town face this new challenge and is eager to engage with the community.
It's hard to capture in words the sense of God's presence, the expectation that God is doing something new amongst them and their desire to see Christ's Kingdom come all over their isolated town.
On arrival in the church building you find a beautifully simple multi-purpose room set out for worship but capable of so much more and used all week. The sound, lighting and projection facilities are what you would expect in a theatre and speak of their desire to do all that they do with excellence.
30 seconds into the opening worship and I knew that I was in for a time of refreshing as the children of the Sunday School sang with all their might, with smiles radiating from their faces and feet dancing to the rhythm of the music.
After the service people mingled. Different generations talking to one another, hugging one another, sharing life together.
They have just registered with Prayer Rooms and are delighted to see people coming in off the street to pray. The congregation are having their 2nd 24hour prayer gathering soon
and they are thrilled at the new lease of life it has brought to them. The kids' club has seen 6 non-church kids choose to follow Jesus in the last few months and they're engaging with all the other Ayrshire churches through their networker Noel McCullins, to dream new dreams of what they can do now that they belong to a wider family and how they can engage with the changing face of Stranraer.
If ever you are in Stranraer, why not look them up. You can find them in the street opposite Morrisons. I'm sure they will warm your heart as much as they did mine.
