On the move

My blog is now posted on the Union website. www.scottishbaptist.org.uk

Just updated earlier today.

Yes First Minister

On Wednesday 23 February 2011 I was given the opportunity, along with 9 other denominational leaders, to meet First Minister Alex Salmond to discuss areas of national concern. These included issues relating to alcohol abuse, restorative justice, reflections on a socially-just economy, and Churches, communities and volunteering.

The conversation was open and cordial, addressing difficult issues and sharing examples of good practice from across the country. The First Minister greatly extended the time available to us to meet with him and we enjoyed the warmth of welcome received in the Parliament.

This annual meeting illustrates the increasingly active engagement between Churches and Civic Society in Scotland, both nationally and locally.

First Minister Alex Salmond said:

"The Scottish Government greatly values the contribution that churches and all of our faith communities make to the social, economic and cultural life of Scotland and their important work supporting communities across the nation. Today’s meeting was open and constructive and I welcome the Scottish Government’s ongoing dialogue with our churches."

As Baptists we are indebted to Action of Churches Together in Scotland for negotiating this meeting each year, and for the warm and gracious welcome I received as a leader of a denomination that does not participate in ACTS.

This meeting reminded me that although the church in Scotland has been in decline for many years, we are still a large voice that others are willing to give time to listen to when we speak in unity and from a perspective of helping others and society as a whole.

Welcome to Stranraer

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.

If there is one book

"If there is one book that you should buy at this year's assembly it should be 'Deep Church'," so said Rev Norman Graham of Denny Baptist Church, and so I did. I left assembly with this one new book under my arm and today I finished reading it. It is a great book, really thought provoking, extremely challenging; for anyone looking to ask questions about why our church does things they way they do them and how they can do them differently, it is a gem.

A few highlights would be comments on the Christian's view of the arts and culture. No one taught me a theology of that in church or at college but now with a daughter whose life is filled with the beauty of music and plans a career as a performer, some simple reflection on common grace, beauty, creation and creativity I pray will help her and the church around her to understand how her life might be meaningful beyond simply being an asset to a worship group.

Yet for me the challenges came most deeply in the chapter entitled Deep Ecclesiology. I am aware and experience the frustration of many that our structures can inhibit the move of the Spirit and a speed of response to a fast changing world. I also believe that we live in a time where institutions are not trusted, particularly by a younger generation and that to throw off the shackles that build up over time and to start afresh is very attractive.

Jim Belcher however stands by his Presbyterian institution whilst seeking to release a movement of God's people into Orange County. I found his understanding of deep ecclesiology extremely helpful. The idea of an institution that releases a movement of God's people scattered throughout Scotland seems to me something of what I long to see happen in the Baptist Union of Scotland and in each of the churches.

For such a turn around to occur it will take a change from control to reliance, from independence to interdependence, from institutional relationship to personal relationship, from security to adventure and maybe most of all from timidity to confidence in what the Lord can still do. As I read this morning in Psalm 127 "unless the Lord builds a house the work of the builder is wasted."

It's worth a read. It would also make a great book to study with friends.

Please pray for the BUS as we go into a couple of weeks of key meetings, charting paths, sharing hopes and praying for the Spirit of God to work in us, revealing the rule of Christ for our lives at this time.

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."

Shepherding Season

It was a rare day for me yesterday. I had planned and managed to follow through on a whole day in my home church, Kirkintilloch Baptist. The morning was given over to the Sunday School crew with shepherds complete with foam crooks which are a lot less dangerous than the cane and coathanger crooks I used to beat people up with as a child. None the less the young shepherds complete with the obligatory T towels discovered that T towels could be used as a great weapon to strangle the donkeys.
The evening service took the form of a classical Christmas with young musicians including my own children. I had the privilege of leading the service and speaking briefly at the end. Again the shepherd became the focus of the evening. As the evening drew to an end the string quartet played Corelli's Christams Concerto which finishes with the movement entitled "Pastorale". It is a beautiful movement and I hope you enjoy listening to the live performance I have included on the blog. The inspiration for the movement is not directly the shepherds on Bethlehem's hillside but rather the shepherds on Italian hillsides who, imitating those earlier shepherds, entered the towns and villages every Christmas Eve to play their pipes by the nativity scenes.
I have come to love the significance of the shepherds to the Christmas story. They speak to me of the all embracing love of our Father God who invited them as his special guests. Shepherds would never be invited into the average person's home. Shepherds were not acceptable company to the religious or even to those who did not see themselves as religious. They were the outcasts of their time and yet invited as honoured guests by our Father God to welcome his Son into the world.
When I think about what is Christian about the way we celebrate Christmas, surely something of this welcome and warmth of invitation for the stranger, the outcast, for those that others reject (I'm not talking about the in-laws!) is key to our celebrations.
What are you doing to celebrate this Christmas that relates to the spirit of the first Christmas? If this is the shepherding season, what are you doing to gather people in? Why not listen to Corelli and contemplate these questions.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
If video does not work try this link!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=696438926&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=478344308926

A place for everyone

I can't believe its been two months since I put something on the blog. My apologies to those who were hoping for something more regularly. Since writing the last entry I have been on the go with some great experiences in great churches, attending the BUGB council, our own Assembly and just yesterday the Scottish Baptist Council meeting. But I want to reflect back on my weekend's visit to Abbeyhill Baptist Church, just off Easter Road in Edinburgh.

If you judge a book by it's cover then you might simply walk past this place and not even notice that it is a church. It's building appears to sit on the corner of a street as part of a tenement block.

But if you get inside, a whole new world opens up, a counter-cultural, unique world that is the local church. All that excites me about the local church as the hope of the world is on view in this eclectic group of Jesus followers.

The first thing that I saw on entering the building was the age range of the congregation. This was a congregation that welcomed all ages and the way the service was conducted proved that they were all welcome. Accessible worship for children without being childish. Kids were alert, involved, senior members of the congregation were fully supporting their involvement and engaging with them. The way worship was led and entered into allowed all people, without discrimination, to express their praise and thanksgiving.

Then there was the diversity in education. I spoke with adults with no qualifications, those who were hoping to achieve new academic targets of standard grades and at the same time to Phd students, all delighted to engage with the living word of God together.

Within this church family was a wide range of ethnic diversity. It looked just like the streets of Edinburgh. A variety of languages spoken, a variety accents, skin colours, and integrated into the worship a compassion for the peoples of this world.

As I left this church on Sunday evening I was rejoicing in what I had seen. There is no other place on earth where this diverese group of people would gather. There is a sense of love, welcome and belonging experienced and expressed by all, it is what the local church is all about.

In Christ, there is a place of welcome for everyone: when His body the church demonstrates it so clearly and it is experienced by so many it can only serve to strengthen the faithful witness of the Church to the transforming power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The power of invitation

Over the last month I've been thinking a lot about the Samaritan woman and how she invites people to come and meet Jesus. I don't imagine for one minute that extending that invitation was an easy thing for her to do. In fact I can think of a lot of reasons why she might have avoided making that invitation. (She didn't know much, not many friends, unresolved morality issues in life, no Holy Spirit to gift her in evangelism.)
She is contrasted in the story with the disciples who go to the same village and fail to appreciate that the harvest fields are ripe. They go into the village and return to Jesus without anyone coming with them to see the one they had witnessed healing the sick and turning water into wine.
Last year Dumfries Baptist Church got involved in the Back To Church initiative, an invitation-based church growth strategy run by Michael Harvey.
I was overwhelmed by the difference it made. The church spent time looking at how they welcomed people, reflected on their weekly practises and changed some of them. They considered issues of hospitality, children's ministry and what should be part of our services. They also took up the challenge to invite people to a church service that they believed would be an encouragement to their friends and colleagues.
In many cases these invitations led to friends and colleagues attending a church service. For others it opened up conversations about the importance of faith in their life. The local press were also captivated by the idea of a "Back to Church Sunday" and were happy to run stories, adverts and follow up articles.
Here is the big question: when was the last time you invited someone to come and experience your church? There may be many reasons for it being a while ago. As I reflect on my own reasons, I am afraid that I am discovering my reasons are only excuses. I have fallen into the disciples' trap, or devil's lie, of believing there is not a ripe harvest in Scotland.
Tear Fund conducted some research that suggested 6% of the nation are ready to be invited back to Church. That's getting on for as many as attend.
I think we could do with a good few models of people who, like the Samaritan women, are ready to invite others in and trust in the power of the Spirit to have softened hearts to receive the invitation.
Michael Harvey has some great resources available on line including 12 videos on the 12 steps to fruitful invitations.
http://www.mjhassociates.org.uk/?m=201008

Shetland connections

A one and a half hour flight out of Glasgow found me landing on the southern most tip of the Shetland mainland. It's the area served by the Dunrossness Baptist Church. A good 30 minute drive and you are in the area served by the Lerwick Baptist Church, keep going north for a further 30 minutes and you are at the area served by Brae Baptist Church and there is still a longer drive to reach the top of the main island. Head west out of Lerwick and you find yourself crossing a couple of bridges onto Burra Isle where the 4th Baptist Church is situated. The geography was staggering, I had little knowledge of these islands, of how big and indeed how remote they are. Sitting in the home of Ian and Morag who minister in Dunrossness, looking out onto a wild Atlantic Ocean, it is staggering to think that the next piece of land due west is Greenland!

It was a great visit, made special by the people I met and the opportunity to lay the foundation stone of the new Lerwick Baptist Church. But it was also a time of great learning and inspiration.

I witnessed an interdependency on the island seldom seen on the mainland. The ministers fraternal was relational, deeply relational. These 4 ministers really knew one another, cared for one another and supported one another. They shared a passion to reach out to the islanders and encouraged and enabled one another to serve.

During the vacancy in Brae the other 3 churches sent a visiting preacher each month covering 3 out of the 4 Sundays. Members of the congregation were familiar with the other church's members and as a result of Andrew's "Better together tour" they are talking of having annual joint deacons' meetings.

These structures are in essence the dry bones of what I actually felt. There was something life-giving, a supportive, encouraging, trusting, upbuilding and deeply caring attitude towards each other expreseed minister to minister, congregation to congregation. Competiveness, insecurity and suspicion appeared absent.

These, our most northern congregations who face the most demanding of climates, demonstrate for us a relational climate that we would do well to imitate.

Holiday Clubs - What Value?

I'm back from holiday and think I have caught up with everything else I needed to do on my return. So it's time to blog again. And immediately I want to return to the topic of my last blog Children and mission. In case you haven't read earlier blogs I guess I better say at the outset that I am absolutely committed to children's ministry and outreach. I long to see children serving in our churches and reaching out to their peers. I have been committed to primary school chaplaincy work through my years of ministry and spent several years working as a children's evangelist.

Yet today I am asking the question what is the real value of a children's holiday club? In the adult world we gave up on week-long missions a long time ago in place of things like Alpha or Christianity Explored courses. We have in the adult world primarily moved to a model of evangelism as a journey experienced over many weeks, months or years as opposed to an event. Yet this summer all around the country churches will hold holiday clubs and declare them a successful outreach. But are they?

Yesterday I visited two holiday clubs in the town of Kirkintilloch. Our Step Out team are working with the Harestanes Church in the local community centre made up of three portacabins. The children drawn from the local community looked delighted to be there, parents who were not church members on the whole looked delighted to leave them.

At Kirkintilloch Baptist Church a similar picture of happy children, happy parents and happy leaders. Both clubs were full of life, energy and creativity. There was an excitement in the room, and the children were feeding off it.

However looking back over 20 years of running several clubs a year I cannot think of many non-churched children who have come to faith and grown in discipleship through this work and are still following Christ today. Yes, there are many children who said during the week that they wanted to follow Jesus, conversion statistics would be high but to my knowledge they do not follow today, probably something to do with the fact that we expected kids to be discipled in Sunday school each week and a regular Sunday commitment was not on their parents' radar.

So why would I still choose to do a holiday club today? Why do I still support what the Step Out teams are doing?

1. Church kids find themselves presented with a clear gospel presentation and an opportunity to commit themselves to Christ.


2. It brings an opportunity to train Church children's leaders and introduce fresh communication methods, modern music and creative energy into the life of the Sunday School.


3. Teenagers in the church find a place of fulfilling service where their ideas and creativity are needed, valued and seen to work.


4. It demonstrates to the church it's ability to work together, across the ages, on a short term mission project bringing lots of people into service, and gives others something to pray for and get excited about. It's an encouragement.


5. Childcare provision in the holidays is a great blessing to working families in the community.
   
6. Saturday/Sunday events following a holiday club and pick up/drop off times give an opportunity for church members to get to know the parents of these children and to offer friendship to them and to introduce them to other services provided by the church.


7. Local Press will gladly run with your story and communicate to the community that the church is alive and is active in the town.


8. Who knows what the church will do to follow up a holiday club? In my experience in one church it was used to plant a new congregation, launch a weekly after school club, start a monthly kids club.

So I'm all for holiday clubs and you can maybe add other valuable reasons for them. But I am also concerned that we find a working model for presenting a clear gospel message to non-churched children that has lifelong discipleship at its core. Ideas on a postcard, or even replies to this blog would be greatly received.

Step Out Now

Last night I visited Coatbridge Baptist Church where our first children's mission of the year is under way. The step out team complete with orange t-shirts were dancing, speaking, gaming and answering question about faith, conversion and prayer, in what could only be described as a warm and winsome way. No threats, no severe stares, no raised voices, just smiles and conversations about their own walk with God which were clearly being listened to intently.
As I go off to enjoy some holiday sunshine for a few weeks this orange team will sprerad around the country. They will give up some, if not all of their summer season to build missional relationships with local baptist churches, with fellow step outers, with not yet believing children, young people and their families.


I find myself challenged in two ways and if you are up for it I would want to extend the challenge to you.

1) Please pray at all times with all kinds of prayers for the step out missions. They are engaging in a spiritual battle and they need the spiritual defence that prayer can bring. They also need our prayers to break down defences so that many would come to know and love our Saviour.

2) Please step out now! If they are coming to your church, support them in the mission by getting involved. If they are not visiting you but your church is engaging in an overtly missional activity this summer get involved in that. Or why not step out now, wherever you are reading this, and have a gentle warm conversation with someone who does not yet believe.

I'm being serious. Why not go and build a missional relationship now.

Switch to face book and reconnect with someone.
Pick up the phone and talk to an old friend.
Walk across the office with a coffee and have a chat.

Step out Now
PS Let me know how God uses you!

"Le Tour"

The tour has begun: 5 days in 5 cities being introduced to the Baptist family and speaking of a future vision as we travel together on this thing we call the BUS.

Dalkeith Baptist Church hosted our evening together with great style and a beautiful sense of welcome. The hall was filled with Baptists from Edinburgh, West Lothian and the Borders. And what a night! A great encouragement for me and if the response of those who gathered is anything to go by, an evening of fun, laughter, challenge and hope, all of which were absent from the England football match we clashed with.

The loudest "amen" of the night was to the suggestion that Baptist musicians should form a Jazz group and there was quite a lot of talk about what type of road cycle team we could put together to participate in a "real tour".

Of course there were also stories of God's faithfulness and my own journey of faith was explored by David Currie, my travelling companion, interviewer and worship leader for the tour.

As I drove home along the M8 to Gartcosh I was overwhelmed by a sense of encouragement. I am so glad that I belong to a family of Baptists in Scotland such as these. I sensed among them a passion to serve Christ, a desire to be led into what that means in the 21st century and an openness to doing it together.

1 down, 4 to go. It's going to be a busy week!

Wednesday 23rd June 7.30pm, Dundee Central

Friday 25th June 7.30pm, Bearsden Baptist

Saturday 26th June 12 Noon, Culduthel Christian Centre

Sunday 27th June 3.30pm, Sheddocksley Baptist Church

"Vive le tour"

Fresh Expression

Saturday night, and I found myself in the Royal Concert Hall Glasgow, for a concert with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Not an unusual occurence for our family as we attend at least 12 classical concerts a year. Yet this was one was very different.



Scenery had appeared behind the orchestra to replace the usual wooden back drop. Lighting had been installed and was used throughout the night to interpret the mood of the music, more like a pop concert. Instrumentalists stood to play their solos and were picked out by spotlights, the audience clapped between movements and even clapped once in the middle of a piece, more reminiscent of a Jazz club. By now I was questioning was this really the RSNO? The conductor had changed, not the usual French Stephane Deneve but the New Yorker Jeff Tyzik, complete with cornet on the conductor's podium. Had the world gone mad? Oh I forgot to mention that they had rearranged the audience chairs at the front and put them around tables.

Less than a month ago I heard this same orchestra play Elgar's Cello Concerto in the quiet and austere surroundings of the Usher Hall. I had left there discussing Natalie Clien's interpretation of the music with my daughter and how it compared with the late Jacqueline du Pre. To be honest most of the discussion was on how bad the acoustics of the Usher Hall are for a cello solo.

But not on Saturday. On Saturday I left filled with excitement. I wanted to talk to anyone who would listen about what I had just experienced. It was not what I expected, it was unpredictable, it was joyful, it had life and charisma. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle wrote of the conductor "His concert is the kind of thing that's likely to give classical music a good name!"

You only need to look at a classical concert audience these days to know that they are in the same position as many of our churches. Yet it seems that they are not afraid to challenge some of their traditional conventions and taboos to woo a new audience, to explode some old myths and to present the brilliance of what they do in a way that is accesible to many more people than they engage at present.

Therein lies the challenge. We have a message that is life giving, energising, hopeful, joy bringing, love enhancing and totally transformational and yet so often it fails to be delivered in a context that is negatively representative of the message. The medium which contains the message of new life is not engaging, and the sound of good news is not lifting from the platform and grabbing those who are searching. In fact the audience that most needs to hear doesn't come along because they do not imagine they will find life in our churches. Would the Rochester Demorcrat and Chronicle write of us "This worship service is the kind of thing that is likely to give Jesus a good name!"

What will it take for us to challenge the medium we use to communicate the gospel message? Can a classical concert inspire us to look afresh at our conventions and traditions, challenge them and find a fresh approach for our life giving message?

Bike Wheels speak of vision

The Baptist Union Council held in residence at Gartmore House spent time listening to God in the presence of one another and listening to one another in the presence of God. This act of communal discernement shaped by Andrew Rolinson's studies in communal discernment impacted the way in which we sought to become clearer in our understanding of the future of the Baptist Union of Scotland.

At the heart of my own address were three wheels, 2 of which I brought with me and 1 which my wife would not let me buy. (it would be wasted on me)

The hub of the matter that I was seeking to address is that we need a Baptist Union in Scotland that is fit for purpose. Able to take us forward, strong and robust to deal with some knocks and disapointments, but based on all that is good about being baptist.

Stuart Blythe had spoken the previous day, with a deep challenge to become who we say we are and to reengage with our Baptist values and declaration of principle.

Jonathan Edwards the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain shared how they are working through these same issues in England and South Wales at the moment.

At the end of our 24 hour stay in Gartmore we agreed to explore further our vision for the future of the Baptist Union in Scotland reflecting on how our Baptist identity might inform and colour these three words "Building Missional Relationships".

Please join us in this process. You can read the three main addresses given to council below. We would invite you to reflect upon them and to respond by email to director@scottishbaptist.org.uk

http://www.scottishbaptist.org.uk/downloads.htm

"hearing God communally" "Who do we think we are" "Towards a vision for the future"

General Assembly Specific Challenge

Bill Hewitt the moderator of the Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2009-2010 gave his last report to the assembly on Friday night. Reflecting on his year of global travels he spoke of the many connections he had made around the world. He spoke passionately about the roll of the church in issues of justice and peacemaking but left his final and most heartfelt remarks for the issue of children in our churches. He commented that he had seen many children on his travels that were connected to churches, but there was a lament over the lack of children who were integrated into the heart of the worshipping community. His plea was that the Church of Scotland would bring children into the heart of the Church, primarily so they could hear the gospel message of Christ a Saviour who loves them and a Lord to guide them.

It spoke to me of a growing concern that I also have as most of our children walk away from the church, if not also the faith. I’ve found myself asking, “What is the place of children in the church?” If our practices betray our principles what are we saying about worship and the place of children in God’s kingdom?

In some churches we clearly say they are welcome. The issue of what church worship looks like to them has been thought about. We’ve made sure they hear scripture read in a language they understand, that the great stories of the gospel and Old Testament are proclaimed with enthusiasm and excitement. We’ve considered the music we use and the words that are spoken and sung and assessed children’s ability to understand or experience what we are saying in our worship, explaining words that are not commonly known. We’ve made them welcome as children without demanding that they behave as adults and yes we have also shown them what reverence; joy and commitment look like as we have welcomed them around the communion table and into membership through believer’s baptism.

Sadly in some churches children must struggle to sense welcome. A cheery smile as they arrive in no way makes up for what happens in the worship service. They must rejoice that they are only held in these places for 20-30 minutes before releasing them to Sunday School or whatever name it has been given. What do these words mean that appear on a screen and then disappear faster than they can read, never mind sing? What are we teaching about prayer, when we take them out of the world of colour and creativity to an eyes closed, dark place of silence? And I guess they know by now that church is not about what worship you express or lessons you learn, it all about how well you behave. After all sitting quietly on your seat with your mind somewhere else elicits the most praise from family and friends around.

Surely worship is about engaging with the risen Christ. It is about coming together to meet with the one who drew all types of people to himself. Where children were welcomed, encouraged, blessed, challenged and allowed to be an example to us all.

I think Bill Hewitt was absolutely right; we should bring children into the heart of the church so that they can hear the gospel message and experience Christian community but I also think we need them there to teach us a thing or two. Maybe we need their simple songs to remind us of basic truth and to humble our proud spirits. It could be that their action songs finally release our bodies in worship. Maybe we need there heartfelt prayers to cut through our flowery language and remind us once more of the heart of the gospel. And it could be that we need their challenging world view that says some things are just simply “unfair.”

By stopping and thinking through what we do when children are with us in worship, maybe we could make it something they look forward to doing with us and maybe we would learn more about what it means to worship the risen Christ present with us. Thanks Moderator for making us ask the question!

Homecoming

I went home on Sunday Morning to the church where I spent the first 20 years of my life and to the first baptist Church in Scotland that employed me to serve them. Apart from being repeatedly told how much I look and sound like my Dad by those who could remember me when I was in short trousers (and they have the photo's to prove it) I found it a really refreshing and liberating experience.

Amongst the well kent faces of my youth were new faces and new stories eagerly told. The young people had been to a recording studio the day before to record a single, a young mother who had first visited the churches toddlers group had recently come to faith and been baptised. Today they were begining a joint venture with the local church of Scotland and the Bible Society when the Bibleworld exhibition would pull into town and provide classes for all p5's-p7's. The Pastor is being given greater opportunities in the local secondary school and a holiday club was being planned for primary school children in the summer holidays.

I was delighted to see that what I remembered from my youth was still the essence of this church, energy, commitment, heart felt worship and a depth of welcome to the stranger. Their evident desire was that those they encountered in that little town "would see Jesus."

It was also a clear reminder that statistics in a year book do not tell the whole story. Statisticaly I'm certain there have been days when they were a dozen members better off and yet I would have to question if they have ever been as healthy as they are today. There is a bigger story to be told than the one our year book stats will tell.

Please join me in prayers of thanksgiving for Denny Baptist Church, that gave me so much, and ask the Father to bless all that they offer to their community today in Jesus name.

End of life assistance

Just a few days to go to the Westminster election. My inbox has been bombarded with emails from various Christian organisations pleading for me to engage with the democratic political process and make my vote count. Yet one email stood out. It was an encouragement to engage with our Scottish Parliamentary process over Margo McDonald’s “End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill” by 12th May.

This issue is a very personal one for me. My Grandfather and my Father both died of Motor Neuron disease, a rare yet seriously debilitating, degenerative, and terminal illness within whose community of weakness this issue has been debated for many years. I know the pressures on families who suffer together in these times of desperate illness. There are pressures on time and energy, thoughts of how much care can I give and how much professional help should we bring in, strain on finances and deep questions such as what does dignity look like when you are helpless? I was also struck that my theology was rather shallow when it came to constructing a biblical understanding of physical frailty when faced with total helplessness and total dependence. It is one thing to be dependent on God when you have the ability to choose independence, it seems altogether different to depend on God when all independence and in human terms hope is removed.

Yet in those times, we as a family discovered there was strength available in our weakness. Sometimes we received it from medical staff, uncompromised in their devoted care; at other times from God’s people, seeking to honour the week in their community, and yet other times it came direct to us from the Lord himself. I don’t deny there were very hard days but I would want to affirm that there was peace in the storm, strength in the travail and love expressed that our Scottish reserve may have inhibited in any other circumstance.
I want to encourage the churches of our nation to make their responses to this parliamentary Bill. To seek to address in their responses, their knowledge of the suffering experienced at these difficult times in the life of a family and to challenge those aspects of the Bill which would be seen as inconsistent with your understanding of human dignity and worth.

As Baptists we have historically made significant contributions to the political agenda and social welfare of our nation. Today I am calling our churches to continue in this tradition by responding to the Scottish Parliament’s request for comments.

As well as making a personal contribution to this debate I would also like to make a contribution to this debate as General Director of the Baptist Union of Scotland. In order to help make this contribution I would invite you to send me copies of the letters you send or have sent so that I might reflect well our shared concerns.

Welcome to travelling together

Hi and thanks for taking the time to explore this new blog.

My intention is to use the blog on a weekly basis to pass on some of the encouraging things I have encountered in my work as General Director of the Baptist Union of Scotland.

So here goes. Below you will find two stories from my first couple of weeks in post. If you are able to register as a follower of the blog you will also be able to make comment on what is being said. At present you will only be able to register as a follower if you have google compatible email address (Click on "follow" and you'll find out). My apologies if you can't automatically follow at this time, I will be moving the blog onto our own website in the fullness of time which will resolve this issue. If you are unable to follow at the moment you might want to bookmark the location and visit each week for updates.

Sanctuary Pledge

Who will you vote for? I am finding it increasingly difficult to answer that question. As candidates canvas for my vote they seem to spend their time telling me how their policies will affect my life. How they think I will be better off financially with them in power. How I will be better off health wise with them in power and how my children will be safer, better educated and have a secure future with them in power.

But it's not all about me!

What about those who have nothing in our society? Those who have arrived from other nations seeking sanctuary. Those who have fled from religious intolerance or poltical oppression to our nation, "what will you do for them?" has become my reply.

I was introduced to the "Sanctuary Pledge" a couple of weeks ago as I met with some of Scotlands Church leaders. It is a way of saying that this election is not just about my well being but the well being of others. It is a challenge to politicians to be careful about the language that they use when speaking of imigration and a challenge from churches around the nations to maintain Britain's historic position as a safe haven from those fleeing persecution and tyranny.

Why not check it out in more detail
http://sanctuarypledge.org.uk/

First trip North

Sunday 18th April
What a great start to a new ministry. My first visit to a Baptist Church as a core leader was to Nairn Baptist Church, one of our grant supported churches. Rev Tim Power has been in post for 20 months now and the church is already showing signs of its future potential. 90 local believers and members gathered for both their 18th and 21st anniversaries. 21 years since the church was planted and 18 years as a member of the Baptist Union of Scotland. Nairn Baptist Church was truly "coming of age."
The joy of being together and the excitement of belonging to a fellowship that is experiencing a season of fruitfulness was evident from the moment I walked into the local community centre where they worship each week.
Pray for Tim and the leadership team in Nairn as they continue to give their time and energy in service of the King. http://www.nairnbaptistchurch.org.uk/