Blog

Well, election day is just about upon us. Hopefully many thousands, even millions, of people will soon be going to the polls to cast their vote. Everyone will have their own reason to vote the way they do and by the end of the week we will have much better idea of the direction this nation is heading.
However our General Election is not the only election being held this week. There are other decisions being made which will have an even longer lasting significance than where we put a cross on Thursday and that is where we put a cross in our lives.
As Joshua and the people of Israel prepared to enter the promised land he asked the people a simple question: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” It is a decision we all must make. Are we going to serve God, put our faith in the cross, take up our cross and follow him, or are we going to go our own way following false gods or the desires of our heart. Where you put the cross in your life is the most important decision you will make. Where you put your cross in response is key to your future, your joy and your peace.
I would urge you, this week as you make an important decision regarding the direction of this country that you also make an important decision regarding the direction of your life.
As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!

I suspect that on reading the title of this blog your immediate thoughts go to the events of last Thursday as we heard and discussed the report of the theological forum. However this is not the place for that discussion. The controversy I am thinking of took place much earlier in the week with the report of the Council of Assembly. The deliverance that accompanied their report had at the top, after receive the report, this second part:- “Issue a call to the Church of Scotland to pray that God will do a fresh work amongst us as God’s people and instruct Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions to consider how best to respond to this call.”
This I think caused more discussion on Facebook than any other part because for some people it was wonderful that they had emphasized the need for prayer and renewal, especially given the state of the church today, while others were a bit horrified that the Council felt a need to issue this call, especially given the state of the church today!
I must admit I found myself in the first camp regarding this. I think for many people in the church today, they see what is happening and they want to pray, but they just don’t know for what they should pray. This is specific, God do a fresh work amongst us. The Church of Scotland definitely needs for God to do a fresh work in us. We need renewed and refreshed, we need a new vision. We need the courage to embrace a new vision of what God is doing and is blessing so that we can be a part of that outpouring of God’s Spirit.
Should we need to be reminded to pray? I would hope not. Do I think it is good for us all to pray for this specific blessing? I definitely think so. I would hope that this prayer becomes part of every prayer meeting, every worship service, every prayer constituting a meeting and every private devotion of every member of the Kirk, for then surely God will answer our call and we will be ready to listen.

As I sit on the train heading to another session of the General Assembly I am reading through the vast mountain of reports and phrases such as, looking for a needle in a haystack and looking for a ruby in a mountain of rocks spring to mind. The Blue Book, as it is known, runs to almost 900 pages. There is then also the book of supplemental reports. All of these have to be read and carefully considered. Much of it is legal jargon, much of it is quite frankly a little depressing, but then as you read through suddenly some words jump out of the page at you. A reflection by a committee here, a concept by a committee there and you think to yourself, yes, that is right, this is what we should be focussing on, this is exciting, this is really what it is about. Here at last there is something I can take back to the Session and say, read this, it will inspire you, challenge you. There are good news stories of churches that have found a way to do youth ministry that is actually working. There are ideas of how to support congregations who are struggling due to long term vacancies. There are challenges for churches, such as Kinnoull, as to how we can use our influence and strength to be a blessing in our communities. Rubies among the rocks.
As a result of these rubies you realise that in spite of media reports and the glee of the secularists that just love doom and gloom stories about the decline of the church, there is actually life in the old dog yet! There are countless men and women quietly going about their business, growing in their faith, discipling others and sharing the love of God with those around them. It does rather cause me to ask the question however, how do we make these stories, these challenges, these ideas more accessible to others within the church? When all of us are so short of time is there someone in our congregation that loves to read and has the skills to discern these jewels so that they can be more widely shared? It is a communication problem which needs to be addressed so that all the church can benefit from these meetings and these discussions. We are supposed to be the people of the good news, maybe we should start our services just by saying, here is the news and sharing a story of something happening which shows the glory of God.

Without a doubt, one of the most influential books and movements over the last thirty years has been “The Purpose driven Church.” I know I have been greatly blessed by Rick Warren and the work he has been doing at Saddleback. His ministry took shape in Southern California corporate America at a time when business gurus were harnessing the power of the well-written purpose and mission statement to unite and drive the workplace forward. His theory is that all churches are driven by something, money, tradition even the constraints of a building, so why not drive them forward with intentional, biblical purposes. He based everything on the Great Commission and the Great Commandment and as I say it was hugely successful. It tapped into the psyche of his church’s environment and the growth was extraordinary. Other churches have since followed suit. There is now actually a website just with mission and purpose statements on it, the top fifty according to its author.
There is only one trouble with that today. Research has shown that it is a huge turnoff for young people in their teens, twenties and thirties. Corporate mission statements have come with a price, corporations are becoming more and more impersonal and as a result they are suspicious, and rightly so, of a church going down the same route. Millennials are saying, “Enough Already!” They get bombarded by mission and purpose statements five or six days week, they do not need it on a Sunday as well. As one millennial expressed it, we already have a purpose statement, Love the lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. We are to love God and love our neighbour, end of story. That is it. Likewise Jesus already gave us our mission statement, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
In other words we are to love God and love our neighbour and loving our neighbour involves teaching them about Jesus, bringing them into the fellowship of believers and helping them to grow in their faith and understanding.
We do not need corporate mission and purpose statements. They will do more harm than good. We just have to live as Jesus instructed, shaping our ministry on his ministry so that his love is free to flow from us to all whom we meet.

Those of you who know me well know that I like gadgets. Very early in my ministry, before really portable mobile phones I had a pager, then I got my first flip phone, then I went high tech and got a Blackberry. I like the fact that my car lights switch on when needed and the windscreen wipers too without me having to flip switches. Gadgets are fun. Therefore it will be no surprise to hear that when the Manse got offered a free smart meter for our electricity and gas I jumped at the chance.
It is really quite interesting. You immediately get to see the effect of switching on the coffee maker, the kettle or the central heating. You quickly get a sense of how much power you use throughout the day and so can compare days and think I have done well this day or not so well that day.
It made me think how useful it would be to have a spiritual meter. I sometimes think that we do not realise how much different events, conversations or visits can take a toll. We get to the end of a day and feel totally drained, not in a physical sense but in a Spiritual sense and wonder why. That is why it is so important to spend some time with God each day. That is why it is so important to spend time reading scripture, reflecting on what you have read and then in prayer to God. Only by keeping up a regular quiet time can you replenish your spiritual batteries and keep your spiritual smart meter ticking over. Spend time with God every day, you will be surprised how much your days improve.

I came across this quote the other day by Francis Chan: “The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.”
When you get to the heart of the matter God, according to the Christian Gospel, is a God of relationship. he exists in relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and he created us to have a relationship with him and him with us. God’s greatest desire is to love us and to have us love him in return, hence the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We, in turn, have a God shaped hole in our heart. We may not comprehend it, we may not recognise it, but it is there. Hence the spiritual seekers that look for fulfillment through all sorts of channels. You see them on Facebook quoting Native Americans one day, Buddhist writings the next and occasionally even the Gospel. There is a desire, a yearning, yet it is totally unfocused as they are turned off by traditional religion and so do not investigate the Gospel long or deeply enough to really allow the truth to mold their thinking. They allow the “traditions of man,” to quote Jesus, interfere with the spirit of God.
Their other issue is often that they need God but they do not want God in God’s entirety. They want the love, but not the judgment. They want the acceptance but not the discipline, they will speak of compassion while being focused only on this world.
We have to preach the full Gospel of Christ. We have to live the full Gospel of Christ. if we are going to help those who need Jesus to actually want Jesus we need to be living ambassadors of the whole Gospel of God and that means even the difficult bits, the messy bits, the bits that seem so unattractive because unless we do, we paint an incomplete picture, do God a disservice and run the danger of failing to give those who need God the picture of God they need to find and to want him.

Last Sunday was a very important one for Kinnoull Parish Church as we had a congregational meeting where various plans for the future were laid out and the congregation were invited to ask questions or to make comment on the plans. One of our members asked a very good question about our plans to live stream the worship over the internet. He asked whether I thought people would stay at home, just as the greater use of TV has affected attendances at football matches. My reply was that I did not think it would as participating in worship is very different from being a spectator.
It’s surprising to me how many Christians struggle with the idea of church attendance. We are at a crossroads in our nation on the importance of going to church. According to research, church attendance has been dropping for the last few years, in Perthshire alone, over the last four years, by almost four percent. But it isn’t a new problem. Since the beginning of Christianity, the early leaders had to challenge this mindset, saying, “Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).
A popular Christian social media catch-phrase is, “You don’t go to church, you are the church.” While I understand the sentiment in some ways, this is an unhealthy view, pitting “being the church” and “going to church” against each other. If we are truly “the church,” then we will surely get together with other believers regularly. We cannot “be” the church, if we don’t “go” to church. Not fully anyways.
The “church” never connotes a single, individual, lone ranger Christian just going about his Christian duties and never gathering together to worship with other believers. The “church” by its very nature means multiple believers: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20).
This is both the biblical and historical pattern set forth for us by the first followers of Jesus. They would get together weekly to worship God together, and at times even daily. They would also share community together in each other’s homes. Paul and the other Apostle’s letters were actually sent to these church communities that gathered in various cities to be read aloud together. Church means getting together with other believers to worship Jesus Christ, and hear the Scriptures together, and encourage one another in the faith.
If you are ill, housebound or away on holiday, yes, listening to the service over the internet is a good thing to do but there is something better. To worship God together and be committed to worship Him together, to hear His Word together. Do not reduce church to listening to a podcast. It’s so much more than that. It’s community. It’s worshiping with other, praying for others, hurting with others, serving others with others, being involved in the lives of others. In worship you are not the spectator cheering from the terraces but the participant on the pitch, let us never forget that.

The internet is all a twitter just now over the apparent reluctance of certain confectionary companies to put the word Easter on their chocolate eggs. Even the Prime Minister has weighed in over it much to the surprise of some who feel that there are much more pressing issues on which they feel she should be commenting. Of course for some it is horrifying as it is further evidence of the erosion of Christian influence and values in society while for others it is much ado about nothing. The interesting thing is that someone who considers themselves a humanist even weighed in one the debate in the newspaper saying that they thought the word Easter should remain because of the undoubted influence that the Easter story has had on society and culture over the centuries and they feel that the story should be retold to our children. However she is very conflicted over whether the brutal events of Good Friday should be mentioned. She realises that to tell the Easter story without the brutal events of Good Friday is to short-change people, but she also recoils at the thought of having to tell the story.

This is very typical of today’s mindset, a mindset that was highlighted by a quote I saw yesterday which said, Lukewarm people do not want to be saved from their sin, they want to be saved from the penalty of their sin. It will also be highlighted by the difference in numbers between Friday’s Good Friday service and Sunday’s Easter celebration. There will be easily three times as many people in church on Sunday than on Friday. Give us the adulation of Palm Sunday and the Celebration of Easter morning, but please do not force us to consider the messy, upsetting part in the middle. Yet without Good Friday Easter has no meaning, without Good Friday, Easter has no hope, without Good Friday we of all people are to be most pitied.

It is not up to a confectioner to remind people of the reason for the season, it is up to us to tell the story and the whole story. It is up to us to remind people that Good Friday is crucial to Easter Sunday, it is up to us to remind people that hope and new life is more than just a promise of spring, it is the very essence of a life in Jesus Christ who died our death that we might know his life.

Well, so much for trying to keep posting on the blog on a regular day. I started trying to do it on a Tuesday, then occasionally it creeps to a Wednesday and here we are on Thursday and I am finally getting around to writing for this. I remember my father, many years ago, brought home a circle of paper. when I asked him what it was he showed me the back and said that it was the most useful thing he has been given in years. On the back were simply the letters TUIT. I was puzzled but he then went on to say how often things do not get done, or like this blog, get done late for the simple fact that the person never got a round to it. He now had a round tuit and so there was no excuse for ever not getting things done!
I met a man a few years ago that should have had that little circle of paper with the word TUIT on it. He had been coming to the church for years but had never actually made a public confession of faith or joined the church. As he lay on his bed terminally ill he explained to me that it had just never seemed the right time and he was also very shy and so had always put it off. I asked him if he wanted to make a profession of faith then. He did and so I asked if I could call one of the elders to come over. We were joined about ten minutes later by the elder and I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ as his saviour and Lord. He confessed his faith and the most wonderful smile crept across his old weather-beaten face. He died just days later but he died safely in the arms of his Lord. It was better late than never but how much better it would have been if it had been sooner rather than later.
When you read the events of Holy Week and particularly he events surrounding Jesus arrest, trial and crucifixion the two big questions are, “Who is he? and “Who are you?” We each need to ask that question of who Jesus is for us. Is he simply a good role model, is it simply enough to go through life asking what would Jesus do? Is he a good teacher with important lessons on how to live a good life? Or is he the Son of God, Messiah and Saviour of the world? As you follow the events of Holy Week next week, ask yourself the questions and if you come to the conclusion that he is your saviour and Lord, do not delay, do not wait to get given a round TUIT but confess your faith, join your local church and discover the life of joy and peace that God created you to enjoy.

When Jesus confronted the money changers in the temple in the week before his crucifixion he told them that his father’s house should be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves. Sometimes I wonder whether the church has really paid enough attention to that verse, not because I want to suggest that it has become a den of thieves but because I wonder sometimes if we have taken seriously enough the idea of it being a house of prayer.
In his article on the nine changes the church must make or die, Thom Rainer highlights particularly his ninth change which is that we must become house of prayer, we are very busy doing things in our own strength, but we are not doing the business of God.
I think that he has a very valid point. I think it is very sad that most ministers have their studies or office at the Manse instead of at the church. I think it is very sad that for most of the week the church is locked up and the community is locked out. Instead of the church being a locus of prayer, it is something that we just drive by for most of the week.
I am excited that now at Kinnoull we have what has been labelled the secret garden. I would prefer it to be called a place of contemplation. It is lovely with a view out over the Tay and a simple cross on which to meditate. I hope that people will find it, that it is not a secret but instead a place of prayer and meditation for the church and for the community.
Prayer is so important for the life of our church. I heard of one person who was asked what he gained by prayer. The man replied, “nothing….but let me tell you what I lost: Anger, ego, greed, depression, insecurity and fear of death.” Sometimes, the answer to our prayers is not gaining but losing; which ultimately is the gain.