Issuu

THE

RECORD

MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND APRIL 2019 • £2.00

Editor • Rev. David A Robertson The Editor, The Record, St Peter’s Free Church, 4 St Peter Street, Dundee, DD1 4JJ 07825 748752 drobertson@freechurch.org News Editor • Dayspring MacLeod dayspring.macleod@icloud.com 07974 261567 Missions News • Mrs Sarah Johnson Free Church Offices, 15 North Bank Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2LS sarah@freechurch.org WFM Editor • Sarah Cumming 31 Doune Park, Dalgety Bay, KY11 9LX sarah.cumming@hotmail.co.uk Gaelic Editor • Janet MacPhail 24 North Bragar, Isle of Lewis, HS2 9DA 01851 710354 Seminary News • Rev. Thomas Davis St. Columba's Free Church, Johnston Terrace Edinburgh, EH1 2PW thomas@stcolumbas.freechurch.org CHARITY REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND SCO48111

Prayer Diary • Mrs Mairi Macdonald ian.macdonald57@btinternet.com Design & Layout • Fin Macrae @DUFI Art www.dufi-art.com The Record • ISSN 2042-2970

Advertising • Anyone wishing to advertise in The Record should contact the editor. For Subscriptions • The annual subscription price for The Record is £33. Cheques should be made payable to: Free Church of Scotland. Please contact the offices for overseas subscription costs. Details of the church's activities, latest news and people to contact are all available on the church's website: www.freechurch.org

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The Free Church of Scotland is a registered charity SC012925 • Women for Mission is a registered charity SC03898

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Cover: Photo by Myicahel Tamburini from Pexels

Published • The Record is produced by The Free Church of Scotland, Free Church Offices, 15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH1 2LS 0131 226 5286 offices@freechurch.org

WELCOME TO THE APRIL RECORD

CONTENTS

hat’s the point of having a denominational

Is it not the case that magazines are out of fashion anyway? Who reads it? Why not just put everything online? Is it not a waste of money and resources? These are good questions which deserve answers. The purpose of a church magazine is to provide news and information about the church — so that it acts as a window to those outside as well as informing those within. It is also to act as a window to the culture for those within the church — helping us to think about what is going on in the world from a biblical perspective. The Record exists for both those purposes. A well written, designed and produced magazine is a great advert for the Church and for the Gospel. That is what we aim to be. We want a ‘coffee table’ magazine that members of the Church would be proud to give to their family, friends and workmates — something that you could leave on your coffee table at home, in the dentists or doctors surgery, the staff room or work canteen. Another purpose is to encourage a sense of unity and common purpose within the Church. You may not know about the new church plant in Stirling — this month you will learn something about that. This will hopefully then encourage you to pray, give and even visit. It’s also good to hear about individuals within the church — for example, Bob Akroyd’s well deserved award for his work. And then we need to be challenged to think about doctrine, practice and culture. The Record does not exist to provide simplistic and clichéd answers to complex questions, rather we want to encourage people to think biblically about these issues. And of course the magazine exists more than anything to get people to think about and worship our triune God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the end of the day everything we do as Christians should be for Christ. Ultimately the purpose of The Record is to point to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. As for why print? There are a significant number of the population who do not have access to the Internet. Besides which, a physical magazine is much more a thing of beauty than an internet one and is easier to read. Certainly take advantage of the fact that The Record is online, but if you can, buy two copies — one for yourself and one to give away… Keep sending in your news and views! • magazine?

PARENTS — TAKE BACK CONTROL

FREE CHURCH NEWS

PRAYER DIARY

HATE CRIME CONSULTATION Dr. Stuart Waiton

ETS NEWS

SUPPORT FOR MINISTERS AND THEIR FAMILIES Alex MacDonald

LETTERS

CHURCH DEVELOPMENT AND REVITALISATION

A CHURCH PLANT IN STIRLING Iain MacAskill

ECCLESIASTES: LIVING IN THE SHADOWLANDS — IS THAT ALL?

A SUMMARY OF THE SERMON FOR MICHAEL GREEN'S FUNERAL Lindsay Brown

FREE CHURCH MINISTER BECOMES PRINCIPAL IN INDIAN OCEAN THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

MISSIONARY TRAINING PART 02 Shawna Williams

BOOK REVIEWS

STUDENT MINISTRY IN PARIS Susan Buchan

MISSION MATTERS David Meredith

GAELIC Janet MacPhail

POETRY PAGE William Wordsworth

POST TENEBRAS LUX Catriona Murray

See you next month, The Editor.

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FREE CHURCH NEWS CORNERSTONE CHURCH PLANT PLAN FOR FUTURE

ornerstone, a free church of scotland church

Looking to the future they add, “This is the building that will provide us with a long term base for ministry and which can be a blessing to the wider community.” • For more information about the project, Cornerstone has set up a dedicated website www.osh.org.uk

plant in edinburgh’s morningside, launched its new

vision to train and equip future leaders, resource new church plants, and offer an accessible venue for the congregation and the local community. However, in order to achieve this they need to make major refurbishments to their B Listed building. It is hoped that the £300,000 project will provide better access for families, elderly and those with mobility problems by creating a new entrance from the street. Internal alterations to the main hall will also mean they will be able to accommodate 40% more people, plus rooms to host a creche and Kids’ Church. An upgrade to the kitchen and food preparation area has been included in the architect’s plans as well as the ever essential coffee making facilities. In their vision booklet, Cornerstone was keen to express their desire to make the “most of this asset for the sake of the gospel over the coming years.”

Architect's 3D visualisation of new building interior

NEW FREE CHURCH MINISTER

free

church

scotland

was

The Patersons presently worship with Cumbernauld Free Church and have a missionary interest in East Asia. Mr Paterson said, “I am delighted to be welcomed into the Free Church as a minister and look forward to serving together in the growth of the kingdom of God here and among East Asia’s peoples.” •

pleased

to welcome rev . martin h . paterson as the

newest minister to the denomination during Wednesday night’s Commission of Assembly. The Commission wholeheartedly endorsed the application of Mr Paterson, formerly of the United Free Church of Scotland. Assembly Clerk Rev. Callum Macleod said, “We are pleased to welcome Mr Paterson as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. We pray that God will bless him and his family as he continues to serve the Lord under the banner of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). We trust that God will continue to guide him in all aspects of his gospel ministry in the future.” Mr Paterson is currently the Scottish representative for OMF. He previously served for 3 years as minister of Stonehouse Paterson United Free Church of Scotland, South Lanarkshire. He is married to Jennifer, who also works with OMF International, and they have two young children, Sophia and Joshua.

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Rev. Martin Paterson and Current Moderator Rev. Angus MacRae

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LOCH EWE COMMUNITY CHURCH OPENING

och ewe community church in wester ross (formerly poolewe

and

aultbea

free

church)

of re-dedication and a celebration of the congregation’s hopes and dreams for the future. The Church was filled to capacity for the service and for the refreshments which followed. “This project has taken some considerable time to get this far, but we have now reached a stage where we can move on from the focus on the building to the business of reaching out to the parish and beyond,” said Danny. Minister Rev. Dan Paterson was delighted with the finished result and encouraged by the dedication of everyone involved.

recently

completed a two-year refurbishment project transforming the 140-year-old building’s interior into a welcoming, bright and warm space for the church and community to make use of. The traditional church building in Aultbea was erected sometime during the 1880s using stones quarried from Isle Ewe. Nearly 140 years later it had deteriorated to such an extent that when consulted an architect suggested the cost of refurbishing would be prohibitive. His advice was to demolish the old building and build a new one in its place. It soon became obvious that many people in the village and surrounding area were very much opposed to its demolition. In order to preserve a good relationship with the community, and realising that to proceed would jeopardise opportunities for sharing the gospel and potentially damage relationships with a watching community, the congregation decided to remove demolition from their plans. Instead the decided to move forward in faith to try to raise sufficient funds to refurbish the old building.

“It is wonderful to now have a building which is fit for purpose. The old building was tired, rotting and only useable for an hour a week. We could hold Sunday services or large funerals but nothing more. As one of our elders reminded us, ‘We are not here to cater for the dead. We don’t need a building for funerals. We need a building for the living to find eternal life.’” “The refurbished building offers us the opportunity to take the message of God’s love in new and exciting ways. We are able to have meals, times of fellowship and meet in a warm and functional premise.” “We are grateful to God for all His provision and to those who worked hard every week in this venture. We hope this building will serve as a beacon to our communities that there is more to this life.” “Our logo has recently changed to that of a lighthouse. This is to reflect the belief that we are here to be a beacon of light to those around us. We warn of danger but also shine a path of spiritual safety leading to Jesus Christ.” “It is our prayer that as a congregation we can now meet the needs of the community around us and share the love of God with them.” •

Danny Grant, an elder at Lochewe said, “We recognised that to more effectively make a connection with a generation of people missing from the church we needed to upgrade and modify the building in order to create a more flexible and welcoming space.” “The congregation were very much involved in helping with the actual work and in raising sufficient funds. In this respect, it became very obvious that the Lord wished this work to continue.” “The builder agreed to do the work in stages. When the money was running out and we were prepared to ask the builder to stop, sufficient money would arrive to enable the next stage to proceed. We now have a lovely warm carpeted building with a working kitchen and all the latest technology.” On Friday 22nd February, the building was open to the public during the afternoon as part of a drop-in session. In the evening the community were invited to a service

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SUPPORT FOR MINISTERS AND THEIR FAMILIES I

The remit of the Panel is also to “help with pastoral care situations when requested by the Support Worker. In addition, they will be vigilant in bringing to the Support Worker’s attention any minister who may be experiencing difficulty. They will be careful to treat all such matters in the strictest confidence.” They are also to “give all necessary support, help and advice to the Support Worker.” My availability as Support Worker has been communicated individually to ministers by email, and in addition my contact details have been included in the Ministers’ Monthly Memo sent out by the Free Church Offices and in the Church’s Yearbook. This year, under instruction from the Board of Ministry, I have visited Presbyteries to inform them of my role and also present the Board’s paper addressing ‘Ministerial Failure’. Over the period of nearly two years since I was appointed, around a dozen ministers per year have contacted me or have been contacted directly by me. At a recent meeting of the Panel, concern was expressed about two areas in particular: the omission of Presbyteries to contact the Support worker when ministers were facing difficulty; and the difficulty in contacting ministers’ wives to let them know that such a service was available to them also (as at present there does not exist a database of their contact details). The present article is an attempt to address the latter issue; while my visit to each Presbytery was an attempt to address the former issue. I simply want to assure ministers and their wives that I am available to be contacted in the first instance about any difficulty they may be experiencing, and I am ready to listen, encourage and advise, and if necessary seek further help for them. I also want to encourage Christians to be praying regularly for their ministers in the various pressures they face, asking God to guard them and guide them for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. •

n the past the minister tended to be viewed as a kind of one man band, wholly self-sufficient and able to cope with any and every situation life threw at

him.

One effect of this is that he tended to be put on an untouchable pedestal (an impression often encouraged by the minister himself!). The other effect was that he was pretty well left to sink or swim by himself. In recent years there has been a growing awareness that this is not right. It is certainly not the Biblical model (as instanced in the Pastoral Epistles of Paul written to Timothy and Titus). Particularly if our brother is sinking, ought we not to reach out our hand as Jesus did with Peter at the Sea of Galilee? Ministers can experience tremendous pressures in their work, which can affect their health, their relationship with their congregations and fellow elders, their relationships with wives and families, and, not least, their relationship with the Lord. For some time there has been discussion in the Church about the need for providing more support for ministers, and in 2017 the Board of Ministry brought forward proposals to the General Assembly to appoint a Pastoral Care Support Worker along with the Panel of Pastoral Care. The Panel consists of Rev. Dr John Nicholls, Dr James Finlayson, Dr Helen Macleod, Dr Ann MacRae, Louise MacMillan and the Pastoral Care Support Worker as Chairman. I was appointed as the Support Worker. The Support Worker’s remit is as follows: 1. The Pastoral Care Support Worker is to be proactive in befriending and encouraging ministers and their families — particularly those in difficult circumstances, nearing retirement, facing perplexing and demanding situations or in ministries that may be terminated. This remit is to be carried out by personal contact with ministers, not only by telephone and email, but also by face to face contact. 2. The Support Worker has wide freedom to carry out this work as he sees fit, and particularly to contact all ministers to offer support and encouragement. The Support Worker may seek medical, counselling or other professional help for ministers who desire it. Strict confidentiality in this work is vital, the only exception being in situations which clearly involve church discipline.

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My contact details are: alex@alexjmacdonald.co.uk 07504989189

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Pastoral Care Support Worker ALEX J MACDONALD presents the pastoral care support available in the Free Church.

...if our brother is sinking, ought we not to reach out our hand as Jesus did with Peter at the Sea of Galilee?

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fter the first and highly successful live aid,

It is not just wealth — there is honour. Solomon has fame to go with his wealth. But he is not able to enjoy it. What is the point of having it all if you cannot really enjoy it? The poet William Cowper describes the frustration beautifully, ‘The toil of dropping buckets into empty wells, and growing old in drawing nothing up.’ But if wealth and honour are not the answer perhaps we can live for our families? But what is family? When it was Mother’s Day last year, what used to be known as Mothering Sunday, a Belgium nursery got into a bit of hot water for deciding not to celebrate it, but instead replace it with a family’s day — because modern families come in all shapes and sizes. What if you don’t have a mother? What if you have two fathers? The question of what is a family is one that is going to come more and more to the fore, and is causing a great deal of upset and confusion in our culture. In Solomon’s day long life and many children were considered great blessings. Imagine having 100 children! In today’s modern Western culture, having more than two is considered to be highly suspicious! I wonder what ‘family values’ will be prevalent in another 2000 years? But despite the changes in how families are perceived, there are very few who would deny the importance of the family and the blessing of children. As the Psalmist

bob geldof turned to his fellow organiser midge ure, and asked

‘is that it?’ It was his reflection on the success and joy of Live Aid — a reflection which became the title of his autobiography. Many of us can identify with this. We have this sense of something missing. We are aware of living in the shadows, what C.S. Lewis calls the Shadowlands. It’s a bit like being in the Matrix, having the vague feeling that there is something more. The shadows are passing. The shadows are ethereal — fading. They are real but not real. But what is reality? This months Ecclesiastes passage (6:1-6) begins to ask and answer that most fundamental of questions — and to look for some real meaning. Where can we get that meaning in what is apparently an ultimately meaningless world? Solomon speaks from the perspective of earth — under the sun. He speaks of a situation where wealth has been given but the capacity to enjoy it has not. ‘God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honour, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king’ (2 Chronicles 1:11, NIV). ‘People never seem to learn from the experience of previous generations, and continue to look on wealth as the road to satisfaction. Their hopes are always disappointed.’ Stuart Olyott.

THE

GOSPEL Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

FOR TODAY’S

SOCIETY ECCLESIASTES 6:1-6

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says, happy is the person whose quiver is full of them! But even if you have wealth, fame and honour, and a rich and fulfilled family life — what if you die unmourned and unsatisfied? What is the point? Verse 3 of the KJV states ‘his soul is not filled with good.’ He is talking about the whole inner life of man; our capacity for feelings, enjoyment, satisfaction. Why is there the emphasis on dying unburied? Does it matter what happens to our bodies when we die? If we are just a bunch of chemicals thrown together, then maybe Richard Dawkins is right — we need to overcome our fear of eating human meat?! But of course the Bible takes a much more humane view of humanity. Our bodies are important, and how we depart this world is as important as how we come into it. We don’t want either the death or burial of a donkey.

What Solomon is saying is that our life should be lived in such a way that when we die we will both be missed and mourned. He contrasts the life of the stillborn child and the life of the man who has it all and yet cannot enjoy it all. A stillborn child comes without meaning, departs in darkness and its name is shrouded. But it has more rest than the man who lives a miserable life on this earth. They both go to the one place: Sheol, the place of the dead. If there is no afterlife then the point is that we all go to the same place, no matter what we have done. The Bible teaches that there is an afterlife — that here we are living in the Shadowlands – and the real, the best reality, is yet to be. I was in a debate on assisted suicide one time with a leader of the secular society. At one point in the debate she declared to the audience, “There is one thing that is certain: we are all going to die.” As a preacher I could not miss that open goal! “Of course we are all going to die, that’s the point of this discussion. It’s what happens after we die that matters. If we are just a blob of meaningless carbon floating from one meaningless existence to another, then why not get it over with as quickly as possible? It is precisely because there is life after death, that life before death matters so much.” Wealth, fame and family mean so much more when they are seen in the context of eternity. •

‘Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’ He will have the burial of a donkey — dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”’ Jeremiah 22:18-19, NIV

LIVING IN THE SHADOWLANDS -

IS THAT ALL? 2019