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MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND JULY/AUGUST 2018 • £2.00
PRAYER DIARY JULY/AUG 2018
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. Luke 6:12 Sun 15th This morning remember those who gather to worship in Inverinate Community Hall, with Rev. Roddy Rankin as interim moderator and Mr Ken Macdonald, as they spread the gospel in that area. Mon 16th Please pray for the officebearers in the London congregation as they interview candidates for their ministry assistant vacancy. Give thanks for the ongoing ministry of their Women’s Worker, Marketa Staukova.
Wed 25th Give thanks for the many child sponsorship charities working in developing countries to provide for the basic needs and education of the poorest children and their communities. Pray for Christian agencies in partnership with local churches. Thurs 26th Pray for the induction planned for tomorrow in Gairloch. Give thanks with the congregation as they welcome Rev. Colin Macleod and family into their manse.
Tues 17th Continue to remember Rev. Suraj Kasula as he pastors the Shekinah Evangelical Church in Nepal and praise God for the funds raised by the WfM to buy land for the church.
Fri 27th Skye shinty camp begins today. Pray for Rev. Donnie G MacDonald as he takes over as leader of the camp and for safety in travel for all those travelling to Skye.
Wed 18th Remember ‘Bear Necessities’ in your prayers as WfM raise funds to help a small medical team make fortnightly visits to Orizari, Bulgaria, to give basic medical care.
Sat 28th Kincraig camp with Niall and Emma Lipp and Renfrew Seniors with Innes MacSween begin today. Pray for the young campers leaving home for the first time and for seasoned campers as they join for a week of fun and fellowship.
Thurs 19th WfM also aim to raise funds for ‘Helping Disabled Refugees in the Middle East’. Pray for anyone that you may know involved in this work. Fri 20th ‘Philippines Basketball for Jesus’ has shared the gospel in the slums of Manila for 10 years and has now purchased land. WfM will raise funds towards their building project. Pray for the 100 or so worshippers who gather on Sunday and the young folk who attend a weekly ministry club. Sat 21st Pray for preparations for the WfM Away Day in September and for Catriona Murray and Megan Patterson as they prepare their messages. Sun 22 Remember Rev. Joel Dykstra as he comes to minister in the vacant congregation of Trotternish. Pray that he and his family will be blessed and be a blessing as he spends his sabbatical period in the congregation. nd
Mon 23rd Praise God with the Bible Society in Honduras as they have been given access to teach Biblical Ethics in the National School of Police. They will also run this training with prosecutors and others in the legal profession and everyone will be given their own copy of the life-changing Word of God. Tues 24th Pray for Donald Macleod as he has been appointed interim Camps Supervisor. Remember also Dan Paterson, who has had to give up this position for health reasons, and Camps administrator Laura MacAulay as she coordinates the summer activities and makes plans for next year.
Sun 29th Pray for the Free North congregation as they begin a new phase in their ministry. Ask for guidance for them as they look for a new pastor. Mon 30 Pray for more Christians to offer themselves as foster or adoptive parents. Ask God to grant wisdom, understanding and insight to those responsible for screening potential carers and matching children with new families. th
Tues 31st Pray that a more suitable venue will be found to enable the Esk Valley church plant work to develop more fully. Remember Rev. Tom Muir as he works there. Wed 1st Give thanks with the Skye and Wester Ross presbytery as Revs Marcos Florit, Lachie MacDonald, John MacLean and Dan Paterson are all recovering from various illnesses. Thurs 2nd There are a number of international churches in cities across Turkey. Pray for their ministries to both the foreign and indigenous communities. In many cases their members will only be in Turkey for a short time, so they have to live with a constant turnover of people, which creates its own particular challenges. Fri 3rd Pray for the committee making final plans for the Positively Presbyterian conference taking place in Lendrick Muir later this month. Ask that all those leading sessions will be blessed in their preparations.
Sat 4th As the last two camps for our young folk end today, pray for safety in travel and for a blessing to follow in all the young lives who have heard the gospel in a fun environment over the summer. Sun 5th Pray for the congregation in Pairc (Gravir) and their interim moderator, Rev. Malcolm MacDonald, as they look for a minister to work in their community. Mon 6th Pray for our mission board as it moves forward with a new strategy, ‘Generation’. Pray that we will all be motivated to speak clearly of the Lord we trust in. Tues 7th Pray that the vision to plant thirty new Free Church congregations by 2030 will begin to happen and that we will reach new people with the gospel. Wed 8th Pray for the development of our existing congregations, believing that God can renew and restore local churches to fulfil their part in the Great Commission. Thurs 9th Pray that our congregations will be filled with people who are equipped to live lives of worship and service and make a difference in their community. Fri 10th Global Mission is the fourth category of ‘Generation’. Pray that as we partner with other organisations we can enable people to hear and embrace the gospel. Sat 11th B.A.S.E. camp begins today. Pray for the young adults as they begin this week of intense teaching, banter, fun and fellowship under the leadership of Calum and Christina MacMillan. Sun 12th Pray for the congregation of South Uist & Benbecula as they have been granted permission by the General Assembly to call a minister. Remember Rev. David MacLeod as he serves as their interim moderator. Mon 13th The Board of Ministry is scheduled to meet over the next two days. Ask the Lord to guide them as they deal with issues relating to students for the ministry, probationers, ministers, elders and deacons. Tues 14th Pray with CARE as they work to maintain human dignity and to support the most vulnerable in society. Ask God to show us how our church can promote Christian community-based initiatives.
Prayer requests to: ian.macdonald57@btinternet.com. Please take time to send requests for your congregation or ministry to be included in forthcoming Records. These prayer notes are prepared 5 weeks in advance of publication.
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FREE CHURCH NEWS THE FREE CHURCH LAUNCHES 'GENERATION'
T
he free church of scotland has launched a new initiative called generation.
Agreed by previous General Assemblies, it is hoped the new structure and vision will provide a vehicle for effective and efficient gospel work at home and abroad. Mission Co-ordinator Sarah Johnson said, ‘Generation is a network of missional partnerships in Scotland and throughout the world. In other words, Generation better connects what we do nationally and internationally. Generation is much more than just a name. It's an idea behind which we are focusing our work and our people. Our purpose doesn't change but our unique beginning-to-end perspective on all things means we learn from past generations, serve this generation and plan for the next generation.’
Congregations were provided with a booklet at the weekend outlining its vision, aims and purposes. It states, ‘Generation exists to generate hope in Christ, generate positivity within and outside our church and generate confidence in our denomination, among the wider Christian church, and with our partners and our funders.’ One of the main strategy elements outlined in the new booklet was to create four ‘streams of work’: developing existing churches, planting new churches, equipping our people and working with the global church. Most, if not all, of the work of Generation will now fall into one of these categories. • For more information on Generation please visit their new website: www.generation-mission.org
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ASSEMBLY 2018
A SUMMARY REPORT OF THE FREE CHURCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES In The Board of Trustees’ report to the General Assembly, it was conveyed that there had been an increase in congregational remittances and other donations over the 2017 period with an overall ‘positive net movement in funds’. The Board wished to ‘record its gratitude to those who gave generously to the work of the Church and commended congregations that have worked hard to meet the remittance requirements.’
A new Free Church Book Club will also run in conjunction with the store, which will provide reviews and recommendation from members across the Church. Recognition and appreciation were given to Miriam Montgomery, who had taken the lead to establish the new online facility and continues to administer the store. PSALMODY & PRAISE COMMITTEE This past year the Psalmody and Praise Committee focused efforts on their digital presence online through social media as well as the introduction of new iOS and Android apps. The Committee was approached by Christian Hymns, a hymnody app, and the Evangelical Movement of Wales to incorporate the text and tunes from Sing Psalms. Successfully launched in August of last year, the Committee said they were grateful for this new partnership. A standalone Sing Psalms app was also launched in December of last year providing people with a single resource that includes the words and melodies in one place. Both the Sing Psalms and Christian Hymns UK apps can be downloaded from the iOS and Android app stores. In October last year, the Committee held a Praise Workshop in Dundee. The workshop focused on singing technique, accompaniment, precenting and harmony. They observed, ‘It is always good when people get together across the Church to sing praise.’ It is hoped that various digital resources will also be made available at a future date, including a tune parts app, PDFs of tunes and a manual for precentors.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Professor James M. Fraser CBE
In response to the financial report, The General Assembly ‘acknowledged with humility and thanksgiving the provision made by the Lord for the work of the Church.’ Appreciation was also given for those who ‘gave in a regular, responsible and liberal manner’ and for the legacies received over the last year. The Board expressed their pleasure that earlier this year a Communications Oversight Group was established to research the fundamental communication needs of the Church and how it presents itself to the wider public. It is hoped that from the review and research carried out a new strategy will be implemented.
MISSION BOARD REPORT In his introduction to the Mission Board Report to the General Assembly, Mission Board Chairman Rev. Dr Bob Akroyd said, ‘The task before us is immense. Our resources are limited. Those opposing us are many. Our time is short. At key junctures, the church has been given passionate enthusiasts. If ever a time was
Mrs. Lizzie Leighton, 10ofThose
The Board was also delighted to have recently started a partnership with the online book retailer 10ofthose following the closure of the Free Church bookshop in January. The new store will allow people to browse and purchase a range of affordable titles including some favourites from Free Church authors.
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Mrs Sarah Johnson (Mission Coordinator) and Rev. Dr. Robert Akroyd, (Chairman of the Mission Board)
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FREE CHURCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY MAY 2018
MODERATOR’S ADDRESS: REV. ANGUS MACRAE
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My fathers in the faith, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, I address you today on THE SHALOM OF JESUS: PEACE IN A WORLD OF RAGE. The message of the gospel is a call to peace and reconciliation. Shalom (ם ׁ ֹ שלו ׁ ָ ) is the beautiful Hebrew word for PEACE, derived from shalem (שלֹום ׁ ָ ), meaning to be sound or complete. The word root is formed from three consonants, Shin, Lamedh and Mem, a form common to the Semitic languages, always meaning WHOLENESS, HARMONY and PEACE. Shalom, peace be with you, is the standard greeting on meeting and parting in modern Hebrew. A biblical example of shalom as greeting is ‘Shalom be to you, and shalom be to your house, and shalom be to all that you have.’1 Jesus promised his disciples peace as he prepared to leave this world: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’2 Shalom appears in the Hebrew Bible over 250 times. The root is found in famous names like Jerusalem, the City of Peace, or Solomon, the Man of Peace. It is a salvation word because ultimate peace is peace with God. Peace and reconciliation are also key concepts in the New Testament language of salvation.3 In this address I will apply God’s shalom to various needs.
Psalm 122 instructs us to ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ and for ‘peace…and security within your citadels’. In social and political terms there must be peace with justice and security for all the peoples of that land. Antisemitism is an ugly, racist moral cancer and it is spreading again in Europe. Extremists on the political left and right are hostile to the Jewish people. Some justify their hate using pro-Islamist or pro-Palestinian rhetoric. Our political discourse needs shalom, just as Israel and her near neighbours need shalom. This year, as Moderator, I intend visiting the AuschwitzBirkenau Memorial, in Oświęcim, during a visit to a European Church Planting Conference in Poland. The Auschwitz No. 1 death camp has a metal entrance arch bearing the slogan Arbeit Macht Frei, ‘Work Sets You Free’. In an act of passive resistance, the slave labourers deliberately placed the letter B upside down. They knew the Nazi slogan was a lie. Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’4 Shalom is a weaving. It means being made whole by being mutually dependent on others. Much as a woven piece of cloth is formed from thousands of threads placed carefully together, so too the fabric of the world and the complex social, physical, psychological and spiritual threads of human life are a weaving together of many threads. To experience shalom, each thread has to go over, under, around and through every other thread. Healthy bodies enjoy physical shalom. For our bodies the ultimate unravelling of shalom is pain and death. Hearts full of anger or guilt experience an unravelling of shalom. Theologian Cornelius Plantinga explains: ‘The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in equity, fulfilment and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom…. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight...a rich state of affairs, in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts are faithfully and fruitfully employed...all under the arc of God’s love. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.’5
1) SHALOM FOR A WORLD DIVIDED BY HATRED AND RAGE 2018 is a year of anniversaries, many directly related to the theme of peace. It is 70 years since the State of Israel was founded. The Balfour Declaration, 101 years ago, stated the creation of a national home for the Jewish people within Palestine as British Government policy. Born in war, and in the aftermath of the European holocaust, modern Israel continues to live with the threat of violence and terrorism. The recent exchange of fire between Iranian proxy forces in Syria and Israeli forces on the Golan Heights is a concerning development which could easily lead to war. Israeli society exists with border fences and heavily policed crossing points where tensions can turn to violence. While many friends celebrate the founding of Israel, others, including Arab and Christian Palestinians, remember 1948 and 1967 as times of a modern Exodus, as they or their parents fled the Holy Land. 1
2 3
4 5
The words of David’s men to Nabal, 1 Samuel 25:6, NIV Anglicised edition © 1979, 1984, 2011, Hodder & Stoughton, with transliteration added. John 14:27, NIV © 2011. The Septuagint (LXX), an ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, translates shalom with sózó (σῴζω), which basically means to save; as well as eiréné (εἰρήνη), meaning peace and wholeness; and teleios (τέλειος), meaning perfect or complete. John 8:31-32, NIV © 2011. Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1995), p10. See also Plantinga’s Educating for Shalom,https://bit.ly/2JUem0z
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Letter from
South Korea BY CALLUM BOWSIE
S
o,
the
‘meeting
of
the
century’
happened after all, and only a month after the North and South Korean leaders met. Both summits are significantly symbolic. But they’re symbolic in very different ways and thus the reception in South Korea to both summits has been distinctly different. But why? Why was the international community more interested in the Singapore summit, while the Koreans were more interested in the Korean summit?
powerful man in the world. South Koreans understood what the Korean summit was about, they know the history and culture, which many foreign commentators don’t, and it seemed like a natural next step after competing together in the Winter Olympics. The Singapore summit on the other hand was held for unknown political intentions. Symbolism isn’t always bad — it can express and guide aspirations in new ways — but for South Koreans symbolic is all they are…for now.
six parties that make up the current National Assembly are all under three years old because party splits and merges are so frequent here. It means when new political events occur on the Korean peninsula, unlike the West, they don’t become hysterical. Instead, they’ve learnt to welcome these kinds of milestones with reservation. It can be easy to presume SK must be even more fixated about NK, and thus the summit, than the West is, given their close proximity and ties. But actually,
USA and North Korea take part in Singapore summit.
One reason is because there is a fundamental difference between meeting your long-lost family and meeting the most
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South Koreans are politically astute. They live in one of the most volatile and scandal-ridden political landscapes in Asia. The
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it is these very factors which reduce their fascination with NK. NK isn’t material for newsflashes, it’s their enduring reality, their
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national subconsciousness; they are South Korean because of what is north. But one must also remember that SK has been an independent country for 70 years. In that time, it has become the world’s 11th largest economy, an entertainment powerhouse and reared three generations through five very different republics. So while the North/South situation may not have changed much, attitudes have. The young live in a very different era. Only a tiny minority have grandparents who remember one Korea; hence they
Christians, have thoughtlessly aspired for unity without thinking about the reality of the situation, and prayed for a constitutional solution that God may not see fit for his kingdom. The day after the Singapore summit was Election Day, which is another reason why the summit wasn’t Korea’s main focus. But regardless of the election’s timing, SK has long had its own domestic political mess to sort out first. In 2016, former conservative President Park Guen-hye was impeached for ‘influence-peddling’ and imprisoned in April for 24
Former South Korea Park Geun-hye President imprisoned for 24 years
don’t miss something they never knew. Their focus is elsewhere: getting into the top universities, getting the latest technology, or getting their National Service over with, which is only required because of the divide. I’m privileged to teach 100 young Koreans every week and it’s been fascinating hearing their unscripted views on NK. In their naivety they’re delighted about the summits, and liberal President Moon Jae-in has become their new hero. Like their forefathers they want peace, but where they differ is that the old want reunification, while the young generally don’t. I asked my students why: ‘Because we are different,’ ‘It will cost us money,’ ‘We won’t understand them,’ ‘We are a democracy.’ I was initially disappointed, but at least their priorities are right; peace is the most important goal and often Koreans, particularly
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years, along with her cohorts and then her predecessors. It caused the political right wing to split into pro and anti-Park parties. This is because Koreans are more captivated by the politics of the person than of the party. Therefore, when Park (the daughter of the beloved military dictator of the
60s-70s) was impeached, each party’s NK policy became less important to winning votes. Since the recent summit there’s a strange paradox in SK politics because both the left and right wing support the NK-USA summit — but for different reasons. The political left is often characterised as being sympathetic towards NK and against the USA’s military presence in the region. The political right, on the other hand, is characterised by their support of the USA being a military deterrent in SK. The Singapore summit not only recognises — and arguably legitimises — NK’s right to determine Korea’s future, but also justifies the influence of the USA in Korea’s future too. Last weekend I hiked up Cheonmasan Mountain. As I watched the sun set upon North Korea’s Ahobiryong mountains, the beauty of an endless mountain range glowing in the sun’s amber suddenly made the politics happening down below irrelevant in the grand scale of things. When we ‘stop and consider God’s wonders’, just as Elihu instructed Job to do (Job 37:14-16), we realise just how much we do not and cannot know, and it humbles us. There’s a new dawn coming in ‘The Land of the Morning Calm’. We don’t know what it will look like, but God does, and that’s all that matters! •
The sun sets on North Korea.
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B ONH O EFF ER Record columnist DAYSPRING MACLEOD reflects on the subject of her first book
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S
ome
of
you
may
know
that, this May, Christian Focus published my first solo book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Spoke in the Wheel. This is part of their Trailblazers series for 8-14-year-olds about important figures in Christianity. Soon after I announced the book on social media, someone responded that, because of Bonhoeffer’s liberal theology, it was misguided to think he was a Christian at all. While I think the article he attached trumped up the charges a bit, I do have real reservations about Bonhoeffer’s theology. He was a broad enough individual to be claimed by both the conservative and liberal camps of Christianity; to read Eric Metaxas’ book Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, one wouldn’t know Bonhoeffer was anything but evangelical, whereas to read Charles Marsh’s Strange Glory, he was an academic with a strong ethical side, and was probably gay(!). Choose your Bonhoeffer. Personally — in the same way I think of Simon Peter — I like Dietrich Bonhoeffer better for his complexities and weaknesses. Like Peter, fear was a weakness he had to overcome. Like Peter, he staked his all on something he at first only dimly understood. Granted, he was more educated than the fisherman, but some of that education was an actual handicap — he had to overcome the liberal German seminaries’ insistence at that time that God did not even exist, and the German churches’ insistence on compromise, paying lip service to heretical Nazi doctrines. Speaking against these doctrines, running ‘unofficial’ seminaries, supporting Jewish friends and family, publishing a book on the (Jewish) Psalms, and finally joining the Resistance as a double agent in the Abwehr (then the military intelligence agency) were all steps down his final path. He has a reputation as the ‘pastor who plotted to
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kill Hitler’. I think of him as the ‘chaplain to the Resistance’. Bonhoeffer had a way out of the War. He had secured a position teaching theology in New York in 1939, when a major persecution of German Christians as well as Jews was inevitable. He stayed in New York for three weeks before giving in to his conscience and accepting that Christ was calling him back to Germany. He left America seeing no future other than imprisonment or death — but he was a captive to Christ. He had recognised the voice of the Saviour in a black church in Harlem ten years before, and now he recognised the Call. One of the reasons why I think Bonhoeffer was a truly saved person is the way in which God has used him to bolster my spiritual life (and many others). I believe we are entering an era when we are on the verge of a new wave of anti-Christian persecution. We need the examples of those who have gone before. So how does Bonhoeffer help us to stand, and to overcome? When he’s getting on that ship in 1939, the last passenger ship to leave America for Europe before the War shut down the Atlantic, knowing he’s going to a future that’s certain only of suffering, but going anyway because ‘I could have no part in rebuilding Germany if I do not share in her suffering.’ When he’s desperately ashamed of refusing to preach at a funeral service for a Jewish relation, and agonises ‘I can’t think what I was so afraid of’ — but funnels that shame into repentance, and uses it to fuel his support of the Jews. When he’s in prison and continues his work on his book Ethics, knowing that the Nazis and their evil restrictions wouldn’t be there forever, and the Work must continue. When he’s in prison, and sends letters rejoicing with friends who are getting married and having children, delighting that ‘even in
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this midst of suffering God gives us his great yes.’ When he’s in prison and writes home that he was afraid he would break under torture and interrogation, but has found that God always gives him the strength just as he needs it. When he’s just finished preaching his last ever sermon, and two guards enter the room and say ‘Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us.’ Bonhoeffer knew that, even when God doesn’t rescue, God is good. He knew that, even when God doesn’t rescue, he still rescues. For those of us who have not lived alongside it, ‘life in death’ remains a paradox. I rather think that for Bonhoeffer, ‘life in death’ was the only sanity in a world gone mad. He once said, ‘No one has ever become a Christian who has not from that time forth longed to go home.’ He said, ‘We spend our lives shuddering and trembling at death, and who knows but for a Christian it might not be the most glorious experience in the world?’ This was not empty theology from the safe distance of a seminary. The guards said ‘Come with us,’ and Dietrich turned to a fellow prisoner and said ‘This is the end, but for me the beginning of life.’ Without the suffering, Bonhoeffer would be a controversial theologian, the writer of The Cost of Discipleship but also of the liberal tome Ethics. If he had stayed in New York, that would be his legacy. God let him suffer, and that suffering is a grace to us, because it is an example of one who laid his life down trusting that his life was safe in God. These are the things that give context to the controversy of Bonhoeffer’s writings. These are what give me hope that I’ll meet Dietrich in heaven one day, and we’ll rejoice together at what God has brought us through. This is why our children should know about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. •
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