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Connect May 2016
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What happens next?
The aftermath to Easter never fails to arrest me. First, there is the utterly astounding revelation that Jesus has risen from death and is accessible to us. For me, this is the starting place of my Christian journey: that I can and do have a personal relationship with someone who rules over the whole of what is seen and unseen, my Lord Jesus. I remember when that first happened for me in 1975. It utterly changed my life. Conviction of sin and my need for meaning and purpose in life was a precursor to my conversion. The conversion was to being a follower and worshipper of the living and ruling Son of God, Jesus Christ. But it is the Biblical witness of the Gospel accounts that tell me where I have to go next. Matthew’s acknowledgement that we are to ‘make disciples’, with the important qualification that we are to teach them the things that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28.19-20); Mark’s postscript, underlining the need to preach the Good News everywhere, accompanied with supernatural signs (Mark 16.15-18); Luke’s stress on Jesus’s insistence that the disciples wait until they are clothed with the empowering of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24.47-48), in order to effectively preach repentance and forgiveness of sins; and John’s focus on the foundational expression of love and forgiveness, caring for people, at the centre of all that we do (John 20.21-23). That emphasis on ‘no evangelism without first loving’ is wonderfully expressed by Chris Duffet and Ben Francis in an article in the most recent edition of the BMS Magazine, Engage (pg 17), where they also helpfully note that you do not have to be a full-on extrovert to be effective in evangelism: you can, even as an utter introvert, be really effective if you prioritise reaching out and caring to those in need. But there is something else to remember, as we come out of Easter and head towards Pentecost. We need a real expectation and longing and dependancy on Holy Spirit infilling and enabling. Mission that is not birthed out of prayerful longing for God’s presence felt and God’s directing known is likely to be as ineffective as mission without love and forgiveness and reconciliation at its centre.
Rev Dr Jim Purves
Mission and Ministry Advisor Baptist Union of Scotland
A good challenge and call to face up to as Spring arrives. Start with love, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation among believers. Extend it out into the community. And seek God to ignite it all with His Holy Presence, signs and wonders accompanying. Then we will be set up for a truly Bible based experience of mission.
Greenock Baptist Church thanks the Lord for a new home On the 1 July 2008 George Square Baptist Church and Orangefield Baptist Church united to form Greenock Baptist Church. One of the conditions of the union was to sell both church buildings and seek a neutral home for the new church. In 2011 both church buildings were sold and the church found itself homeless. The Lord was good, providing a series of local halls (and even a cinema!) over the next few years, to serve as a church. During this time we were busy seeking a new home for the church, either a new build or an existing building. Many options were considered, but in every case the Lord shut the door. In January 2015 we were given the verse from Exodus 33:15, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” This became our fervent prayer as we continued to seek the Lord’s will for the fellowship. Then, independently of each other, members of a local church approached members of Greenock Baptist Church to inform them that their congregation had agreed to dissolve their church. The hope of the members of this church was that Christian witness would continue from their building in St Andrew’s Square, Greenock. We arranged for our church members and friends to visit the building and after the visit there was a very positive feeling about the property, a belief that this was the Lord’s provision for the church. In July 2015, the church unanimously decided to enter into negotiations to purchase this church property. By the end February 2016, all legal matters were completed and the keys of the building were handed over to the Trustees of Greenock Baptist Church. On Sunday 28 February we held our first services in our new home. The atmosphere was most encouraging for all of us there and the presence of the Holy Spirit was with us as we worshipped the Lord. Already we have a sense of being back home and are settling in to our building really well. There is a lot to be done to the property to make it suitable to meet our needs and we know that, later this year, we will have to move out again as major work is tackled. This is a time of
big decisions and big changes for Greenock Baptist Church. We give thanks to God for his provision during the years when we were without a building and for providing us with our new home. Please pray with us that the Lord will continue to guide us through the many big decisions to be made as we seek to make the property suitable for the needs of a church in the 21 century. Pray that we will be honest and committed to serving the Lord as a fellowship and as individuals, in the new church building, from the church building and in every aspect of our lives, together and apart.
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Castlemilk Community Church Furniture Ministry Update Standing at the door of a Glasgow tenement ‘close’ last week, struggling to hold a buggy and speak through the buzzer to the top floor tenant we wondered what I could say to someone who speaks no English and has no idea what a Baptist Church is. ‘Hello please let me in’ I said hopefully and after a while there were footsteps on the stairs and a man appeared. As he spoke no English I took that as confirmation he was the right person and we gave him the buggy. We set off upstairs to a very small flat where we were offered a seat on a standard issue grey sofa. We couldn’t see a two year old but putting together these clues we reckoned these were the newly arrived asylum seekers the Red Cross had asked us to find a pram for. “Thank you” seems to be the first word people learn when they come to Glasgow. Yesterday we went to a ‘main door’ address, again at the request of the Red Cross, where another newly arrived Syrian family with several children had very limited cooking equipment and no large pan to cook rice. Knocking on the door again got a response and again I failed to say ‘Baptist Church’. The mention of Red Cross seemed to give confidence and a teenager walked out to my car to carry in the donated stuff we had to pass on to them. But we had managed to communicate better with a third newly arrived family last week. Volunteer Hassan arriving to help with deliveries was a little stunned by the welcome he got. ‘Just the person we need today’ we greeted him as we explained the family we wanted to deliver a sofa to spoke no English and the address the Red Cross had given us did not exist. The delivery crew had been up and down the street yesterday and unable to find number 300 at all. But they don’t like to give up. And Hassan speaks their language! So with great joy we stood by while he phoned and identified the correct address. We delivered the sofa and Hassan was able to have a chat with them about what else they might need. God’s timing indeed. Thank you Baptist Union family. This is the work we are continuing to do with the help of the grant our Union gave us from the refugee appeal.
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SPORTS DAY 2016 REMINDER Sports Day is Saturday 4th June at Stirling University. Registration forms were emailed to churches recently, with a deadline of Wednesday 11th May at 12noon, so churches should be gearing up for another great day. If you’re not competing yourself, there are still lots of ways you can volunteer and get involved in making the day a success. We’d love to hear from you if you could help us in serving the young people and churches who will be competing. We look forward to welcoming lots of you to Stirling, whether competing, volunteering or spectating! If you want more information, or to volunteer, please contact Mo or Jenny on 0141 423 6169 or mo@ scottishbaptist.org.uk
April Prayer Link May 1st Al Nicoll (RAF Chaplain) Praise point: Give thanks for the growth of the station church at RAF Coningsby and for the excellent response to our Christianity Explored course. Prayer point: Please pray that the Christians in the RAF Coningsby community will continue to engage in discipleship and prayer as we seek to grow our faith and reach out to others. Dalkeith Baptist Church Dedridge Baptist Church Dennistoun Baptist Church
May 8th Adam Plenderleith (Chaplain, Glasgow Royal Infirmary) Denny Baptist Church Dingwall Baptist Church We are thankful for the warmth of fellowship in the church and for a few new people worshipping with us. We are also building bridges with the local community thanks to making our building available; which has helped salvage a lunch club, for the elderly, which may have otherwise folded and a charity called Headway Highland, among others, are now regularly using the building. We have also started a dad’s & toddlers group on a Saturday morning once a month. This is all very good for the long term but please pray that God would send us more labourers as we are small in number and can be stretched at times. Drumchapel Baptist Church
May 15th Jack Quinn (Workplace Chaplaincy Scotland) Dumbarton Baptist Church Dumbarton Baptist church has come through many changes this past year. We thank God for his unfailing presence and assurance throughout this time. Please pray that we will know His will as we seek a new Pastor, and His plan for reaching and serving the community we now found ourselves in. Dumfries Baptist Church Praise : We thank God for His Faithfulness to us as we pass the 1.8 million pound mark for our New Building Fund.
Prayer : We ask God for His Strength, Peace and Healing for a number of members of our Fellowship facing serious illness at this time. Duncan Street Baptist Church Praise point – we praise God for His faithfulness and for equipping & enabling us to do what He has called us to do for His glory. Prayer point – Pray that we would see folks saved and discipled well. Pray that new Christians would be established in their faith and that as a fellowship we would go on growing, serving & sharing.
May 22nd Rebekah Sharp (Chaplain, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow) Jim Simpson (Chaplain, Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen) Dundee Central Baptist Church Dunfermline West Baptist Church We give thanks for the Child Blessing which took place on Sunday 17th April when many unchurched members of the family attended the service. Please pray for us as we go into a Vacancy at the end of May, when we say goodbye to our pastor Rev Douglas Whyte and his wife Anne. We pray God’s blessing on them as they continue to serve Him in their retirement. Dunoon Baptist Church Praise God for very encouraging results from recent Alpha programme and pray for follow up “Getting In” programme, Pray for new Community Youth Worker, Kyle Wilson, as he settles in to his new post.
May 29th David Vogan (Chaplain, Nethervale Care Home, Auchlochan) Dunrossness Baptist Church East Mains Baptist Church We thank God for what He is doing here at EMBC and through the ministry of our community project The Village Centre. Please pray for the upcoming refurbishment of our main Church Building which will be taking place at the end of June over a period of 4 weeks. Easterhouse Baptist Church