Well Done Vine Trust

There is a wonderful post on my friend Albert's blog, celebrating 25 years of the Vine Trust. Read it here.

It is wonderful to think that the Lord has so powerfully used the energy and vision of Albert, the stick-at-it-ness and compassion of Willie and all the staff and volunteers to achieve so much in Peru over these years.

Give thanks for the Vine Trust and pray that God will lead this work into the next 25 years.

Email Those New MPs

I've just emailed my MP, Mr Russell Brown (Lab), Constituency of Dumfries and Galloway. This is part of an Open Doors Campaign to email MPs about religious liberty, human rights and the persecution of Christians around the world. You can find this on the Open Doors site here. Please join me in this campaign.

I've copied the email below. Let's stand together with our sisters and brothers who are suffering for their faith in the Lord Jesus.

Dear Mr Brown,

As one of your constituents I want to congratulate you on your election victory and appointment as member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway.

I recognise the importance of the task ahead of you and want to assure you of my prayers for you at this significant time and in a new political context.

I am deeply concerned about issues of religious liberty and human rights, and particularly the persecution of Christians around the world. I would be delighted to know if you will be able to take up specific issues of persecution in the coming months. I attach a short briefing paper on this topic which I hope will be of help and interest.

Mr Brown, I will look forward to contacting you in future as specific issues arise.
Once again please accept my warmest congratulations on your election as my MP.

Yours sincerely,
Rev Gordon Kennedy

Recommended Books

Over at Euangelion Joel Willitts has an interesting post, with a lot of comments, on the theme of 'A book every university student should read'. Well worth a look here.

So I was thinking, for ministers/pastors and preachers, what two books would you recommend?
I've picked my two:

1. Peter White The Effective Pastor
This is a great book by an experienced pastor and church leader. In four sections, covering a range of ministry tasks, this would be a valuable book for a calls of student, or a ministers reading group to work through and learn from.

2. Eugene Peterson Five Smooth Stone For Pastoral Work
I'm sure that Peterson has written a poor book, or a chapter that is less good, it's just that I haven't found it yet! This was my first Peterson book and is a classic.
Peterson works though key issues of pastoral work using the five Megalith texts: Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, using the themes of each of these books to guide his refelctions on an area of essential pastoral work. If you ever need a book to persuade you that you still have a lot to learn about pastoral work, this is it.

I've not offered any kind of review of these books as it's a while since I've read them. When I read them again I'll over more comments.

What books would you recommend to young minsiters, students or for a ministers reading group?

Robin Mark

A friend, Betty, has let me listen to her Robin Mark cds, and I've been enjoying them all week.

At the Kingdom Come Conference in Feb (see my posts here) Robin Mark was the main worship leader and that was the first time I'd heard Robin's music. Robin is a song writer and worship leader from Northern Ireland - visit his web site here.

Here is a youtube video presentation of one of Robin's songs Blessed Be Your Name. Enjoy.

Well Done World Mission

I've just finished the World Mission Council Report, well what do you read first in the morning?

I find it really encouraging to read such a strong call to the church to support and stand beside Christians in situations of persecution around the world, pages 7/2-7/16 in the volume of reports 2010.

Also good to see World Mission commending such agencies as:
Open Doors
Barnabas Fund
Release International
Interserve

All we need now is for Church and Society to join in and call the Church of Scotland to stand beside Christians being persecuted in the UK, for wearing a cross or preaching the gospel in public.

Biblefresh Scotland - Press Release

Here is the Biblefresh Scotland press release. Don't forget to come to one of the three launch events.

BIBLEFRESH LAUNCH IN SCOTLAND


Biblefresh is set to change the way people look at the bible. For many in our churches the Bible has become tedious and toxic, rather than treasured, trusted and true. Biblefresh will change this perception and is asking hundreds of churches, agencies, colleges, festivals and denominations to come on a one year journey in 2011 as together we seek to encourage, inspire and equip Christians across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the Word of God.

Biblefresh will be launched at the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly where well known theologian and broadcaster, Elaine Storkey will join with Krish Kandiah at Carrubbers Christian Centre in Edinburgh at 7.30 on Monday May 24th to introduce the four strands of Biblefresh - Reading the Bible, Bible training, Bible translation and Bible experiences.

A book inspiring Christians to reconnect with the Bible will be launched during these events on May 24th and 25th. The Biblefresh book is a collection of essays written by Christians from a variety of churches and organisations and is the key resource of the Biblefresh movement. The contributors’ main objective is to share their wisdom in order to help Christians to re-engage with the Bible in a practical way.

Krish Kandiah, Director of Churches in Mission at the Evangelical Alliance said: “This book is the indispensable guide to making the most of 2011 for promoting Bible reading. Packed full of practical advice and inspiring stories, make sure everyone in your church has a copy. Let’s see what God will do through the Bible in 2011 and beyond.”

Biblefresh also addresses the main challenges which surround Bible reading and offers valuable advice on how to confidently connect scriptures with everyday living. There are also tips on how to share the message in a creative way and how to reach different audiences. The Leaders Guide section addresses church leaders directly and challenges them to pledge to provide the opportunity for people to experience the Bible.

Reverend Gordon Kennedy, Minister at St Ninians Stranraer said: “Our imaginations for who we are, are shaped by so many things in our increasingly complex world and culture. Biblefresh brings a host of stunningly supportive resources into contact with that world. This book is a must read for anyone wanting the Bible to shape their imagination and identity in today’s world.”

Launch events take place on
May 24th at 12.30p.m. in Glasgow at Renfield St Stephen’s 260 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4JP


May 24th at 7.00 p.m. for 7.30p.m. At Carrubbers Christian Centre, 65, High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR


May 25th at 12.30p.m. At St Peter’s Free Church, 4, St Peter’s street, Dundee DD1 4JJ

heART&soul

Fiona is involved in a new project, a creative ministry called heART&soul.

Read her post here, and find the heART&soul website here.

Art and craft work has long been recognised as a valuable way to engage more than our minds in the things of God. And that is the key aim of this website and forum.

I'm learning that what we have called virtual communities are every bit as real and effective in offering support, encouragement and communion as what we may call 'face to face' communities.

Whether you are into crafting or not the site and forum are worth a look, and if you are why not join in.

We need to finish Church Without Walls

In an earlier post I made some general comments on the Report of the Special Commission on Article 3 – here.

In this post I want to engage with the critical comments about the Church Without Walls reports made by the Special Commission in section 8.2 of their report. (Reports to GA 2010 page 25/15)

The CWW report was received by the General Assembly in 2001, read the report here.

Deriving their criticism of CWW from the 2005 report of the Panel on Doctrine this year’s Special Commission challenges the value of CWW’s emphasis on the local congregation, suggesting that CWW presents a vision of the church which is more congregational in polity than Presbyterian.

This criticism of CWW was flawed in 2005 and remains flawed in 2010 and needs to be robustly challenged.

The key to understanding CWW is the call of Jesus, ‘Follow me’. This call is not issued to churches, but to individuals to follow Jesus in the specific, local footsteps of his journeys in Galilee and Judea and today in the journey of faith in Stranraer or Lewis, Drumchapel or Drummnadrochit. CWW tells us
That calling is local rather than general. (Reports to GA 2001, page 36/9)
Faithful discipleship requires the call of Jesus to touch ground in locations.

On the shape of the church CWW offers us this vision:
Local church is the focus of action
Regional church is the focus of support
Central church is the focus of essential servicing and national role (Reports to GA 2001, page 36/16)

This is not congregationalism (I’m shouting this as I type).
The place within our church of mission, of questions, of initiative, of vision is, or should be the local church. When we try to take this away from local church we deskill the local church which learns to expect an expert to come along with all they need. When we try to take initiative, or build vision nationally or regionally no one in any location recognises it or shares it or is enthused by it.

The regional church is the context in which support, fellowship, encouragement, sharing happens. Except it doesn’t at present, hence the great tragedy of the failure of our church to renew and reshape Presbyteries. If there is a growing congregationalism within the Church of Scotland blame should not be laid at the door of CWW, but at the broken Presbyteries which leave local congregations with little option but to ‘go it alone’.

The central church, I would now prefer the term national church, should be restricted to a limited national role, carrying out essential services to ensure equity within the church and being a point of contact for national and international partners. The bigger the national church the harder it becomes for regional or local church to function properly – we need to make the centre smaller (shouting again!) By this I don’t mean a smaller number of committees doing the same amount of work, but less work!!

This is no kind of congregationalism, this is no kind of denial of fellowship between congregations, this in no kind of denial of the catholicity of the church. If the need for change were not so urgent such naïve criticisms would not merit a response, but the need is urgent, if change does not come in a planned way it will fall upon us as a catastrophe when the black-hole-like national church becomes too dense for the rest of the church to support and it collapses in upon itself.

The CWW process is at a crucial junction here. CWW can become a resource for a limited number of congregation who find it helpful, but if that is all then CWW will have failed in it’s big, comprehensive vision for a renewed church. CWW needs to be fully implemented at the national and regional levels of the church, but this is what is being resisted.

It’s been nine years but there is still time, just a little time, for the vision of CWW to be released into the national and regional church. But if it doesn’t happen soon it will be too late.

Article 3, What's that about then?

I’ve been reading the report of the Special Commission on the Third Article Declaratory of the Church of Scotland in this year’s Blue Book. Just in case someone reading my blog doesn’t have the Articles Declaratory off by heart, here’s the text of Article 3:


This Church is in historical continuity with the Church of Scotland which was reformed in 1560, whose liberties were ratified in 1592, and for whose security provision was made in the Treaty of Union of 1707. The continuity and identity of the Church of Scotland are not prejudiced by the adoption of these Articles. As a national Church representative of the Christian Faith of the Scottish people it acknowledges its distinctive call and duty to bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry.

And a link to the text of the full Articles here.

I’ve been a minister in rural parishes for 17 years now, so I have some commitment to the idea of the Church of Scotland being in all the parishes of Scotland. I know things need to change but I’m generally not unhappy with Article 3 as a ‘mission statement’ for the Church of Scotland. There are some phrases which do need changed to better reflect the cultural context within which we find ourselves and more clearly commit the church to a missional engagement with that culture.

I am amazed, however, that this Special Commission finds no need to change the text of the Article, but that it is recommending to the General Assembly an Act of the Church declaring the sense in which the church understands this Article. If the wording of the Article is sufficiently unclear as to require an Act to explain it, then it needs changed. Elements of our constitution, such as the Articles, should be clear in themselves. An example may serve, in the proposed Act, section (4) reads:

The Church of Scotland understands the words “a national church representative of the Christian faith of the Scottish people” as a recognition of both the Church’s distinctive place in Scottish history and culture and its continuing responsibility to engage the people of Scotland wherever they might be with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Reports to GA 2010 page 25/24)

But these two phrases don’t say anything like the same thing! The text of the Act is making an assumption about the Scottish people, namely, that the Scottish people have a Christian faith which is represented by the Church of Scotland. Now, this assumption in 2010 sounds plain daft, Scotland never was a Christian nation and there never was a time, except perhaps between 1560 and the 1620’s when the Church of Scotland could claim to be in a meaningful sense representative of any Christian faith held by a majority of the people of Scotland.

Section (5) of the proposed Act:
The Church of Scotland understands the phrase “bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry” to mean a commitment to maintain worshipping, witnessing and serving Christian congregations throughout Scotland. (Reports to GA 2010 page 25/24)

But this is a withdrawal from the terms of the Article, ‘throughout Scotland’ is nowhere near the same as ‘in every parish of Scotland’.

However, my main question about this is what is meant by ‘the ordinances of religion’? Traditional I was taught, and have taught others, that this phrase specifically refers to offering services of burial and marriage to the people of one’s parish, that is, every person in Scotland has a parish minister upon whom they may call to marry them or conduct a funeral for them, and that parish minister should respond to all such requests as a duty laid upon them by Article 3. In 31 pages of text of the report the Special Commission do not mention marriage or burial services once, except by way of the euphemism ‘matching, hatching and dispatching’ (page 25/23). Are we to understand from the proposed Declaratory Act that parish ministers are no longer under any duty or obligation in terms of Article 3 to conduct services of marriage or burial for those in their parish?

So, I find substantial differences between the text of the Article and the proposed Declaratory Act, of such a serious nature that if we adopt the sense given to the Article in the proposed Act we really do need to change the text of the Article to properly reflect what is a completely new understanding of this Article.

Tearfund Scotland

I had another encouraging meeting with Lynne Paterson at Tearfund Scotland yesterday.

We are hosting a lunch next Thursday, 20 May, 12.45, at the Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. Onone and Jean-Marc will speak on Tearfund's response to the earthquake in Haiti and Lynne will briefly introduce some of the Tearfund resources for local congregations: Connected Church, Just People, Discovery.
If you are in Edinburgh next Thu please come along. If you are a commissioner at the General Assembly this will be the best free lunch of the fringe week, so please come along.

The Best Sentence

I've done it! I found the best sentence in the 546 pages (approx) of this year's volume of reports to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Page 4/5, section 1.19, in a quote from Vincent Donovan, in Christianity Re-discovered, 'the time for endless meetings and seminars about missionary strategy is over ... "just go and talk to people about God and the Christian message"'.

What impact would it have for the gospel if the Moderator were to constitute the General Assembly and then charge all present to go home and spend the week talking to others about Jesus?

Preaching re-imagined

There's a great post from my friend Albert on his blog, read it here.

Albert is responding to a post by Krish Kandiah on preaching as part of the biblefresh initiative, read that post here. I'll get to commenting of Krish's post soon.

I think Albert is right, we need to see preaching more intimately connected to the life of the congregation and the Christian than it often can be at present.
We need to encourage and affirm those hearing sermons to respond with questions and comments.
We need to create opportunities for this to happen in a safe environment, i.e. one where the preacher does not feel 'got at'.

This is a real challenge to us as preacher, and a significant change in engagement with preaching for those who listen. But I think it is worth it.

Christian Campaigning

I have been pleased to read the report on 'The purpose and nature of campaigning - a Christian perspective', Church and Society, section 11.2.2 (2/61)

For about ten years now at various General Assemblies I've challenged the practice of approving of unlawful protesting at Faslane against the retention and deployment of Trident. Last year I achieved agreement from the Council to prepare this report, and I think it is very good.

The historical review and the theological comment on the responsibility of Christians to campaign on behalf of the poor and victims of injustice is really good and timely.

One major point for the report which I'm not sure about is the claim that it is legitimate to use unlawful means of campaigning where 'the immediate purpose may be to promote public awareness or keep an issue before public attention.' (11.2.4.3 2/64)
For me, the only justifiable cause for unlawful campaigning is where the democratic process is denied to some in the community or is being abused by those elected to serve. To break the law, simply to keep a matter in the view of the public is not something, in the age of blogs, twitter and facebook, that can seriously be proposed as a legitimate use of unlawful campaigning.

So, Ian and Ewen, thanks for the report, but still some work to do here.

Scripture References

I found a great new piece of code reftagger - get it here.


If you use blogs or other sites and include references to Scripture this is a great way of having the text you refer to pop up whenever you move the cursor over the link.

Thanks to Charlie Cameron on whose blog I first saw this used. Read Charlie's blog at St Andrew's Bellsmyre

General Assembly 2010

I'm a late addition to our Presbytery's list of commissioners so I only received my blue book this week.

There's a pdf file of the text on the accompanying cd, and it says a lot about the church that the cover picture on the file is in black and white. Let's see who wants to start the comments on that one!

Over 500 pages, I think the key reports will be on Article III and the Council of Ministries, that not to say there won't be good stuff in other reports. So, I'll post some blog thoughts as I come to them in the book.

Rockin' Blues

When I remember I listen to Paul Jones' Radio 2 show on Monday night, 7 pm, web page here.

A few weeks back Paul had a two show session from Joe Bonamassa which was great. So I bought the new cd while on holiday at Easter time.

If you like blues, blues/rock, guitar music with a great beat, this is a good disc and a great sound. Well worth a listen.

Thanks to Paul Jones for pointing me in this direction.