We had a wonderful creative Easter here in Bo’ness. I just want to pay tribute to a brilliant team of people who put together the Easter services and all the other reflective events many of which involved creative media. The chancel murals are quite outstanding thanks to the creative work of Rae and Heather and the back up team hat sorted the pulleys so that the paints could come up and down on a weekly basis. Thank you to all who helped with the Labyrinth. have a look at some of these pictures on my mac album I hope you all manage to get some time now to relax and enjoy Easter Monday

Friday proved to be a very cold and windy day here in Bo’ness, as I think it was all around Scotland. However, I’m glad to report that a good number of ministers got out on the streets and took the church to the people. I was delighted that my colleague Len Bennett who is a Pastor in the Apostolic Church came up to join us for our Good Friday Service. Len, was  carrying a cross he made over 20 years ago he had  70×7 printed on the cross and this he tells me has been a talking point over the years.  As we walked along the street together with  the cross we found people looking on, wondering what it was all about. We ended up standing outside TESCO for nearly an hour. Around 15 people took the bread and the wine and I believe that everyone who participated found the experience to be meaningful. I also ended up catching up with some people who I hadn’t seen around church for a number of years.I’m glad we did it and I’m also glad that I shared in the walk with the cross.  I think there is a whole new ministry that more of us could develop if we were more prepared to take the symbols of the faith out to the people on the streets.I was delighted to hear that John Sentamu once again this Easter has been baptising people in the open air. Perhaps this is something that we in the Church of Scotland can learn from. How cool would it be if we  could organise a large baptismal service in the open air for new believers? A kind of Church Without Walls Service. We could gather new communicants from all over the country who have never been baptised to profess their faith.Perhaps that is something we could all work towards for next Easter. It would be great to hear comments on this idea. I really think there is more milage to Church Without Walls than we might think!

Once again we used the idea of a Passover meal this year to help engage us all in the significance of the Passion. Putting the crucifixion in the context of the Old Testament story of the Exodus, is to place Jesus as the pascal lamb. It is to help us also understand the significance of Jesus being called the Lamb of God. The pascal lamb was to save the nation of Israel and bring them out of slavery.I believe we have a responsibility today to try and explain the significance of the  cross to people today. Those who are in the church and those outside. For many it is something that is a complete mystery, indeed for many it is a complete absurdity. Hence the need to not simply pass over the Passover but use he Passover to explain the context and meaning of the death of Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus was a much more inclusive and universal idea.  It had to have a significance for his time and the people who he moved among, but it also has a significance for the whole of history. His death was to save the world and bring us all out of slavery to a new freedom. What happened at Calvary all those years ago still impacts the way people live and has a significance influence on millions of lives . As I’m writing this I’m watching on BBC the latest version of the Passion. Crucifixion is such a dreadful experience. All this calls us to reflect on the meaning and the purpose of the death of Jesus. Here we are two thousand years on and still his death is talked about and made into film material.The challenge for the Christian church today is to explain the death of Jesus so that it makes sense to 21st century people, who know nothing of the Jewish background or theology surrounding sacrifice and forgiveness. One thing I’m certain of is that forgiveness is still very much part of the agenda in the lives of 21st century people.

In my last post I invited ministers and others to get out on the streets this Good Friday and share the Good News that sins can be forgiven. This forgiveness thing , is really causing a lot of heart searching in the congregation of St Andrew’s Bo’ness.  R.T. Kendall’s book on “Totally Forgiving Ourselves” has caused many people  over this Lenten period to reflect upon the importance of receiving the wonderful gift of “Grace” for themselves. Until we face up to our need to be forgiven, we can never truly understand what Easter is all about, and why Good Friday is so called.

However what has amazed me is that people who have professed Christ as Saviour are being re-awakened to ponder the implications of the cross. If I receive forgiveness for myself then I must begin to engage with the long journey to Calvary and in doing so face up to the cost of forgiveness.I’m glad ministers are getting back and making their posts on the blog. I too believe that preaching should accompany the sacrament, but I also believe that the sacrament can be a  converting experience because it points us to and invites us to, handle the cost of our salvation - the broken body and blood of our Lord.

Now what I am trying to achieve by taking the bread and the wine to the streets is to cause people to draw breath, to think, what is this? To reach people who have been far away from God and bring them near. Is it a communion service? No its not, its a preparation for them coming to the table some day. Its a reminder that something of  a universal significance happened the day that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, on a rubbish dump, near a busy street, beside a thief and a murderer.

 A few years ago when CH4 was being written, there was a shortage of songs on  penitence. Iain Cunningham  told me the committee were looking for material that would address the shortage. Colin Jamieson and I put pen to paper and submitted the following song, but alas it never made the big purple book. This is just a rough mix of the song which will be remixed in our next album. I wanted to put this film up because it is part 2 of  the little film that went up in the previous post.  

Last year  on Good Friday I took some bread and wine and placed it on a busy Edinburgh Street. I was interested to see the response that people would have to the image. Click here to see the video.This year I feel drawn to take the whole image a bit further forward. I’d like to invite ministers the length and breadth of the country to join with me on Good Friday and take the Bread and Wine back on to the streets. I wonder if we should take the symbols of Calvary  out to the people and see how they respond.The question many will ask is this, by doing such an act are we promoting cheap grace? Is it right to offer Christ to the world as they pass by? Yet I’m reminded that the Calvary was a rubbish dump outside the city. God offered himself up in the midst a jeering crowd, in the middle of a busy crowd looking to be entertained.Was it not for the world that Christ died?How can they,  the world), respond if they are not confronted with the truth of the Gospel? The bread and the wine are the symbols of the broken Christ. So unless convinced that I am doing something wrong I’m looking for ministers of the Gospel all over the country to join with me on the streets of our villages and towns, cities and hamlets, to take the gospel on to the streets.Could you pass this message on to a minister you know who might take up this challenge. Let’s look for 100 ministers who will take to the streets and lets see who will join us.If your up for this and going to do it would you get back to me by making a comment, If you have questions to ask about it I’d also love to hear from you. Wouldn’t it be amazing if people were converted to Christ on Good Friday because we shared bread and wine with them and reminded them that his body “was broken for you” Is it a communion service I hear someone ask? My reply, I simply offering Christ to a broken world as they pass by just like the first Good Friday. If I get a good response, I’d be surprised if  this will not  cause a debate in the national papers and also the radio and television.  This is truly a Church without Walls engaging with the passerby.

Thinking about Larry Norman got me remembering one of his songs “The Outlaw” it was a song that we included in our set in the Living Stones. I came across a recording of it as part of an Easter Rock Musical we put on.  Have a listen click here  then listen to the real thing.

All this got me thinking about another singer who died in a plane crash I think in the late 70s or the early 80s Keith Green by name. He was a guy who wrote songs that were really sermons. His lyrics are still shallenging to Christians today. I found one of his songs it too is worth a listen. click here

 Larry Norman the famous American rock singer died last week. He was in many people’s eyes the father of Christian rock music. He was for me the first real Christian artist who sounded authentic. He had an immense influence on all kinds of people from Dylan to the Pixies. Read his bio its quite extensive. He once said of his music;

“I wanted to push aside the traditional gospel quartet music, break down the church doors and let the hippies and the prostitutes and other unwashed rabble into the sanctuary…I wanted to talk about feeding the poor, going into the world….[I felt that] most of the modern music was anemic and needed a transfusion.”

I actually heard him play at the famous Tent Hall in Glasgow way back in 1972. He caused a great stir when he came out to play. The Tent Hall was a massive place, it must have held at least 1500 people and the place was packed. There was a huge walk about pulpit at the front a bit like an opera box. Sitting on the pulpit was the usual lectern. Larry appeared with his long straight blond hair carrying a guitar wearing jeans. He removed the Bible from the lectern, then climbed up on it and sat on it with his legs dangling over the side like a pulpit fall. He sat there all evening and played his gig. He was the talk of the town. It was one thing to remove the Bible from its hallowed spot, it was a complete blasphemy to place your bum on the spot where the Holy Bible had been resting.Watch Larry on Video

 Tomorrow I’m off to Lockerbie  speak to a group of church leaders about the National Gathering.  this is  great opportunity to encourage  rural congregations to get involved in what is going to be the biggest Christian event of the year. The rural church just like churches in the urban areas, are also facing the challenge of transition. We are living in a society that is having to face the changes that technology brings to all our communities. One big change that has impacted the rural communities is the loss of the Post Office. Technology has made it possible for many of the services that the local Post Office delivered to be rendered obsolete. Yet the one thing that the Post Office offered that technology can’t was a place of community. I believe this  is a challenge that many local congregations are picking up.  Some churches  seeking to find ways to make the church become the centre of the community. It will be interesting to listen to the challenges and the successes of those who work in the less populated areas of the country. I believe the National Gathering can be of great service to those living in the more remote areas.I think the Gathering   gives  a chance to  so many people in different denominations to get together and share their common interest in following Jesus. Its often hard to persuade church leaders of the value of a gathering like this, mainly because they are often struggling with issues in the church at a local level and they have very little energy left to promote events outside their parish.If only they could understand it is often when we lift our eyes beyond where we are, that we become inspired to make a difference at home. i find this all the time when I’m travelling.  I see things and hear things from which i can learn. i hope that tomorrow is successful and that I’m given the grace to listen to the concerns and struggles of others as well as trying to lift hearts and minds to see the vision of Church Without Walls.   

In a few weeks it will be Easter again. The story of God coming among us. God taking the form of a man, entering into our time zone. God literally becoming one of us is at the heart of the Gospel. Can people believe such a story today? And can they believe the story of  a resurrection? Some Christians seek to re-interpret the faith. They want to speak of these stories in terms of myth. The resurrection of Jesus they say is not a bodily one, but rather a spiritual one, in the same way that Elvis still lives.   The problem with explanations such as these is that they don’t take seriously the claims of the early Christians. And that seems to me to do them a great injustice. For them the story they spoke about happened. It was real, it was history. For us, we have to either believe them or say what we think, that they are exaggerating and in doing so, the Christian faith is founded on a lie. What do you think? View Movie