I want to write tonight about the importance of being a round peg in a round hole. Too many people beat themselves up for things they’re not doing. Too often they are being asked to do the impossible. I want to tell you a story that I told the children a few weeks ago in church. Its the story of a racing horse called Master Robert. When my dad was just a young boy he used to look after Master Robert, mainly because he was a horse that had gone lame and was no longer of any use to its owner. As my grandfather was in charge of the animals in the farm, he would let my father ride the lame horse to at least exercise the beast. One day they even tried to yoke the race horse to a Clydesdale horse to pull the plough. Well you can imagine how that went done with Master Robert. He just refused to move. He was bred to race. Finally one day a horse dealer arrived and bought Master Robert for a knock down price. He saw the potential in the animal. If you look at the film you’ll see Master Robert winning the Grand National in 1924. He was the real life Sea Biscuit.So the next time your going to write someone off as useless ask yourself if your playing them in the right position. Race horses don’t plough and plough horses don’t win races. Maybe we all need to bat to our strengths and stop worrying about the things we don’t do so well. 

 I was at an interesting meeting in the church offices in Edinburgh today. It was a conference where Town Planners, Property Developers and Church Leaders, in areas undergoing regeneration, were all invited to listen to each other and understand the whole process involved in regenerating a community.  It was interesting to hear this discussion in the light of the latest news regarding the regeneration of Bo’ness.  What was going to be a spectacular waterfront development starting with the harbour and shops and waterfront cafes, has been reduced to a couple of six storey tower block flats and a few three storey town houses.  Quite a disappointment for the town!  There is a promise though without  any guarantees that the harbour will eventually be tackled when the right financial package can be arranged.  The thing is Falkirk Council seem willing to promote this slimmed down revised plan as being acceptable in the present economic climate.  Breaking promises because they may cost more seems to go with the territory of making money.  Some of my colleagues today were impressed by one of the speakers who was a developer, because he spoke clearly and honestly reminding everyone that the role of the developer was simply to  make money.  The thing is, I wasn’t totally convinced.   You see, I think simply making money is not enough even for the most successful.   I’ve come to the conclusion that most people with wealth that I have known  want to make a difference in the world if they can, and it is the role of the Church and Christians like us to help them find ways to make their wealth bring about changes in the world for the better.  I couldn’t resist asking the young upwardly mobile developer as he left the room about his statement regarding the sole purpose of the developer to make money.  ”So tell me I said, after you’ve made the money what do you do with it.  Surely making money is not an end in itself.  You know I think the penny dropped, or the money dropped.  He looked at me as he went out the door, and said, “When I make my first million I’ll get in touch with  you right, I’ll help you make a difference. He was gone before I could make the reply, “You don’t need a million to start making the difference – you need a heart.” So I think what I’d like to say to ING and the Council  is this, it takes more than a pile of money to make a community.  You see you can’t regenerate a town without understanding the importance of community and you can’t create community where there is no trust.

Just watching Amazon Heartbeat on STV this evening. There is just so much that is never said and that frustrates me as the Chairman of the Trust. Television companies of course are looking for the cheapest and easiest way to make a programme  yet I don’t know why it is that they never get round to identifying our drivers.  People ask me and say what is it that makes the Trust so successful and I can only say prayer. If we didn’t have the prayer base we have all round the world then we would have packed up and gone home years ago.  Anyway enough of my rant about the Amazon Heartbeat. Its quite a challenge to begin to focus back on some of the local issues  here in Bo’ness after being involved with the National Gathering. This week I’ve been along at a meeting in the Town Hall hearing about the amended plans for the regeneration of Bo’ness. I must confess that I’m not convinced  by what I hear. the developers are now pulling out of completing the harbour before building houses. They now want to build a series of houses first. This of course makes you wonder if a harbour will ever be brought back into action. I think few people in the town are happy with the proposals, so I imagine the progress of the regeneration will come to a halt or slow down considerably. What will happen in the future is all up in the air, but I’m sure that  the majority of people have come to the conclusion that a harbour will be key in renewing the infra structure of our town. I think many believe that the Council has been duped by a very powerful and experienced financier who is more eager to make money than see the regeneration project to fruition. All this brings me back to our TV programme. At the heart of so much of what actually happens, be it making a TV series or seeking to renew a whole community, there are  faceless financiers who are calling the shots. I’ve come to the conclusion we need to be more constant in our prayer lives in order to connect more people to the Vine.   

I was at the Parliament earlier this evening, as a guest of “Care for the Family” this is an opportunity that MSPs can offer Charities, to allow them to show case their work to potential funders. I think I was there because I acted as an advisor to the Scottish Office of care when they were applying to Lloyds TSB for funding. I’m happy to report that they were successful. Anyway I hope it was a worthwhile opportunity for the organisers because they are doing a good work.

Meanwhile I’m in the process of writing my speech to introduce the CWWPlanning Group Report to the General Assembly. As I’ve done in the past I’ve used a video clip as part of the speech. So have a look at the video and tell me what you think. Click Feel free to leave some posts if you’ve some suggestions as to how we might take the process at bit further. One idea I’m looking at it developing a mission strategy around the Homecoming theme that the Scottish Government are promoting for 2009. Could we put on a conference that would help congregations engage with and plan a local event led mission in their parishes during Lent 2009 , leading up to an opportunity which would allow new believers to participate in a Church Without Walls series of open air baptisms. Just think how many new members could we baptise in a day? Mmm 3000 that would mean 300 congregations bringing 10 people to faith in Christ within the next year. Surely that is possible. Anyway its just a thought, but its quite an exciting thought. three hundred congregations fired up at Aviemore, we could take more if we got more anyway have a listen to the video and feel inspired.

Today I’m off to the ICC, International Christian College, to give a lecture on preaching and media. I really enjoy giving this lecture but I think i need to up date some of my material. the principles of what i want to say remains the same but the examplesa to describe it probably need refreshing. The gist of what I want to say is that preaching is not an event but a process that involves a three way relationship that somehow only comes to life when all three elements interact with the Holy Spirit. I’m convinced there is a process going on, a kind of dialague often undetected between, the scriptures the congregation and the preacher. When you introduce an additional medium, like a picture or a film clip, it adds an extra element to the whole mix. And it is this that I want to explore in my lecture this morning. Understanding the impact of the visual language is important before you start introducing visuals to sermons. Of course understanding the power of language and also the powerlessness of language is also important. It is not just enough to be a preacher that preaches the word, the real dynamic of preaching is when the preacher also encounters the living word through his or her living it out. Anyway I’m off for a meeting with my Session Clerk before heading off the Glasgow. Oh yeah and there is the General Assembly and a speech Ive got to get ready for Friday all in the day of a preacher.

 The emails and letters are still coming in to the CWW Office from all around the country. All sorts of people expressing their appreciation for the event. When the Planning Group meets together we will take into account all the things that have been said. One thing is for certain we will need Commissioners at the General Assembly to rise to the occasion and speak in favour of the work we have been doing. This will especially have to be done when the over all budget is being discussed. Mission and Discipleship will be expected by many to continue this work, however if this is not accounted for in their budgeting via the Council of Assembly we may find ourselves short of where with all achieve the things we need to do.We had a wonderful service this morning at St Andrew’s Bo’ness. It was great to have Lorna and Erica from Soultouch with us. The girls had come home to Scotland to celebrate Erica’s brother’s wedding. By tomorrow at 4.00am they will be heading back on the road this time to Peru. What a challenging and eventful, and miraculous time the girls are having. As they spoke this morning, all attention was on them as they shared their stories and vision for the future of World Without Walls. A further group of 17 people returned at 3.30pm this afternoon to hear more about the work. This was a time for question and answer. All who attended were excited at the future of the project. I am sure we are going to see things develop in a wonderful way over the next few months. I am absolutely certain that great things lie ahead of us all. This week sees the beginning of the General Assembly this Thursday. Please pray for the Assembly, that all who attend will be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I’m making my report to the Assembly on Friday in the late morning. So i’d be glad of your prayers as i start to write my report. I just received some video footage of the Archbishop recalling his experience of the National Gathering, he does a pretty good job at promoting it, so his video clip will be part of my presentation to the Assembly. We also have a wonderful visit from our Argentinean friends last Thursday. A big thank you to Maggie for rising to occasion and making a splendid barbecue for our visitor. It was great to share ideas and realise that we all have so much to learn from one another.

The phone hasn’t stop ringing and the emails keep coming in as more and more people want to share the impact that the National Gathering has had on them. It is very humbling and exciting to see so many people being touched by God this last weekend. I think I will forever remember the image of the Archbishop playing the drums, after hundreds of people responded to his call to come to the front to demonstrate their re-commitment to faith in Christ. The issue we who have been involved with this project face now is should we be recommending that we do this again? So I’d like to hear from you, what do you think, and what was your experience of the National Gathering. I’m told a lot of people read the blog,  so it would be good, if on this issue some of the silent readers might make comment.   He certainly looks as though he’s having a ball. 

   It was agreat feeling to move around the site at Ingliston tonight and see everything coming together. I really enjoyed meeting up with a couple of the ex members of the Bogle band., Keith Tait and Ash Kimber who are involved with leading the worship this weekend.  The hall is huge and it is almost impossible to get a perfect sound but Craig Pryde and the sound crew were doing an amazing job this evening.  As for the banners that Rae Manger worked so hard on to produce, they are looking stunning. So all that is left is for the visitors to appear and we’re in business. We are just around 6,000 pre paid bookings and we expect to see another 1000 appear at the gates.  The next fews days will be busy, but I pray that non of us involved will take  our eyes off the reason for doing this. We want to encourage god’s people to be all that he wants us to be.  Above all we want God to be honoured in all we attempt to achieve.

Are you wondering what worship is going to be like at the CWW National Gathering. Well I’m delighted that Keith Tait will be the leader of the worship band. keith has chosen songs that are well known in order that the opening ceremony will have a sense of familiarity to it. I spoken to Michele Guinness and she is working on a them of joy and celebration. So I think we’re in for a wonderful opening ceremony. Its great also that my good friend David Lacy from Kilmarnock will be representing the Moderator and bring the greetings of the general Assembly to the whole event. So just to keep you up to date, here is the latest here a little meditation developed out of words I wrote for a song we recorded in the late eighties from the Run Scared No More Album. I think you can guess hymn that will follow this presentation. Click here to listen

Have a look at the site, for the CWW National Gathering. It is beginning to look impressive. All the tents have been erected and it really does make you feel that God is in all of this. I think it will be an amazing sight to see so many churches represented at Ingliston. Hillington Park Parish in Glasgow have their overseas partner Rita Nkemba from Dwelling Places in Uganda with them. Rita is the Director of this Charity that works with around 500 street children in Kampala.

In one of the other tents highlighting Holy Trinity Parish in St Andrew’s, a group of visitors, all he way from Argentina will be sharing their story how their ancestors left Leith in 1825 to set up a colony of Scots in the Argentine. Today in Buenos Aires a thriving Congregation called St Andrew’s is making an impact in that great city. They have twinned now with the St Andrew’s congregation thus developing their historical links. However it is often out of these links that congregations are challenged to develop spiritually.

In a press release relating to the National Gathering , I mentioned that I thought there was “a holy discontent” in the nation. The phrase has been picked up by a few people. What do you mean they say by a holy discontent. Well I think God is at work in all our lives making many of us discontented with the way things are in our society, but also our personal lives. All of us need to become much more realistic about what we can do to make changes in our own lives and in our communities. Individuals can make a huge difference in our world. On a visit to India in 2006 I witnessed first hand the devastation that the Tsunami had brought upon people. It had completely changed the landscape. A few months ago I visited a hotel that I had used in Peru quite near to the city of Ica.During the recent earthquake, there had also been a Tsunami. The hotel was completely destroyed. The whole landscape  had changed. Len Sweet in his book entitled “Soul Tsunami ” invites the church to prepare to live in a new ordered landscape. He suggests that there has been a great technological revolution that has changed the way we all live.  Soul Tsunami is a challenging book to read. I think Christians today need to understand the changes in the landscape in which we live. Church is no longer for many the centre of their life. Yet the message we want to speak about is all about helping people get  their lives centred or secured to something that is constant and not changing. I feel this sense of  ”holy discontent because I believe God is calling the church to the place of confession.  And individuals to a place of  repentance and restitution. As we seek God, we need to be allowing his Holy Spirit to begin to break our lives open and almost allow a Tsunami cleansing of the soul. Here is the latest version of a song that Iain and I are working on. I’m delighted that Stephen Bogle plays his mighty Fender Jazz guitar in this track giving the whole piece a sense of  edgy power  and vulnerability. I also like the strong vocals from Iain Jamieson that  sound like a huge big choir. Oh that God would come among us and reshape and renew the church. Please Lord start with me. Tsunami