After 10 years of experimenting with a monthly multimedia worship service in 2007 we took a year out to reflect and consider how we can best re-engage our experience and expertise in this area.

We’ve come up with a concept that we think could be used my a much wider alliance of Christians to help connect a lost generation to faith in Christ. Let me know what you think. If this concept is something that might inspire you we’d be interested in hearing from you. We’re looking for writers and film makers.
So let me tell you about the Sanctuary First.

The name Sanctuary First is a reminder that we will meet on the first Sunday in the month. However it has deeper meaning, it is a call to put Worship first in our busy lives. Here is a summary of our recently published leaflet. I also include a song specially written by Johnny and myself for the project. I delighted that Iain J amieson has recorded a demo version for us. SANCTUARY FIRST
At Sanctuary First we have already explored and commissioned a pilot scheme where 10 ministers and writers around Scotland contributed to an eight part media based service entitled “On the Street”. Sanctuary First is now building on that experience.
We aim to capture a wider community who don’t attend traditional worship services but who are looking for a faith community that will engage them in creative worship and lead them into deeper discipleship

Sanctuary First is an alternative worship service, designed to challenge all who attend to make worship a priority in their daily lives, by offering a place on the web that will be known as a sanctuary in cyberspace. We ask that they will set aside, time on a daily basis to worship. Then on the first Sunday of the month to Worship with us at “Sanctuary First” in various venues around the country.

At Sanctuary First we see the power of the internet to communicate the message of the Gospel. We will use this medium to keep in touch with each other through emails, texts, blogs and weekly worship podcasts designed to promote Christian discipleship.

At Sanctuary First in everything we do we will aim for excellence.

At Sanctuary First we welcome anyone who comes. No one will ever be turned away.

At Sanctuary First we aim to celebrate the ancient truths of the Christian faith by honouring the Holy Scripture and interpreting it for our time.

At Sanctuary First we have a world vision to help in small ways to bring about peace and justice in our sphere of influence and bring relief to the poor and the needy. We will actively involve each other in practical ways to bring about this vision.

At Sanctuary First we will aim to share a passion for worship with all who attend. However, all who attend must be free to worship with integrity.

At Sanctuary First we believe that everyone has a longing to know God. There is no one too young or too old, too cool or too sad to worship with passion. All of us come empty looking to be filled.

At Sanctuary First we want to live out creative worship. This means we write our own worship material and sing our own worship songs as well as embracing the worship styles of other Christian Communities. (We wish to continue to engage with writers and and creative worship leaders)

At Sanctuary First there will always be a variety of worship styles, we will integrate the ancient with the post-modern. We will worship with multimedia and with non- technological media.

At Sanctuary First we want to be a Community of radical compassionate Christian disciples who seek to inspire each other to live holy lives.

I wrote about structures a few weeks ago. I think we need to realise that changing the structures alone, will not change the church. Tomorrow night at Kirk Session will be quite an important evening. The Kirk Session re-structing group will be reporting back. The plan is that they will give out the papers for the future structure and we will agree a date when we can meet in conference to discuss the implications. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to fire us up so that the structures we put in place support the mission and calling of the church rather than hamper it.

Its all very exciting. Kirk Session agreed that we look at how we manage our various projects and come back with a strategy as to how we manage them in the future. We’ll be looking for a decision in principle tomorrow night to go ahead and launch our new media company, as a not for profit trading company. This will deal with all the additional work that we have been carrying out of the past years. When Kirk Session have heard all the details and approved them we’ll give out more details.

Anyway these are exciting times here at St Andrew’s. Tonight was quite a special evening. It was great to have a joint praise night with our friends from the Apostolic Church. The next one will be 19 October when we hope to be welcoming Erica and lorna back home after their 15 month trip around the world.

This will be a great evening to hear new songs and to celebrate all that God has been doing in the lives of Soultouch. So pass the word around. It would be great if we could have the church full that evening.

Yesterday well over 1000 people walked the Forth Road Bridge to raise money for Christian Aid. I’m told if all the money is collected that has been promised from the sponsors,it will amount to £41,000. What I say is, not bad for an afternoon’s work.

It was also an opportunity for folk to reflect on Rev John Carrie who died earlier this year. John set up the whole project. It was good to see the Lord Provest of Edinburgh turn out to do the walk and also pay tribute to John. He reminded us that John not only walked the walk but talked the talk. (See my posting under 23 June 2007.) The fact that it has continued this year despite the fact that the Road Bridge was closed for repairs, shows that people are enthusiastic to keep the tradition going.

It was a walk down memory lane all day, as I got a chance to push Katie MacLennan in her push chair, it brought back memories of the Bogles pushing prams across the bridge some 25 years ago. One thing I did notice was the the push chairs today are a lot easier to handle. As for the children today – are they easier to handle? Well I think that’s a subject for another post.

We had our second ‘Alpha Night’ at the Inchyra last night. There was a good mix of people from different backgrounds and I’m sure its going to be once again an interesting life changing experience for a number of people.

Our theme last night asked the question” Why did Jesus die?” It is an opportunity to talk about the central theme of Christianity namely, “Forgiveness” it seems to me that this is one of the central issues that faces all of humanity. All over the world people are looking for ways and means where by they can forgive. Last night I tried to explain the classic Christian doctrine of Justification. I also tried to explain the fact that the cross of Christ is like a diamond it has many sides to it and each side has an explanation that seeks to illuminate our hearts and our minds to the nature and power of the love of God.

One thing is for certain the cross of Christ has much to say to people who feel they are carrying sacks of guilt about with them. The cross is where God in Christ took upon himself our sinful humanity and became sin for us so that we might feel free from the consequences of our actions.
Inmyplace.mov
A few years ago we filmed the above clip as part of our TGI Sunday Service in may ways it is another facet of the cross and it is a diamond worth reflecting upon. I think the idea that total forgiveness invites us to let go of the things or the feelings that have hurt and abused us and then asks that we might never speak about it again is all about forgiving and forgetting. Finally receiving the grace to remember to pray a blessing for those who have wronged you is the ultimate sign of forgiveness. These three steps hopefully will be purued our various Alpha Groups. So what do you think of the idea of forgiveness?

I’ve been put on a committee at Presbytery level to look at how our Presbytery can work in a better way to promote and facilitate our congregations .Here’s an extract from the paper I’m writing. Any comments will be gratefully received. The above picture gives another meaning to cathedral.

Making Presbytery a place of inspiration…

This paper is not meant to be aimed at any one person in leadership within Falkirk Presbytery. It is my general thoughts about how any presbytery could become a place of inspiration. By nature presbyteries have become modelled on a law court. This means that it has functioned as a court dealing with legislation and business.

Inspiration means a change of mindset…
To make any presbytery a place of inspiration will require a complete change of mindset, indeed it may be that we cease from understanding presbytery as a monthly business meeting and embrace it as a dynamic exchange centre open and available on a daily basis as a networking hub placed in a building but also with a relevant interactive web presence and qualified personel.

Means a pro-active presbytery…
Its purpose to support and inspire the best practice with in congregations in order that each congregation becomes a centre of excellence in worship and mission. Every congregation must feel part of the same team. Presbytery has to encourage ways through which we can share and benefit from each others gifting and talents. Presbytery has a highly educated and skilled work force at its disposal. Are we using everyone’s skill to the maximum especially the paid staff that work out of our 40 odd congregations?

Action – Presbytery should become the facilitator that allows congregations to be collaborative.

Means making congregations feel interdependent on each other…
The ongoing mission and vision of a congregation should not be reduced to a report once every five years with a shortened five minute version read out at Presbytery to save time. This system has a built in feeling of being “dammed by faint praise” inevitably there is a silence, no questions are asked, and five years of service is consigned to the minute book. Many ministers and congregations feel under valued and have lost their focus.

Action Put in place a proper appraisal system to support and encourage congregations to develop and articulate their five year strategy plan. Such a plan should be done in collaboration with others to encourage and enhance opportunities of mission. This is in addition to the current Presbytery Plan

At the present presbyteries often act in a passive and reactive manner, because they are made up of congregational representatives who know very little about each others congregations yet have to make decisions that can affect the spiritual welfare of many people. Some Kirk Session send their representative elder to Presbytery as a reward for work done in the past. It is seen by some as a kind of House of Lords promotion. It is a function where not a lot is expected from those who attend. Presbytery has become the passive receptors of General Assembly remits rather than the initiators of reforming petitions. This means that all too often this group of strangers settle for the safe option unable to have the confidence to embrace change because they do not wish to be the implementers of change.
Action – We require the very best and talented of elders to become part of the presbytery team. In doing so they in turn will drive the strategy and vision of the church in their Presbyterial area.

Means inspirational structures and resources

We who are members of presbytery have much more power than we imagine and if we work creatively together we could harness ourselves into a successful coach for our congregations. Presbyteries have great potential and if used wisely, we could use the potential of 40 or 50 congregations working together to create an amazing central resource to support and encourage our work.

There are opportunities at a national level and a regional level to become important players in the area of mission and social care. Co-coordinating funding on the basis of a presbytery wide care programme in all sorts of areas could be a challenging and rewarding experience.

It might be a wonderfully affirming thing to set aside a different congregation each year to act as the Cathedral for Presbytery. This would mean the building would be used daily to grow and develop a series of workshops and seminars on various aspects of church life from finances to worship from mission to property to community outreach projects.

Means inspirational leadership
Modelling ministry is an important aspect of inspiration. Seeing how things work at first hand and sharing in each others ministries is how inspiration takes root.

Action – Presbytery should create pods or groupings of congregations and insist that the ministers and leaders meet regularly, say weekly to share and inspire each other in their ministries, These groups may not be geographical they could be centred around interests and passions. This should not be seen as an option but part of the expected workload of the minister. A team leader for each grouping should be appointed and be rotated every two years.

To inspire the leadership of congregations Presbytery will have to engage methods that make individual leaders and communities feel supported and that they are contributing to an over all missionary plan for the wider area as well as their local community. This will require ministers and congregations to be open to new ways of sharing and collaborating with each other. We need to stop thinking in soley congregational terms. Its time to become a Church and a Presbytery Without Walls.

We’ve got a house guest staying with us. It’s Ben he’s quite a character. He’s always hungry, and if you’re not careful, he’ll even eat food out of the bin. He’s a big hit with the staff in the church. He knows that chocolate Labradors can wrap most Scottish people round their paws. However I do think he is missing his master, but if he has a bone he’s happy.

Ben,
See you.
Your a big chocolate blobby
A gormless and harmless beastie.
Yur a dug,
Yur no human.
Stop,
Lickin my face
Your kiss is a big slobby
I’m gonnie put you oot in th lobby
No one can be sure
Whit’s going on in your heed.
You’ll dae anything for a feed
But, see me,
I’m no taken in wae your big daft eyes
and yir petted sighs
and yir arthritis
Whit’s that yi said,
Yi want walkie?
Right ,but watch the fox
its a cunning wee fighter
I don’t want tae put yi in a sack
At least no before
Willie back!

Bo’ness Town Hall was the scene of a christian conference today. It was attended by people from all over Scotland. Kenny Borthwick , the minister at Wester Hailes, Edinburgh, spoke powerfully tonight. He said that he believed one of the things that held back revival was the lack of grace in the Christian Church among Christians and Christian Leaders.He spoke of the danger of a judgemental spirit, and called for Christians to do three things when thinking about forgiving. Hes spoke of the importance of the “off the hook “principle. In others words if you forgive someone, your letting them off the hook. Secondly he spoke about, taking the grievance off the agenda. this means that you stop talking to people about the hurt you received from etc. The third thing is you put them on your prayer kist to ask God to bless them. He suggested that you’ve not done the forgiveness bit until you can ask for them to be blessed.

Later on today hundreds of people will be descending upon our little town for the “Father’s Heart Conference”. Ken Whitelaw the local Apostolic Church Pastor has worked hard to bring this event to the town. I wish him well and hope that the whole day is a great success. Last year I visited the Clan Gathering in St Andrew’s and heard Dr Mark Stibbe, the day before I took a group from the church over to India to visit our partner churches. He is an excellent communicator and I found myself engaging with his message. He is a man of great compassion. Much of what he said was a preparations for us as we headed out to India.

I believe Mark has a passion to encourage people to think about God as a caring and loving father. He believes we are living in an age where people feel lost and alienated from their heavenly father. Many people feel they have little sense of what fatherhood is, because they have experienced poor role models in this area in their own lives. Father’s Heart is a call to everyone to re-engage with the love of God as expressed in the person of God the Father. Tom Smail another brilliant theologian has engaged with this subject long before Stibbes in a book entitled ” The Forgotten father

it was good to see a whole new Alpha Group start tonight, at the Inchyra Hotel near Polmont. I think this is going to be a really good group. Everyone who came along seemed really interested. Its such a relaxing venue with everyone seated around the table. I’ve often likened it to Martin Luther’s table talk. Although we use the themes of Alpha we don’t use their material exclusively,and we certainly don’t use the video. It is over dinner that many people share with each other what they are discovering on their spiritual journey. There is still some space, so if your reading this and you think you’d like to come, give the church office a ring or 01506 825803. I’d love to hear what some of you who were at Alpha tonight thought of it . Just comment at the end of this blog.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped tonight down at the church. Great to see all the comments on the blog about the service. It was also encouraging to see Stuart Sharp the minister of St John’s Camelon with us tonight. Stuart is interested in finding ways where we can work together. I do hope that we will be able to attract the support of more churches as we develop Sanctuary First.

The video we used got a very good crit as did the prayers of intercession. People felt engaged getting up and praying and lighting candles. We intentionally made sure that there were a variety of mediums through which to engage with worship.This was a good night and Lilias must be delighted to see such a good number of young people turning up.