For those of you who were looking forward to Sanctuary First on 10 January in Bo’ness I hope you’ll be able to attend the next one. Perhaps the poor weather will give us an opportunity to develop the theme and make it even more interesting. The theme that we’ve chosen for Sanctuary First is based on the message of Jesus to the church at Sardis. It was a wake up call.

Here’s a wee poem I wrote for the service . Its entitled ” Dead men Walking dead men Walking I hope you find it interesting along side this picture that I took earlier today inside the Buchanan Galleries.

Here is a world a community of people who sometimes remind me of dead people walking. Most look fed up most feel they’ve had enough. They just want to get out of the place. Shopping just drains the soul out of a person. Is that not right? Let me know what you think?

If ever the church needs to be waken up from its slumber and its sleep it must surely be today. Sardis was a church that was living off a past reputation. So much of church life today is living off past generations. When it comes to the Church in Scotland so much of what we have and use at the present was never given or purchased by this generation. I’ve come to the conclusion that we do need new wine skins for the new wine. It also means that someone has to go and get the new wine skins and also pour the new wine into the skins. So many in this generation know very little about what Christians really believe and many Christians are no longer sure about what they believe. And if the truth were told there are ministers of the Gospel who are no longer sure about what it is they believe. Remember Jesus spoke out and said if the watchman sounds an uncertain note the people in the city will be confused. I think there is a great responsibility on all of us who have been entrusted with the gospel to make sure we share it in such a manner that the world around hears it and understands.

I think that is where the new skins come in. We need spaces and places and people who are flexible enough to allow the gospel to seep into every aspect of their lives so that they become the new skins that allows the wonderful new life of the Spirit to flow out from them into the world. It means we need new skins in politics we need new skins in the music industry, we need new skins in the media, and we need new skins in almost every aspect of daily living.