Very shortly the Scottish Government will launch their big tourist idea for 2009. Its called “The Homecoming”. They’re hoping for rich exiled Scots to return in their droves next year from all over the world.

It might prove to be a more challenging idea than first expected, now that the ecomomic down turn is almost certain to effect the jobs of many people. Personally I can’t see Americans making the trip when their stocks and shares portfolios have hit rock bottom.

CHURCH AGENDA STRENGTHENED

However I do think this is a wonderful opportunity for the churches to connect with their partners in the developing world and invite them to Scotland in 2009. We’re hoping to bring over some of our friends from India during 2009. It maybe that the Government doesn’t get the tourist trade, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if the churches got a spiritual boost from the shear enthusiasm of our Christian brothers and sisters from around the world.

Going home isn’t always an easy thing. For many there are too many sad memories. Using this theme as a mission statement for the churches may be more challenging that I first thought. However it may do us all the world of good to reflect on the idea of home.

At the end of the day I’m convinced that we all want a place, a person, a community, a hope, we can call home. Of course the idea still remains uncomfortable as we think of the hundreds of Scots marooned in cities all over the world, addicted to alcohol and drugs, for them there is no homecoming. Perhaps the churches should be challenging government about such a topic. How could we work together to bring the broken back home. If we can spend Billions on saving the banks maybe we need to be thinking about the cost of saving individuals.

GOING HOME ?

Going home?

He smiled,

I wish,

but, I’ve a shift to finish.

Going home?

I’d need to say sorry

I’d never be accepted.

There’s no room for me

I’ve burnt my bridges

Too much has been said

Too little done to mend the hurt.

Mention home

My stomach turns

I feel crowded

smothered

afraid.

Which home?

My mother’s home

My father’s home

I’ve had many homes.

The question unsettles me

makes me sad.

It reminds me of something

I’ve lost but never had.

Faith.

We had a most interesting meeting tonight at Alpha in the Inchyra Hotel. We were considering the topic of prayer. We all agreed that we’d try and support each other over the next two weeks as we explore the purpose and meaning of prayer in our personal lives. The group will not meet next week so we hope to keep in touch through this blog. So where does one start if you want to develop a prayer life? I’ve found that the Psalms in the Bible often act as a kind of prayer book from which you can explore a relationship with God. The psalmists for me seem to cover all kind of topics and they help me address some of the major doubts and worries and short comings in my life. Anyway here is a prayer I found which certainly pertains to me.

O Lord God,

merciful and mighty:

Help those whom I have neglected to help;

Set aright those I have caused to stumble;

Visit those I have neglected to visit;

Bring back those whom I have led astray;

Cheer the hearts of whom I have made sad;

Draw with the cords of love those for whom my love has grown cold;

Save them all,

O Lord have mercy on me the chief of sinners,

lest after I have preached the gospel to others

I myself should be cast away

Hear me, O Father for the sake of Christ my Lord

Unknown author

Here is a simple little prayer I wrote earlier this week for the service tomorrow evening. At Sanctuary First our aim is to try and lead those who attend into a deeper experience of worship. The video clip was put together by Rae Manger who works as a staff member in our creative media team. Take time to see the close connection between words and music and how we have used the idea that less often can mean more.

Broken1.mov

Creating a worshipful atmosphere is something that Christians have been exploring down through the centuries. Later on this evening we hope to explore the theme of the mystery and majesty of God as described in Isaiah chapter 6. We’ve got a smoke machine and a burning flame all as part of the props tomorrow. I’ll get some pictures of the sanctuary as we prepare to encounter the peace of god

When we encounter the awesome presence of Almighty God we discover that we are no longer in control. Indeed the holy presence of God makes us aware of our human frailty and our shabby lives. In the presence of Almighty God none of us can stand up to his scrutiny

In this chapter Isaiah has an amazing life changing encounter with God. The thing to notice is the sublime presence also reveals our sinful and twisted nature. I hope the service will make space for the power of God to work bringing forgiveness and healing into many 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.

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?

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

Here we are talking about structures again. However the right structures can give to everyone a sense of freedom as well as security. I just wish the way we ordered Church in the Church of Scotland released us into freedom and community. Too much of our structures are centred around business meetings rather than the love feast. we celebrate business more than we celebrate the eucharist. It is this image of a business structure that has shaped the identity of the church of Scotland for the past few hundred years. Now there is definately nothing wrong with being business like and well structured but often in the midst of all this we have forgotton what our business is. Remember Jesus reminded his parents that his first priority was to be about his Father’s business. When we think about it the Father’s business is that we should make disciples.

We need to ask ourselves why we have allowed the structures of business to become the main focus of our identity rather than the vision to make disciples. I have often thought that perhaps it is because we have lost confidence as a Church and and as indiiduals in the truth of the Gospel. this in turn makes us less willing to share with others something we might doubt. However we are not short on our loyality to the structures of an organisation that at one time had put in place to ensure the pastoral support required for discipleship. Could it be that we maintain the structures out of loyality, going through the motions of faith without the conviction of faith.

We even name our church through our structure. We call ourselves Presbyterians. Wil Storrar, draws our attention to the fact that the church has orientated towards this business effeciency model because of the influence of Weber’s “rational bureaucratic” type modern organisation.

I’ve been thinking about the role of leadership , in the light of Nehemiah and especially, when an organisation, like St Andrew’s is in the middle of restructuring.

One of the differences between the church leader today and Nehemiah’s time is that we have the encouragement of the scriptures and perhaps a greater awareness of what it means to be ” The One and the Many in Christ” In other words the teaching found in 1 Corinthians 12 under pins and helps to illuminate the story of partnership and purpose that is told in the story of Nehemiah’s reconstruction.

So our calling as the church is literally to be the one and the many in Christ. This is an important aspect of our identity, because as a church community we take on many roles. I think this is what Paul means when he says,” I have become all things to all men that I might win some” It doesn’t mean that we stand for nothing and fall for anything. On the contrary, it means that we take on the role of our Lord and learn to ” weep with those who are weeping and laugh with those who are laughing” Its about the church understanding its mission in the world. This means that we must always be approachable even to those who have different “plausibility structures” to ours. The fascinating thing is that a whole philosophy of servanthood has grown up even in the business world. Have a look at this web page also

All we do must be motivated by a desire to bring glory to God through our service to others. This for me emphasises more and more the role of the church as servant and discipleship maker, such was the life that Jesus chose to live. We as a church cannot become greater than our master. However we have a dilemma. In our structures we have lost the role of credible servant and succumbed to the role of professional managerial speak. We manage the church but are we serving each other and the world ?

Tonight we had another meeting of our structural meeting. As we talked about being good managers of our structure we were also reminded that we were a community centred around love and grace. Meeting targets might be important but missing the main target of servanthood would render us as the scripture says, “no more than noisy bells and clanging cymbols” We must be careful that we don’t forget what it means to love the world and love our neighbour, as we seek to manage the church. Next post I’ll have a a think about the changes that we might do well to consider at a regional level in church administration and structure.

It won’t belong before the children are all back at school. On Monday our Holiday Club for children starts. The theme is very topical this year, we are looking at the Olympics. you know what it could get complicated. Like thousands of others throughout the UK we are using Scripture Union Holiday Club material. So what will make our Holiday Club unique, apart from the brilliant children who will attend and the superb quality of leaders? What will make our club stand out is the fantastic job that the design team have made in decorating the church hall. It is truly something else. Quite amazing! It is a work of art.

The Olympics s a great theme to use at this time to explain to children the importance of nations living together in peace. It also highlights the merit in human beings striving to be the best in their aea of sport. However we will be helping the children understand that winning at any cost can turn you into a loser. Winning is about doing the right thing. Now sometimes when you do the right thing you lose. But you know what sometimes losing is a form of winning. See what I mean it does get complicated. Anyway we’ll keep it to that level with the kids.

We are told that the ancient Greeks were highly competitive individuals and believed strongly in the concept of “agon”, or “competition” or “contest”. Greeks wanted to bethe best in all aspects of life. The greatest honour of all time was to win a victory at Olympia. It was important that the prize eceived had no material value. Tus the olive wreath given to the victory illustrates the point. You competed for the honour. All this makes the ever increasing habit of cheating so repugnant to the ideals of the games. the games were also closely connected to the worship of the gods and departed heroes. sometimes the games where known as funeral games. Homer in his epic poem, The Iliad refers to the games in these terms. They also had sexual undertones, being used as gatherings to promote the fertility cults of the day. The power god Zeus was the god most worshipped at the games.

In many ways the games are a bit of a contradiction. They have become an important political weapon to promote economic wealth. Many of the athletes taking part are professional and see the games as a means of developing their careers. For the Olympics the age of innocence is long gone if they ever represented it in the first place. Yet I think there is a spark of an ideal worth holding on to and maybe one day it will light a true Olympic torch in the world. Did Jesus not say He was the Light of the World. He’s brighter than any Olympic torch!

Its hard not to be reminded of the imprint past generations have left on the earth, when visiting Orkney. The islands are full of ancient historical sites. Today we visited the Rings of Brodgar. Here is an ancient place where men and women in the ancient mists of time sought to find God. This reaching out to God shows a humility and an intelligence that somehow has by passed many in our self absorbed world. We have now progressed so far that we are even more moral than God. Well, I sometimes feel that, when I hear some of the “politically correct speak” that comes from all kinds of sources in our society. We have grown out of the humility that stands in awe of the God of Creation. The prevailing view in the Western World today is, we have the right, the power, and the moral understanding to create our own world, and make our own moral laws. I often wonder what the outcome will be for future generations.

What will be the marks that we will leave behind, and how will these impact on future lives? Since so much of what we produce is ephemeral what will we leave that is lasting and good ? When it comes to media will they have the computers to read what we write? What will be the lasting legacy? Will it be huge coffins filled with nuclear waste? Will it be a world devoid of rain forests?

Here in Orkney we can see some of the marks that Neolithic man has left. Stones still standing reminding us of their search for God. Yet today archeologists are still discovering more and more about these very sophisticated people. As I walked around the site at Skara Brae and also Broch of Gurness, I was reminded of what I’ve seen in the past when visiting Machu Picchu.

I know the buildings are not exactly the same but there is something that echoes a similarity, at least in my mind.The Inca people centuries later were still trying to find a connection with God through stones and the sun. However it is also a reminder to us that we too are leaving a mark as we pass through this amazing world. Have a look at some of the pictures that I’ve left on the gallery this evening for those of you who have time to view them. GALLERY