THE NATIONAL GATHERING

Lots of things are happening around the church this week. I guess we’re not any busier than normal but it seems that way. The staff of SANCTUS MEDIA are working flat out getting ready for the General Assembly. Rae has just managed to produce a DVD with over three and half hours of footage on it all relating to the 2008 National Gathering. Its well worth a watch, indeed I think you will be able to order it on line from our Sanctus Media web page within the next couple of days.

Talking of getting busy, I’m struggling to keep up with the Discipleship 40 Challenge but I’m not going to give up I’m going to be a pilgrim and press on. So if you get invited by me to take part in a challenge please humour me so that I can complete it. I just wrote another seven challenges this evening. Those of you who are ahead of the game will be delighted to know that there are more challenges coming,your way.

A DAY OF PRAYER

One amazing challenge  is the day of prayer taking place in the church this Saturday. We hope its going to be a wonderful creative and restful day for those who decide to come along and pray. there are many different facets to prayer. We hope to introduce people to different methods. I notice Rae and Adam have been working on a prayer tree.  They’ve taken a branch of a tree and sprayed it with gold paint. They’re getting it ready to be changed from a dry branch to a prayer tree branch. When people come on Saturday they will be able to write on a piece of paper and attach it to the branches like leaves. We got a good write up last week in the Bo’ness  Journal about the Prayer day so let’s hope we get a good turn out. i believe the church is going to be open from 10am-6pm

GatheringTwenty years ago Iain Jamieson and myself wrote this song.  For a number of years it was a kind of theme tune for the Bogle Band.  We used to close concerts with it and I know it has touched many peoples lives. I remember singing it in Union Street Aberdeen. We were playing at a Pentecost Rally organised by the churches in Aberdeen.The street was closed off and a few thousands people turned up to participate. Now twenty years on I think the song has a significance once again.  In just a few days people from all over Scotland will be coming to the  CWW National Gathering in Edinburgh. Many people are coming to tell their stories of faith and renewal, others are coming to be encouraged. Some will be coming out of a sense of duty, while others will come with a sense of expectancy. I’m sure what ever the reasons , God is at work in all our hearts. making us see things in a new way. it is my prayer that everyone to comes to Ingliston might encounter the presence of the living God.  I’ve been encouraging people to look at the whole faith story that is encapsulated in the tents. Its not just our local stories we are telling, its the story of a people longing for intimacy with God down through history. This longing led Israel out to the wilderness, where they had to eventually face a journey for forty years because their was disbelief in the camp. They lived in tents to remind themselves that they had no abiding city in this world. Surely we are being continually reminded of our calling as Christians. We have to live expecting the return of Jesus while preparing for the long haul involved in just being a waiting people. Anyway there’s a crowd of people out their who will be making their way to Ingliston, on Saturday and Sunday. I want to welcome them and remind them that  this is going to be one of the best events ever and we all need to be there. You know something the most important person of all is going to be there JESUS! So lift your banners, pull them out and bring them on down to the Gathering.