No.16 1st March 2024
Hi,
It probably tells you more about the people I hang out with than anything else, but I've found myself part of conversations about bird feeders recently, I know, it's such an edgy lifestyle which so many at church enjoy. So, earlier on this morning I was sent out to fill the bird feeders...I had my breakfast made for me so it was difficult to argue with that... Jesus reminds us that it's not just Margaret, May, Bryson or Ken who don't forget our feathered friends.
"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Luke 12:6–7) The 'reach' of God's power and care is breath-taking.
And then to back this up it was good to read this earlier today too:
"The first day of a new month is always a great time to pause to remind yourself of this: Right now, at this very moment, God is reigning from his throne. All is well"
And if you are reading this on the 2nd of the month it still counts!
There are two short articles on Serving this week - sent in independently of each other! Maybe we are being told something. Certainly plenty of opportunities - look out for those...ie the articles
and the opportunities!
Enjoy the mag.
M
Youth Weekend Away
Lots of the young people are away this weekend at our annual weekend away. Please pray that we will have a fun, safe weekend filled with opportunities to hear and respond to God's word.
Thank you to everyone who provide home baking.
Because of this there will be no Primetime or Youth this Sunday. For any young people at church on Sunday morning their are sermon notes at the back that they can fill in during the service.
Jacob
Sunday 3rd March, 10.30am
Rev Scott Kirkland
Reading - Romans 5:1-12
Followed by refreshments after the service
Getting to Church: Should anyone require a lift to Belmont House School, then please do let us know. Please email office@nmnewchurch.org.
From the Manse
Dear Congregation,
Many thanks to all who voted last weekend on the future direction of our congregational life. The elders were delighted that all but two members voted and twenty one out of the twenty seven ballot papers for regular worshippers were returned.
Ninety-five percent of those on the congregational roll voted in favour of the elders’ recommendation to join the Free Church. Of the regular worshippers who also voted, ninety-five percent also voted with the recommendation.
We should all be very encouraged by the unity this signals as we go forward. Praise God! However, let’s pray that this unity is protected as we go forward.
We will therefore welcome a delegation from The Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow and Argyll on 10th March for a congregational meeting after worship.
We shall have Ian MacLeod (elder Coatbridge), Iain Sanderson (elder Kirkmuirhill)), Ivor MacDonald (Minister Coatbridge) and Benjamin Wilks (Presbytery Clerk and Minister, Darvel). Iain was an elder in the Church of Scotland and Ivor a minister in the CofS.
I am sure the team will seek to encourage us, they will ask questions about our process and also oversee the election of initial elders and a first minister for our Free Church congregation. I will provide a list of prospective elders this Sunday for election on 10th. You will have a choice of one for your first minister, me!
For Prayer…Later today about fifteen of our youth and six leaders will head to Inchinnan for a weekend of residential youth activity (sleeping is not required!). They will be joined with several P7s on Saturday also. Let’s pray that this will not only be a wonderful time of fun and friendship but also decisive for all in their walk with Jesus.
I have been thinking about “Serving the Lord” this week. See a few thoughts below. Click here.
With warm regards,
Scott
Cafe Connect was busy again on Tuesday -
but there is always room for a few more!
And here are some of the team who get things ready each week!
Come and join us!
Tuesdays at Newton Mearns Baptist Church - 1.30pm
Wednesdays 7.15-8.15pm.
Meeting at Debbie and Sandy McDougall's.
If you need a lift please email office@nmnewchurch.org.
SAVE THE MARCH DATES
You are invited to an open exhibition at Hunter House Coffee Shop.
Saturday the 9th March between 1-4pm.
These are paintings that I have been working on over the years.
The coffee shop will be open should you need refreshments.
The exhibition is on from the 1. February until the end of March, but it would be lovely to see you on the 9th and enjoy the occasion together.
Christy
Stay for Lunch!
Join us after church on Sunday, 17th of March for a fundraising lunch to hear about the work of SU Scotland and also some of these events our young people have been going to.
Jacob
The 'Case for Christ' Movie Night
Sunday March 24th
Join us on March 24th to watch The Case for Christ based on a true story and inspired by the 1998 book of the same name by Lee Strobel.
A great event for the whole congregation. Please pray and bring along any of your interested friends and family.
Certificate PG … followed by refreshments.
Serving, for the purpose of Godliness
Here is the first article on serving this week...Stewart Anderson sent in an extract from ‘Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian life’, ( Donald S Whitney. NAV Press 1991) which is worth some reflection...
Stewart writes..."
There are some challenges in this wee piece...the chapter 'Serving, for the purpose of Godliness' starts with a striking illustration!..."
“It’s been gone since 1862, yet people still recognise the name. The Pony Express was a private express company that carried mail by an organised relay of horseback riders across a series of 184 stations. The eastern end was St. Joseph, Missouri, and the western terminal was in Sacramento, California. The cost of sending a half-ounce letter by Pony Express varied from $25 to $125 in today’s dollars, depending upon when during the life span of the service it was sent. If the horses held out, and the weather and the Indians held off, that letter would complete the nearly two-thousand-mile journey in a speedy eight to ten days, as did the report of Lincoln’s Inaugural Address.’
‘It may surprise you that the Pony Express was in operation only from April 3, 1860, until November 18, 1861 - just nineteen months. When the telegraph line was completed between the two cities, the horseback service was no longer needed.’
‘Being a rider for the Pony Express was a tough job. You were expected to cover seventy-five to one hundred miles a day, riding hard day and night, changing horses every ten to fifteen miles. Other than the mail, you carried little else besides a revolver and a knife. In order to travel light, and to increase speed and mobility during Indian attacks , the men rode in shirtsleeves whenever possible, sometimes even during the fierce winter weather.’
‘How would you recruit volunteers for this hazardous job?
Bolivar Roberts, superintendent for the western end of the Express, is said to have placed this ad in a San Francisco newspaper in March 1860:
“Wanted - young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”’
‘Those were the honest facts of the service required, but the Pony Express never suffered a shortage of riders’
Donald Whitney next says; ‘We need a similar honesty with the facts about the Discipline of serving God. Like the Pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested.
It’s costly service. God asked for your life. He requires that service to Him becomes a priority, not a pastime. He doesn’t want servants who offer Him the leftovers after their other commitments.
And serving God isn’t a short-term responsibility either, for unlike the Pony Express, His kingdom will never end, regardless of the technological advances in the world.’
Ladybird Book of New Church
Easter Cards
Getting a handwritten card is a treat these days.
If you are thinking of sending an Easter card you could also support the Leprosy Mission
They have a range of Easter cards on offer at the moment. click HERE
B.Y.O.C.
CAN YOU HELP?
Many people have commented that having time to catch up with one another after the Sunday service over a cup of tea or coffee has been a great part of the New Church.
We are grateful to the team who look after this each week. However, it makes such a difference if people bring their own cups rather than using the disposable ones.
I am very aware of the huge energy many in the congregation have expended over these last seven months to bring us to this point in our journey as a new congregation. I thank God for you!
When reflecting on Psalm 100, I noted again the Psalmist’s encouragement to praise God musically and vocally. Reflecting on the goodness and love of God in His perfect nature (He is righteous) the overflow is praise. What a delight to recognise that the Lord has a “flock” and of which all who trust in Him, are a part. No wonder there is call to give Him praise and thanksgiving!
However, I am struck by verse 2: “Serve the Lord with gladness”. While this most certainly includes all the above, I believe it is broader in scope. There really is no limit to how we might serve the Lord!
Every action of every day, dedicated to His glory, is serving the Lord. Every thought and word taken captive in obedience to His will is serving the Lord. The smallest action to the greatest sacrifice for His glory, is serving the Lord. In our places of work where we labour as effectively as we can for His name; where we spend time with family, friends and neighbours because we know the Lord gave of Himself for us, is serving the Lord. When leading in prayer or praise in Sunday worship; when leading home groups or prayer meetings; baking for others out of kindness and opening our homes for hospitality; when we dismiss tiredness or desire to do something other than gather with the Lord’s people for their encouragement, we are serving the Lord. When we seek to honour our God in anything we do, we serve the Lord!
Pretty obvious? However, what struck me most forcibly the Psalmist call to serve the Lord not as a burden but as a blessing. Serving the Lord should be an activity of joy and great satisfaction – we are to serve with “gladness”.
That gladness can only come by the work of God the Spirit as He leads us to see how amazing God’s grace is to us in Jesus. We become motivated from the inside to the outside!
Psalm 100.5 “For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations” is seen most particularly in Jesus. The servanthood of Jesus surely motivates our servanthood. As He was glad to serve, so gladness is stirred within our hearts to serve. Focussing on the Lord stirs glad service.
The story of Mary, Martha and Jesus is a cautionary tale and reminder of a misplaced focus on the service itself, or even on the participation of others around us, can sour our hearts (Luke 10:38-42).
Busy Martha, running around “serving” the Lord emits not the beautiful fragrance of worship but frustration toward her sister Mary and the Lord Jesus Himself (“do you not care…?”). That may appear as a question posed by Martha, but it is really an accusation. What a thing to accuse Jesus of! He cares. He cares like no-one ever has. The cross of Calvary is visible reminder on the landscape of history, how much he cares.
Focussing on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith motivates in our hearts the desire to serve (Hebrews 12.2-3). What a privilege. Martha did not serve with gladness. Mary served Jesus by sitting at his feet listening to every word.
However, sometimes we do need to step back and rest for a while. Our bodies and minds can creak under the weight we lay on our own shoulders, or by the weight placed there by others.
Resting and recuperating has its place. Jesus so frequently retreated to be alone. He slept on a boat. In fact, the Lord knows us so well, body and soul that He graciously supplies what we need, even rest when that is required. (See the great prophet Elijah crashed out below a tree in 1st Kings 19). That R&R is not laziness, nor an escape from serving, but rather the necessary period of refuelling (as it were) to rise and then serve again, but more effectively, more gladly?
It has been a delight to see so many of you finding ways to serve the Lord in our new church. All service for the Lord is significant even if less conspicuous. Truly, I thank the Lord for your contribution to our congregational life.
Are there ways you think you would like to serve with gladness but have not yet been afforded the opportunity? Please speak with me or Margo (our “operations director”!). We want to encourage one another to become truly servant-hearted, as we serve the Lord, one another, and our community. How might you be able to use your gifts and resources to this end – but with glad hearts?
Scott
We gather round the Word in our meetings on Sunday and other times, and we hold to it as the revealed Word of God for us today.
This is the 3rd in the series of looks at God's Word from different 'angles' as we serialise Andrew Wilson's short book 'Unbreakable'
Dodging the Rocks
THE UNBREAKABILITY OF SCRIPTURE
Everybody knows that Jesus was killed. What many people don’t know is that, before they eventually succeeded, there were first several failed attempts to kill him. It’s winter, and Jesus is in Jerusalem.
He keeps saying provocative things: things which only Israel’s God could truly say, like, ‘I’m the light of the world’, and ‘I’m the bread of life’, and ‘I’m the good shepherd’, and even ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ One day, the Judeans gather round, like journalists swarming around a politician in trouble, and push him for a straight answer – so he gives them one. ‘I and the Father are one,’ he says. That’s blasphemy, they think. Quickly, they reach down for stones to throw at him: bits of rock, cobbles off the street, whatever is available. ‘Not because of the works you’ve been doing,’ they say – although they don’t like those either – ‘but because you, a mere man, are claiming to be God, you have to die.’
But Jesus is ready for them. ‘Have you read your Bibles recently?’
But Jesus is ready for them. ‘Have you read your Bibles recently? Psalm 82:6, for instance? If the Scriptures call kings “gods” – and the Scriptures are the word of God, and they are unbreakable – then what are you getting so hot and bothered about? In a nutshell: if you’re saying I’m wrong, then you’re saying the Bible is wrong. But the Bible is unbreakable, right? It’s the word of God.
So you should probably back off.’ It’s not just a clever line, plucked out of nowhere to win an argument. Right at the start of his teaching ministry, Jesus made it clear that he hadn’t come to ‘break to pieces’ (or ‘abolish’) the Law, and that anyone who ‘broke’ it would be called least in the kingdom.
The unbreakability of Scripture is foundational, both for Jesus and for the Judeans he’s talking to: since God has spoken through Scripture, then any argument that leads to the conclusion that Scripture is broken in some way, no matter how convincing it sounds, must be wrong. End of story. That’s hugely challenging.
Many of us, when faced with a biblical difficulty – and there are plenty of those! – conclude that the Scriptures are broken.
Maybe this didn’t really happen. Maybe God didn’t really say that.
Hardly a day goes past without some Christian, somewhere, apologising for something the Bible says, and muttering something about it being a human book, complete with muddles and mistakes. But if the Scriptures are the unbreakable word of God, as Jesus seems to have thought they were, then a different approach is needed.
Maybe it’s my interpretation, or my assumptions, that need challenging.
Maybe there is something I don’t know.
Maybe the answer is in there, and I just need to look a bit harder.
Maybe I’m the one who is broken, rather than the Bible.
Up and Coming Events
The magazine has flagged up a number of notices for events happening at Newton Mearns New Church and further afield.
See all the the details of the events below in Magazine No.10 here.
Safeguarding at Newton Mearns New Church
Safeguarding – Ensuring a Safe Church for All
If you suspect or witness harm or abuse, or it is reported to you, you must immediately report it to one of the Safeguarding Coordinators:
Sue Anderson – 07970 261429
Giving at NM New Church
There are a number of ways to support the church financially. The giving page gives details - click here
A number of people have been asking if cash or cheques can now be given. From this Sunday you will have the opportunity to leave offerings in the plate or basket on the table at the back of the church.
If you have any questions please speak to our Treasurer Sandy or email him on finance@nmnewchurch.org "
The New Church has a What's App Group for Prayer
See magazine no.4 for an outline of how this Pray Now group operates.
Speak to Margaret Boyd if you would like to be added to this group or email your details to mandmboyd@hotmail.co.uk
You need WhatsApp on your phone to get set up
We live stream our services on YouTube from our first Sunday. You can find the service here.
You can also find the service by searching on YouTube for Newton Mearns New Church.