No.21   5th April, 2024

 

Hi, 

This week's magazine looks backwards, forwards, inwards and outwards.
We look back at the Easter weekend of course. And we are encouraged to look forwards too and consider what our church name will be...and what our church will be like.
But a new season of events are upon us and there are a number of events run by Christian organisations which we can support coming up in the next few weeks -so as well as looking forwards to them, you will be encouraged to look outwards to those with whom these agencies are working.
And we can look inwards too, and there are a range of things below to encourage us in our Christian walk.

Enjoy the mag .
M

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Sunday 7th April, 10.30am

Rev Scott Kirkland
Reading  - Romans ch7:1-25 

If you require a lift to get to church email  office@nmnewchurch.org

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History of the Grass

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Letter from the Manse 
Dear Congregation, 

Many testified to having a wonderful time in worship over the Easter season as we focussed on the death and resurrection of Jesus.  

Many thanks to all who helped organize and attended the different events (Palm Sunday service, The Case For Christ film night, Good Friday All-Age-Easter-Event, Good Friday worship at the Baptist Church, the Easter Dawn Service, Easter Day worship, the “Resurrection” event at the Usher Hall).  

Christ is Risen indeed. We have a Risen Saviour! 

On a different matter…
Ok, I admit it, I have never liked the plays of William Shakespeare! However, I have been moved to think about the words of Juliet in the play, “Romeo and Juliet”.  

At one point in the play, declaring her love for the man and not the name of his family, she asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.”  

We are considering a change for the name of our congregation when we join the Free Church of Scotland in the summer. However, like the rose, when we change our name, we will not aim at losing in essence who we are! Anything currently “sweet” about us we trust will remain if our name does change.  However, a name change may be one small part of seeking how the Lord would take us forward into the future.   

We would like you to be involved in this process.  

Please pray as you consider this matter. We do not want to limit your suggestions. You may even propose keeping our existing name “Newton Mearns New Church” if you think this would be most helpful.  

Details of this process are below. Announcements will be made about the process at the beginning of worship over the next two weeks. 

Unlike the label “rose” which may have little meaning in itself, churches often find it helpful to build into their name something which conveys information (perhaps about their location, or from a significant person in church history, or a significant theme in the gospel message, or an aspect of a key biblical story, etc.). Please consider what name might speak best of our present and future congregational life. 

With warm regards, 

Scott 

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SUGGESTION BOX

Members will be welcome to give their suggestions for the a new name for the church to the Comms Team for them to consider.
To do that there will be a suggestion box provided on three Sunday mornings after Easter - 7th, 14th and 21st April.
The Comms Team will then create a shortlist of names that will go to the Session for a decision.
(see mag no.20 for other details.)

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Last Sunday, Scott mentioned MP Nick Fletcher sharing his faith in parliament - here is the link to this speech. 
Nick Fletcher, MP for Don Valley, spoke for 17 minutes about the Lord Jesus Christ, his incarnation, his sinless life, his substitutionary death, and his resurrection.
Fletcher said, ‘The foundational premise of the gospel is that we are all sinners. We do wrong. Wrong against God, and wrong against one another, and we know it. I know it. I am not proud of it, but it is true.
The Bible is ‘shockingly plain’ that no one can make themselves good enough for God, because salvation is given to us by God ‘by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone’. This good news of salvation is available to everyone, everywhere.

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Ladybird Book of New Church

 

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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.
We are serialising Andrew Wilson's excellent little book, 'Unbreakable - what the Son of God thought of the Word of God'
This week...

You Can Always Trust the Light:

THE CLARITY OF SCRIPTURE

Jesus knew, all too well, that lots of people who read the Scriptures did not really understand them. It’s true today, and it was true in the first century. There are all sorts of issues over which modern Christians disagree – baptism, spiritual gifts, the end times, church government, and so on – and if you read church history, you’ll soon discover that we’re not the first generation like that.

So Christians often ask: ‘Is the Bible clear? Surely, if it was, we’d all agree on what it meant?’ There are two answers we could give to that question.

The first is: when it comes to the essentials, we do. All Christians, everywhere, believe in one church, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord Jesus Christ, one faith, one baptism, one God. Whenever I feel discouraged about the confusions and debates within the global church, I go and read the Nicene Creed, and it reminds me just how much we agree on.

The second answer to that question – ‘If the Bible was clear, wouldn’t we all agree about everything?’ – is: not necessarily. There are all sorts of things our end – ignorance, hard-heartedness, sin, rebellion, unbelief – which might prevent us from understanding what Scripture says quite clearly. In fact, when Jesus interacted with people who had misunderstood something he’d said, either in Scripture or in person, he never put the blame on the word of God for being unclear, confusing or obscure. Instead, he always said it was something to do with the readers or hearers: ‘Are you also still without understanding?’ ‘You make void the word of God by your tradition that you’ve handed down.’ ‘Do you still not perceive? How is it that you fail to understand that I wasn’t talking about bread?’ ‘This people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed.’ ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary that the Christ should suffer these things, and enter into his glory?’ ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me.’ ‘But they didn’t understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about it.’ ‘Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.’ ‘It is the Scriptures that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.’  Ignorance. Traditionalism. Naivety. Dullness, deafness, foolishness. Opposition to God. Fear. Sin. Stubbornness.

When people don’t understand something God has said, Jesus assumes that the Scriptures are clear – ‘Haven’t you read in the Scriptures?!’ – and the people are muddled. Frequently, in our arrogance, we assume it’s the other way round. It’s easy to see how, in all sorts of situations, misunderstandings could be our responsibility. I might disagree with you about baptism because I’m stubborn, and mired in my tradition. I might disagree with you about the end times because I’m ignorant, or proud, or naive. I might disagree with you about spiritual gifts out of fear, or hard-heartedness. (Of course, we might also disagree about something because Scripture doesn’t speak clearly about our particular questions. It doesn’t tell us who to vote for, whether to drink tea, or how to structure our corporate worship, for instance.)

But whatever the reason, we can all agree on this: the problem is probably at our end, rather than God’s end. I teach on several theology courses, and I always make a point of telling my students that a number of the things I’ll teach them will be untrue. I never intend to teach wrongly, of course, and I work hard to ensure my teaching is as accurate and helpful as possible, but the reality is that I will teach some things that are incorrect. When that happens, though, I don’t want anyone to think it’s because the Bible isn’t clear where it intends to be. It may be that the Bible wasn’t intended to address the particular question I’m asking, or it may be that I’ve been waylaid by some combination of ignorance, carelessness and sin. It certainly won’t be because the Scriptures are an incoherent mess. ‘Your word is a lamp for my feet,’ wrote the Psalmist, ‘a light on my path.’ When you’re walking along a dark and narrow track, you can’t always trust your judgment. But you can always trust the light.
Andrew Wilson

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Spring Harvest

A number of us are heading to Spring Harvest at Minehead again on Sunday to be part of the volunteer stewarding team.
The event runs from Monday to Friday and our team of 50ish stewards will work hard moving chairs,  greeting guests, moving chairs, directing guests, moving chairs, ensuring venue safety, moving chairs, dealing with lost property, moving chairs, helping lost children and lost parents, moving chairs and more!

Our stewarding team is headed up by David Cameron with Graeme Lipsett and Colin Forster in senior steward roles. Also joining the team from our church are Pauline, Sue and Charles, Cathy and Kaye. The majority of the stewards return year after year to serve on this team and we have known each other for years. It has been a tough year for some of the team and in the last 8 weeks two of our longstanding team members have died. Pray in particular for John and his family as they attend so soon after losing his wife. Please do pray that the team will work well together, be filled with strength to get through a busy and physically tiring week but also be blessed and encouraged by our times of worship and teaching. 
Pauline

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Easter Weekend Activities- a look back

Easter Family Outreach event

On Good Friday a team of nearly 30 of us gathered in Belmont at 11.30am to prepare for our first family outreach event as a new church. In the midst of the busyness of setting up the activity stations we prayed and shared lunch together before opening the doors, not having a clue how many people would come along. By 2.15pm the hall was busy and families kept coming throughout the afternoon! We had 35 families come along, well over 100 people. They came from Newton Mearns, Clarkston and Giffnock that we know of and from a range of backgrounds - some with church connections but many with none and lots of Hong Kongers thanks to Asa's wonderful gift of sharing and encouraging with fellow Hong Kong families. Some children from Mearns Primary were excited to tell parents that I come into their school and visit their classes which provided an opportunity for me to share information about my job and our church. Thanks to having plenty of volunteers to run the activities and the refreshments Scott, Anita and I were able to spend the afternoon mingling and engaging in conversations with parents. 
Throughout the afternoon children and their parents had fun exploring the Easter story through many different activities:

• Easter story egg hunt with a chocolate reward at the end
• Being part of the Easter story through drama
• Pin the tail on the Palm Sunday donkey
• Face painting 
• Wool cross decorations
• Family egg and spoon relay race
• Stone painting
• Empty tomb biscuits (well done to Lucy and Zara for managing not to let small people eat or ruin all the edible components, with the exception of one small boy putting his entire face in the bowl of icing ??)
• Egg roll challenge (it appears Colin has a special talent for rolling eggs along guttering at speed!)
• Egg drop challenge (well done to Iain Pirie for impressing Jacob with your egg parachute!)
• Each family went home with a palm cross, some Easter family Bible activities and a copy of the 12 things you probably didn't know about Easter book. 

Our prayers were answered for the event to be a success. We give thanks that we were able to be part of the family discipleship this Easter for the Christian families who came along and pray for the families with no church connection that they might connect with future events we run and ultimately come to faith. 
A massive thank you to everyone who volunteered on the day, helped with resources, baked, prayed and sent messages of encouragement. 
Pauline

Easter Dawn Walk

A particularly early start for this year's Dawn Walkers who started their reflection on Easter Morning in Rouken Glen Park, and then continued fellowship over breakfast at the John and Sandra's.
Thanks to all who were involved, esp Jacob leading reflection and Sandra who coordinated the Breakfast.

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You can watch a live stream our services on YouTube each week.

You can find the service here and don't forget to click SUBSCRIBE
If you have friends/relatives who can't manage out they can simply search on YouTube for Newton Mearns New Church.

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Wednesdays 7.15-8.15pm.

10th April we meet at the McNicols' home
Look out for details this week on email/whatsapp

If you need a lift please email office@nmnewchurch.org.

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For the last few weeks we have had a series of articles on What the Bible is,...What it isn't...Who is it about?... etc
But for many people the key thing is How can I make it part of my daily routine to be in the Bible and having it shape me - there are so many distractions. And it doesn't come 'naturally'.
 

How to Delight in God’s Word

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us.

When Jesus came into the world humanity was split according to what they loved. “The light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19).
But someone may ask: How can I come to delight in the Word of God? My answer would be twofold:

 
- pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart
- meditate on the staggering promises of God to his people.

The same psalmist who said “How sweet are your words to my taste” (119:103), said earlier, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (119:18).
He prayed, because to have holy taste buds on the tongue of the heart is a gift of God. No man naturally hungers for and delights in God's wisdom.

But when you have prayed, indeed while you pray, meditate on the benefits God promises to his people and on the joy of having Almighty God as your helper now and eternal hope.

Who would not delight to read a book, the reading of which would change one from chaff to a cedar of Lebanon, from a Texas dust bowl to a Hawaiian orchard? Nobody deep down wants to be chaff — rootless, weightless, useless. All of us want to draw strength from some deep river of reality and become fruitful, useful people.

That river of reality is the Word of God and all the great saints have been made great by it.

John Piper

 

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Glasgow City Mission 

On Sunday 14 April at 18:30, Glasgow City Mission are hosting a service of reflection, prayer and petition

at Adelaide Place Baptist Church in Glasgow City Centre.

Their Overnight Welcome Centre provides routes out of rough sleeping in the winter and has been running for the past 14 years. This season has been the busiest yet, bringing many challenges to the service.

An opportunity to gather with Christians in Glasgow to reflect on the challenges Glasgow has faced – high numbers of homeless, a declared housing emergency, too few beds in the city, and a real feeling of hopelessness amongst many of the people we welcomed in.

An opportunity to hear from staff members as they share ministry stories, interspersed with interactive sessions of prayer, and finishing with a short time of worship together. A chance  to pray for GCM guests and ask God for a breakthrough in Glasgow this year. Please register here 

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UFM Scottish Day Conference -20th April. - one of the confirmed speakers in Jayne Dumbuya. 
She and her husband Lamin serve in Sierra Leone and will be inspiring to listen to.

Speak with Catherine A if you want more info about this event. 

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10am-3pm Saturday 20th April, St Columba's Free Church, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh

In this life all of us at one point or another are going to face loss. We are going to grieve.

We may be grieving right now. And when our friends and family face loss, we long to help them well but all too often we struggle to know how to respond. We can be on the receiving end of stupid and careless words and we ourselves can say stupid things!   Our words can falter, we can say things that wound, and, in the end, we may find ourselves tempted to withdraw. But, in Jesus, there is hope – for those who mourn and for those who walk alongside! In the morning there will be two sessions: Understanding loss & Supporting those who have lost.

In the afternoon, there will also be a seminars to help us look in more detail at particular kinds of loss, opportunities to hear about helpful resources and biblical training – and a chance to ask questions to the speaker team (Steve Midgely and Helen Thorne). Together they bring a wealth of knowledge and pastoral experience together to shed light on an area of our lives that rarely gets talked about. 
This event is open to everyone and further details and booking are available HERE

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Would you like to deepen your relationship with your persecuted family and be strengthened in your faith?

Sat, 11 May 2024 09:30 - 15:00
Findlay Church, Glasgow

Details about this conference can be found here.

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B.Y.O.C. please

CAN YOU HELP?
it makes such a difference if people bring their own cups rather than using the disposable ones each week - can you help?

 

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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 

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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

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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