No.23 19th April, 2024
Hi,
Hope this finds you well.
As usual there are a few 'coming soon' events to check out - a new one is the Holiday Club announcement for this Summer - more of that on Sunday. And with a sporty Olympics theme as the announcement is made we can expect to see Pauline and Jacob in lycra this weekend - Something which will keep the Prayer WhatsApp busy I would imagine.
We have been learning lots about grace recently as we have looked at the book of Romans - if you want to see a perfect example of this it is in that the Magazine editors have allowed Scott's letter to be printed even though it blatantly advertises
another church magazine, which apparently is amazing and has all sorts of things including recipes! Does it have a Ladybird page... doubt it! I'm sure you'll be reminded as you read it of the accounts in the Old Testament where the people were running after other magazines...
Anyway, if you are not too busy reading another publication, enjoy the mag .
M
Sunday 21st April, 10.30am
Rev Tom Muir
Reading -Judges ch6
LARGE PRINT
If you would prefer to have a large print copy of the song words which appear on the screen on a Sunday morning let the door team know.
We don't want to print copies which aren't used so just the team know and we can organise that for you.
If you require a lift to get to church email office@nmnewchurch.org
Letter from the Manse
Dear Congregation,
I am keenly awaiting the outcome of the process to assign to our congregation a new name. Thank you for your participation in this process. I believe you have contributed whole-heartedly with over 80 suggestions thus far! I understand thankfully, that many of these suggestions are similar!
I am on holiday this week. In my absence, the returns will be collated, a short-list given to the elders and a final decision made. On my return next Friday, with you, I hope to hear what our new name will be! Exciting!
Our treasurer, Sandy McDougall and I spent Thursday afternoon this week in Edinburgh at the Free Church HQ.
We met chiefly with Andrew Giffen, the Chief Executive Officer of the Free Church. Andrew showed us around the premises and introduced us to all the office staff. He was extremely helpful as we discussed with him the technical details for our move into the Free Church. The General Assembly of the Free Church (this May) will be asked to accept us as a Free Church congregation, me as our first minister and the elders you elected. Sandy and I both came away greatly encouraged and even more enthusiastic about our transition into the Free Church.
We spent some time talking with with Rev Iver Martin, current Principal Edinburgh Theological College. ETS is where Free Church ministers train. The Seminary has presently a couple of hundred students of which only a small number will become ministers. Some students are full time, some part-time and some attending classes on Saturdays. What we found most encouraging was that these students are from all denominations, from the length and breadth of Scotland and from both “pulpit and pew”!
It was also great to meet the young lady who organizes Free Church camps. If I heard correctly there will be eleven camps this year for various age groups. You can see the details here.
I picked up the Free Church Magazine for April/May, “The Record” and leafing through this magazine I was immediately struck with how interesting and helpful it was.
In this April/May edition I took (“stole?”, I only noticed later they cost £2), our former colleague in the Church of Scotland, Rev Ian Watson and the congregation of Hope Church where he ministers (Blackwood and Kirkmuirhill) were featured celebrating their 10th anniversary. (Available online here)
Their building is marvellously flexible and fitting for the congregation. However, it had an unusual background. It was originally a nursing home. Needless to say access is wonderful, car parking more than adequate, the internal facilities immaculate and flexible and one wing is now “the manse”! They found themselves being drawn to Psalm 118.23 “the Lord has done this and it is marvellous in our eyes”.
The article mentions that they celebrated this landmark with a visiting Free Church minister, Rev David Court (another friend and former colleague from the Church of Scotland).
I appreciated “the mix” which made up the magazine. I enjoyed reading how to make Pavlova (not sure I ever will do this but was fascinated that vinegar is involved), the book reviews, the poetry page, the children’s page, hearing of the brand new building for worship in Skye, the prayer diary and several articles including one on mission by David Meredith and the place of God the Holy Spirit in that mission: “I have to say it is a long time since I was in a prayer meeting where there was a sense of even expectation of heaven breaking into earth. It’s all so mundane these days. That sense of God does not come from shouting, weird intonation in our voices or the vain repetition of groanings which insist on being uttered, It comes from talking to God as he is God and asking quite remarkable and even ridiculous things from him…”
I think our elders believe we have been witnessing anything but the mundane in these recent days of Newton Mearns New Church. In our journey towards and into the Free Church, we have been amazed! We are excited to see where the Lord will lead us in His mission in the coming days!
Let’s pray with that expectation, that heaven would break into earth in us, around us and through us!
With warm regards,
Scott
How to Respond When You Falter
We are looking at Romans on Sunday mornings... this short reflection helps us consider a regular concern:
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:19)
Christians do not live only in defeat. But neither do we live only in perfect victory over sin.
And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:14–25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond.
We should say:
-
I love the law of God (verse 22).
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I hate what I just did (verse 15).
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Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death (v24)?
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Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord (verse 25)
In other words, no Christian wants to live this way — in defeat. No Christian settles to live this way. But if we do live this way for a time, we shouldn't lie about it.
No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality.
God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others.
God help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.
God give us the honesty and candour and humility of the apostle Paul in this text!
J Piper
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. This Sunday is the last opportunity - there will be pens and paper available as you arrive to take a moment to do that (or bring one already written out!)
Holiday Club Summer 2024
4th - 11th August 2024?
On Tuesday the Olympic torch was lit in Olympia and began its journey towards Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Athletes around the world are preparing for what they hope will be their moment of glory.
100 years ago Eric Liddell was beginning his journey towards the Paris 1924 Olympic Games and through his choice to not race on a Sunday achieved more than just personal glory - he glorified God and his actions and life caused many others to also bring glory to God.
In NM New Church we want to light our torch and begin our preparations for a week of outreach in our local area to pass on the light of Jesus and bring glory to God.
So...save the date. Sunday 4th - Sunday 11th August 2024 will be a week of activities based on an Olympics theme. We will have a holiday club for primary school children as well as family activites, youth events and adult events. The week is in the early planning stages so if you have any ideas please speak to myself or Jacob and look our for further information over the coming weeks.
If you would like to be involved in particular with the holiday club then we will meet during tea/coffee after church next Sunday (28th April) to find out more.
Pauline
Ladybird Book of New Church
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.
Continuing our serialisation of Andrew Wilson's excellent little book, 'Unbreakable - what the Son of God thought of the Word of God'
This week...
Oh No They Won't!
THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE
The parables of Jesus often have cryptic, subversive and even menacing punchlines.
The lovely story about the runaway son and his homecoming party ends with a sour-faced older brother shaming his dad and refusing to come in. The wedding feast is open to everyone, rich and poor and everyone in between, except the gatecrasher who comes in wearing the wrong clothes. The easy-geezer wheeler-dealer manager is commended for ripping off his boss, and held upas an example for us. We could go on.
One of the darkest punchlines of all comes at the end of the story about the rich man and Lazarus. It looks like a simple story of role reversal: the poor man dies and goes to be with Abraham, and the rich man dies and ends up in torment. But it ends with a strange piece of dialogue between the rich man, pleading for help, and Abraham. ‘Send Lazarus to my father’s house,’ the rich man cries, ‘so they don’t end up here!’ Abraham says no – they can all read Moses and the Prophets for themselves. ‘No, that won’t be enough!’ pleads the rich man. ‘If someone rises from the dead, though, they’ll repent. Please, Abraham. Please.’ But Abraham, again, says no. If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then nobody rising from the dead will convince them. (Fade to black.)
The story, like many of Jesus’ stories, is about wealth, poverty and the great reversals of the kingdom. But the punchline looks for all the world like it’s about the sufficiency of Scripture. Roughly translated, Abraham is saying: if people want to know how to be saved, they can read the Law and the Prophets, and they’ll repent. But if they don’t, then not even a resurrection will persuade them. The Scriptures are enough. In our world, there are countless people who agree with the rich man on this one. I was at primary school when I first heard someone say they’d believe the gospel if God would only perform a one-off miracle in front of them. Twenty-five years later, I heard an atheist on the radio say the same thing. Weirdly, miracles done in front of other people, or in other generations, don’t count. I’m an individual, entitled to my own opinions, they think, so if God wants me to believe, he’s going to have to do a special miracle, just for me. Then, and only then, I’ll believe.
And Abraham says, ‘Oh no, you won’t.’
Scripture, you see, is sufficient. It’s enough. It reveals who God is, and who we are, and what God has done about it, and what we need to do about it. We don’t need extra miracles to reveal the gospel. We don’t need extra revelations. We can read the Scriptures – and if we don’t believe them, then no amount of party-piece sky-writing will work.
We need to hear that truth in the church, as well. We don’t need visions to believe that heaven is for real; we know it from the Scriptures, and especially through Jesus. We don’t need miracles to confirm that God loves us; we know it from the Scriptures, and especially through Jesus. We don’t need great wealth, or freedom from suffering, to tell us that God is for us; we know it from the Scriptures, and especially through Jesus. As Paul was later to write, Scripture has been inspired by God, so that we ‘may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’.
In other words, assuming we pay attention to what it says, the Bible is enough.
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?
Read Together...
We have been encouraged to read this book AND think of who we would give a copy to.
There is a 2 for 1 offer for £8
Ask Stewart Anderson if you would like a copy.
Beauty. Justice. Identity. Love. Stories. Nature. Hope. These things intrigue us, move us and prompt us to ask big questions. Could there be clues in our deepest desires that point to life’s meaning?
Have You Ever Wondered? invites you on an immersive tour through the issues that matter. This book is for anyone who has looked at a landscape and contemplated why we are drawn to beauty; or wondered why we are so insatiably curious about our universe, or even for those who have simply looked up at a million stars in the vast night’s sky and just wondered.
Contributors with backgrounds in science, law, linguistics, theology, bioethics, history, and more, reflect on how their questions have, in some cases unexpectedly, led them to a compelling Christian spirituality and a profound sense of meaning and purpose in life.
Questions include:
Have you ever wondered why we long for happiness?
Have you ever wondered why humans are attracted to the supernatural?
Have you ever wondered why music has the power to move us?
Have you ever wondered why black lives matter?
Have you ever wondered what God thinks of you?
Have you ever wondered if all religions are basically the same?
Have you ever wondered why we treat sex as something sacred?
Have you ever wondered why we preserve the past?
Have you ever wondered if you can truly change?
Have you ever wondered why everyone craves money but no one thinks it’s the answer?
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.
Wednesdays 7.15-8.15pm.
Look out for details this week on email/whatsapp
If you need a lift please email office@nmnewchurch.org.
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.
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