Neil MacMillan's Blog
Gospel Moves
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Is Jesus asking you to do something radical and sacrificial for the Gospel?
Last week brought some highly enjoyable contrasts into my life. I began the week in the Kintyre peninsula, preaching in Tarbert and Campbeltown. Both congregations were small (about 25 between the two of them), but, as always, I met some great people with a self-evident love for Jesus and the Church. I had only ever been to Campbeltown once, about 20 years ago, by boat. I was on a boating holiday for a week in the Firth of Clyde. Six landlubbers with not a clue about navigation or anything else nautical. I still laugh at our attempts to reverse park the 38ft cabin cruiser at our first port of call in Bute. This time, I navigated my way by road and it was a stunningly beautiful drive. I know of people who want to move to Campbeltown to help revitalise the church there - but they need others to go with them. Often, we choose where we live according to the needs of career, family and our own comfort. But gospel people choose where they live by what will serve the Gospel best. If you think you could move to Cambeltown to help revitalise the church there, then please get in touch.
From Campbeltown to the Big Apple: Later in the week, I spent several days in the pleasant company of Al Barth from Redeemer Church Planting Centre, New York. Al was in Edinburgh to talk to various groups of people, including the Free Church, about the need for church planting in urban centres. I am beginning to realise that a lot of people in Scotland just don’t get church planting. Some think we have plenty of churches already, so why plant more, especially when fewer and fewer people go to church? Others wonder why on earth they would leave a large, comfortable church to go and start a new church from scratch. But starting new churches is the best way to reach new people, and different kinds of people, with the Gospel of the crucified and risen Christ. Church planting is the most effective evangelistic tool we have, the most biblical evangelistic tool we have and the best way of impacting local communities with the Gospel.
On Sunday night, I heard Athole Rennie, a church planter from Leith, speak about his work. There is plenty of room in Leith for the planting of numerous gospel churches and Athole was sharing this vision, and asking people if they felt called to come and share in this exciting new work. So if you don’t want to move to Campbeltown, how about a move to Leith?
Is Jesus asking you to do something radical and sacrificial for the Gospel? Of course he is, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’. Hopefully you are where you are today in life because you are convinced that it is where Jesus wants you to be, because it is where you can serve the Gospel best. But if not, if your life today revolves around your own convenience, comfort or career, then it’s time to make some gospel moves.
Ayr Time: The Sequel
Monday, March 08, 2010
Last Thursday, I finally made it to Ayr, about five months after I intended to go. I was late arriving, due to the awesome mess that is the Scottish motorway network. I mostly spoke about our need to get on board with God’s mission in the world around us. I followed this up by talking about not seeing mission as special people doing special things, but ordinary people doing ordinary things, but doing them with a desire to share the Gospel. I encouraged the people in Ayr to spend better time with each other, in terms of Gospel nurture and growth, and more time with non-Christians in order to build trusting relationships. After I left, I felt a slight twinge of regret that I should have spent more time talking about what they, as a congregation, could do to reach out into the community, e.g. run a café, do some youth work. If anyone is involved in high quality, creative outreach work in a Free Church context, then let me know what you are up to. I can pass on your experience to the people in Ayr and to others who are looking for some inspiration.
Good Times
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Two months into 2010 and this is my first blog. I may not have been saying much, but I have been having a good time. I had a holiday week in the sun in volcanic Tenerife. I’ve been to the Granite City of Aberdeen, my birthplace. The good times just keep rolling on. I’ve also been trying to get a couple of projects off the ground. The first is to start four new church plants this year, using a different kind of process than the Free Church has in the past. The second is to launch a mission and church planting course in Scotland. I have been liaising with Porterbrook Training in Sheffield and aim to launch Porterbrook Scotland in the autumn. I hope both of these projects will be effective in engaging and equipping many more people for mission and evangelism. If so, I see good times ahead for the Church in Scotland. At the same time, when I think about mission in Scotland and my own frailties and all that needs to be done, I feel overwhelmed and so, I keep on praying…‘lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’
