Neil MacMillan's Blog
Reformission Scotland
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
A new church planting initiative for Leith and Scotland
Holidays, work and illness have come between me and my blog, but I am back. Responses to my questions in Ayr Time have been few but varied. One person told me face to face that I had to write something interesting before I started asking for comments. A minister emailed me to say that they were questions that he had been thinking about for quite a while. Norrie has posted reminding us that, in many ways, small is beautiful and I do agree. One of the reasons the Kirkcaldy church planted a church in Dunfermline was because Kirkcaldy had grown to about 60 or 70 people and was becoming quite cosy. We needed a new challenge and so we planted out. So, perhaps instead of looking to grow to plus 100, we should plant another church when we get to about 70 people. There is good evidence that this is a sound missiological principle leading to greater growth. (See ‘Multiplying Churches’ ed. Steve Timmis.)
But on to something else. Last night, I attended the ordination and induction of the Rev. Athole Rennie to be a church planter in the new harbour development in Leith. The service was in New Restalrig Church of Scotland. The church was pretty packed, Sinclair Ferguson preached a fine sermon on the church from Matthew 16 and we had some good singing, including an unaccompanied psalm. I even got to say a few words myself.
The service was hosted by Reformission Scotland. Reformission Scotland is a group of ministers and elders from the Church of Scotland, Free Church, and APC who are working to promote the planting of culturally relevant gospel churches with a reformed outlook. Leith is their first church plant. Reformission Scotland are working with the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church in America to make this happen, and Athole was ordained and inducted as an ARP minister.
Athole is a fine guy, and worthy of our respect and support. If Reformission Scotland can start planting churches that are reformed but relevant we must all rejoice. Scotland is a mission field. Millions of people need the gospel. Many of them have rejected Church as they have previously encountered it. It will be fascinating to watch and see if Athole can break the missional code in Leith. Church planting is an urgent necessity for Scotland in the 21st Century. We need this church plant and we need many more like it. It is wonderful to have the support of American Presbyterians with a Scottish heritage supporting this kind of work. Thank God that they care enough about Scotland to get involved. I hope their commitment to mission in Scotland will fire the rest of us with an even greater passion to see Scotland re-evangelised.
