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MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND SEPTEMBER 2018 • £2.00

are any other congregation, and therefore serving in revitalisation, or in a church plant, can help us to see what the biblical priorities really are. TP Being in a church working for revitalisation has two great advantages for an ETS student. Firstly, the church is smaller so it is much easier to get involved. Often in larger churches it’s easy to hide in the crowd, or be passed over for a role because there always seems to be someone better suited. But in a small church you don’t have that option. Everyone needs to pull their weight. Secondly, the sad fact is that many of our churches in the Free Church need some form of revitalisation. Being involved in it as a student lets you get the experience you need before you encounter it in your future ministry.

prayerfully and sacrificially supporting this work. But over the years, people have moved on, and some have been taken home by our Father. And whilst every time I go back KFC I am amazed at the new faces I see, at the same time it’s clear that there is a small core in the congregation who are carrying a big burden of responsibility. KFC is working hard to disciple believers so that they will be ready for leadership in the future, but in the shorter term, it would be wonderful to see some more committed and experienced believers able to come and support the congregation. TP The Christian church was not designed to be a series of independent groups spread out across the country, but a single family of God where brothers and sisters help one another and operate as a single body. Presbyterians should know this more than anyone. No congregation is expected to survive on its own. If a new church were planted, it would be normal for it to receive assistance (monetary, personnel, etc.). In a church revitalisation context, with few resources or people, the need for help should be just as clear.

Why is Kirkcaldy a good place for full-time or parttime students to be based? What is the commute like? TD The commute is very easy. It takes about 40 or 50 minutes on the train, depending which one you get on, and there are trains more or less every 15 minutes. It can be quite busy in the mornings, but I usually came home about 3pm (unless there were afternoon lectures) and at that time the trains were very quiet so I was always able to get lots of studying done on the journey. It’s also good exercise to walk up the hill from Waverley to ETS, and of course it’s very cool to go over the Forth Rail Bridge every day! TP Kirkcaldy has a lot going for it. The fortyminute commute is shorter than that of some of my Edinburgh-based classmates! It is also affordable. Costs are much lower in Kirkcaldy than they are in Edinburgh, from housing to food to transport. You also have access to great parks, cafés and beaches.

In what ways is KFC still a fragile church? How else could the denomination help in order for it to become a sustainable congregation? TD There are lots of practical ways in which congregations can help. The congregations who are far away could do the most important job of all by praying for KFC. That would be the greatest encouragement and the most effective way of helping, and in many ways it is the simplest too. But congregations that are a bit closer could give some additional help – maybe a worship leader from another congregation could help at a KFC service once a month. Maybe guest preachers could come along every so often for a special invitation service. And other folk can help by just coming along and visiting every so often and worshipping together with our brothers and sisters at KFC. TP KFC is fragile in several ways. Firstly, it has few leaders and it is very difficult to train up new ones. Discipleship takes a long time and some of our members struggle to read. Also, as it’s in a poor area, church finances are precarious. It would only take the loss of a couple of members for the church to become untenable. The denomination could help by giving advice on discipleship and helping us train up new members for future leadership. It could also give advice on funding opportunities and where we could get help, for example, for getting a ministry assistant or church worker.

ETS student Tom Penman.

Why does Kirkcaldy Free Church need the help of the denomination in order to revitalise? Can they not do this on their own? TD Kirkcaldy Free Church has done a huge amount in the past 25 years. It started as a very small congregation in the early 90s and then planted a church in Dunfermline which has now become a fullfledged congregation. It’s amazing to see what God has done, and there have been so many faithful people

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What else would you like to say about your experience? TD I would just want to say how fond our memories are of our time at KFC, and also to say how thankful to God we are for the warm welcome, the continual encouragement and the wonderful friends that we found waiting for us there. •

SEPTEMBER

NEW FREE CHURCH AND MINISTER IN HADDINGTON

addington is a small town twenty edinburgh,

miles

outside

situated

near

scotland’s east coast. Historically

its geographical position meant it was the gateway to the capital and therefore lay in the path of many foreign and domestic armies with varying intentions. Now, though its 10,000 inhabitants rarely need saving from marauding invaders, they do have one thing in common with the peoples of the past, and that’s their need of salvation from the besiegement of sin. In 2017, Ali Sewell and his wife Julie moved their family to the area and began work on planting a church within the local community. Getting to know the people and the culture of the area led them to start a home group with their core team, which primarily met to develop relationships and discuss the teachings of the Bible, all the while praying for God to build the congregation through conversions rather than simply transfer growth. One year on, they have now set up regular meetings in the Town House, situated in an enviable location on the High Street. They also plan to launch official services in September under the name Haddington Community Church. Pastor of Cornerstone and Generation Director of Training Neil MacMillan said, ‘It’s exciting

to see how far Ali and Julie have come in the process of planting in Haddington. They are a talented couple and I am thrilled that another new church has been planted. Scotland is losing the equivalent of ten churches a month — many new churches are needed to reverse this crisis.’ Ali was formally inducted into the Haddington church plant in Cornerstone, which meets in the Old School House in Edinburgh’s Morningside. For the past year he has led a core team to develop the work in the community while officially supported by St Columba’s Free Church. Mr Sewell, an Edinburgh Theological Seminary graduate, said, ‘Since we’ve been here we’ve seen even more just how urgent

the need is for new churches to share the gospel here in Haddington and throughout East Lothian. We’ve met lots of people, had some real encouragements, and also plenty of challenges. There’s so much still to do and we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface, but we trust that God will build his church and we rely upon him to show people their need of Jesus. The next stage is to establish a Sunday morning worship service, which will give us a strong focal point and help us as we continue to embed ourselves as a church into the community.’ Please pray for Ali and his team in Haddington as they look to bring the Gospel to their community. •.

CHERNOBYL VISIT

has recently hosted again a group of school-aged children from Chernobyl in the Ukraine, in a partnership developed alongside other local churches. Many will remember the horrific explosion at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, close to the border between Ukraine and Belarus, in April 1986. While time moves

on and the world’s gaze only occasionally returns there, for the residents of that region everything changed that day, and the legacy of contaminated food and soil and the consequent health-related issues remains an everpresent daily reality. Over the years charitable efforts have been made, among other things, to bring to the UK some of the children who

he nairn congregation of the free church

2018

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Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof (Because I’m happy) Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth (Because I’m happy) Clap along if you know what happiness is to you (Because I’m happy) Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do

harrell’s ‘happy’ probably won’t win the nobel

these are the tokens of a contented and a happy life. Think about how often you not only eat and drink, but you think about eating and drinking! Solomon adds to this the joy of satisfying work. Given that he had earlier stated that the pursuit of food and drink was meaningless and work futile, this is a significant change in attitude. So what makes the difference? Because he sees it as a gift of God. When secularism is replaced by theism, pessimism turns to optimism and human autonomy to human faith. His life motto becomes Carpe Diem — seize the day and enjoy life. Is that not a great motto for us at any time? But then Solomon seems to spoil it by telling us that nobody can add to or take away from the things that God does. ‘Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.’ It seems that even today there is nothing new under the sun!

prize for literature,

but it does express what most people in today’s society seem to want. We just want to be happy and to enjoy happy days. Happiness is the ultimate goal – but what is it? The US Declaration of Independence puts it like this: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ But how do we pursue happiness? That is the great quest for Solomon — who so far has tried wine, women and song (plus money, education, work and art) and yet found that the burden of eternity outweighs them all. In this month’s Ecclesiastes passage (3:12-15), Solomon summarises what he has learned so far. And it has a surprisingly contemporary ring. ‘I know there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.’ To eat and drink —

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GOSPEL FOR TODAY’S SOCIETY ECCLESIASTES 3:12-15 THE RECORD

SEPTEMBER

But this is not despair. It is saying that whilst earth is passing and futile, true security (on which happiness depends) can be found in God’s sovereignty and grace. God’s action is permanent, it is effective and it is complete. His actions are totally secure and sure. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ (See Romans 8). Our happiness is to be built on the solid rock of Christ and his Word, not the shifting sands of contemporary culture. This happiness includes the fear of God, but it is not the craven fear of the despot, but reverence, respect and awe for God. That is where our sense of beauty and the eternal is satisfied — because ultimately it is a sense of, and for, God. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. One final thing — at New Year or at funerals or other great moments in our lives, we often think of the passing of time and the circle of life. In v.15 Solomon addresses this by reminding us that it is God who keeps the cycles of history going. Things are going

on a pre-determined course — but it is not Marxist fatalism, or human greed, or some mysterious force, but God who holds our times in his hands. This is where true happiness (or as Jesus would put it, ‘blessedness’ — see the Beatitudes) is found. In Him. You are not an insignificant insect, crawling from one sad annihilation to another. If you have trusted Jesus Christ, you are a child of God being prepared for an eternal home (John 14:1-6; 2 Cor. 4). The Puritan pastor Thomas Watson wrote, ‘Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.’ Instead of eternity being a burden which prevents our enjoyment of life, it becomes in Christ an opportunity to enjoy life. This is so much more than worldly happiness; this is real joy. Something which cannot be taken away. Real Christianity is not ‘pie in the sky when you die’ but ‘steak on your plate while you wait’. May you know real happiness and joy in Christ. •

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SECRET OF

HAPPINESS 2018