FEBRUARY 2014

headlines:
Great Expections More than we could ever ask or think Carnoustie Community Church Growing up and reaching out Caring for Ex-offenders Scotland Befriending and Mentoring beyond the prison gates

Its probably the best question I have been What do you expect to asked this year. It has resulted in a great happen when deal of self-examination and the process you preach, is not over. It is a question of faith and practice. It impacts prayer, vision and the pray, worship, witness..? day to day life of every disciple. It hardly My fear is seems a biblical question, maybe one that the truthful attuned more to business; but the more I answer, for me consider it, the more biblical it becomes: and for many What do you expect to happen when disciples of Christ you preach, pray, worship, witness..? in Scotland, is My fear is that the truthful answer, for me not a lot! and for many disciples of Christ in Scotland, is not a lot! I was watching a DVD over the weekend, retelling the lifestory of Billy Graham. He preached his sermon, then gave his appeal with the words, God has spoken to thousands of you... come forward now. His sense of expectation was clear. He believed that many would come to faith, not just one or two. It made me ask the question, why? What is it that feeds our expectations? Clearly, experience is part of it. Part of the reason that Billy Graham expected thousands to come forward that night was that thousands had come forward the night before and the night before that. As he prepared his sermons, as he prayed with his team, as he preached and called people to repentance and faith, he had an expectation based on what he had seen God do before. In the Gospels, we see the disciples going to the people of Israel, casting out demons and healing the sick in Jesus name. They have a faith-lled expectation based on their experience of Jesus, and they are amazed and full of joy when they return to report all that had happened. The early church continues the pattern. It is not that they are never surprised! They are frequently surprised; suprised and amazed at the empowering of the Spirit, surprised that the gospel is for the gentiles. And yet they expect that the lame will walk and that people will repent and be baptised. We see them, having preached without gaining a response, ready to move on to a new approach or to another community, partly because they expect more. Pauls prayer, in writing to the Ephesians, captures his expectation: Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish innitely more than we might ask or think... Here is an invitation to be bold in our expectations, to not allow a perspective on the life of the church over the last 25 years to shape our expectation for the future. Our God is a God who breaks the natural cycles. He turns weakness into strength and death into life. He is able to accomplish more than we might ask or think. So Im trying to allow faith in our living God to shape my expectations for the coming years, trying to allow my own memory of God at work through me in the past to shape my prayers for our future as a Union and our actions. I want to nd a fresh faith that, in Scotland, God will transform his people, will build his church: that his kingdom will Published by The Baptist Union of Scotland, come and that my neighbours, friends and family will nd faith in the living God. (Charity Registration SC004960) My prayer for our churches this year is that we would have a fresh boldness 48 Speirs Wharf, Glasgow, G4 9TH, t: 0141 423 6169 f: 0141 424 1422 and condence in the gospel. May our expectations grow and impact our admin@scottishbaptist.org.uk www.scottishbaptist.org.uk prayers and our other actions as we participate together in the mission of God.

Great Expectations

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Caring for Ex-Offenders Scotland

By David McAdam
Today you could stand outside the gates of a Scottish prison and meet someone emerging from a sentence, with no one to meet them, nowhere to stay and no plan for the future. 50% of them will return to prison within a year. Among them are some who have personally violated and deeply hurt victims of crime. But among the 97% who leave the gate wanting a crime free life are many who have engaged with the gospel while in prison, sought God, and long for the benets he promises in Christ - forgiveness, a new start, a new family, the fruit of the Spirit to sustain a new life. The gap between engaging with a faith community while in prison e.g. prison fellowship and engaging with a faith community beyond the prison gate is a big one. There are many temptations and many friends that make bridging that gap difcult. CFEO Scotland seeks to do that. We are a network of local churches with identied individuals who can befriend and mentor individual men and women through the gate into their local community and walk with them as they engage in support services, and engage with a local church. In days of huge opportunity for churches to engage with the SPS and provide the kind of mentoring & welcome of ex-offenders we are called to in Philemon, we need your help and value your partnership. CFEO Scotland has a joint training event with Prison Fellowship at ICC on Saturday 22nd February 2014, entitled I was in prison and youdid what? For more details please email info@ cfeoscotland.org or phone David McAdam on 0786 700 0344. If you wish, we would be privileged to come and speak with you or with your fellowship locally some time in 2014. www.cfeoscotland.org

Challenge and Encouragement at Carnoustie Community Church

By Rev John Toller
Carnoustie Community Church is approaching its third anniversary next month. These three years have seen challenging periods as numbers have dropped and encouraging periods of growth. The church is slowly shaping its own identity and we continue to sense that God has put us here for a purpose. This year were developing our childrens work with a monthly Sunday afternoon club for Primary School children, starting this month and building on our fantastic group in Sunday School. We also have an open door into some of the nursing/care homes in the town, and are looking at how we can develop relationships there to serve some of the older members of the community. Its an exciting period for us, but there are still signicant challenges resources are very short in areas of administration and our music ministry, for which we value your prayers. Yet God has proved his faithfulness again and again and we move forward with a sense of great anticipation. Even as our sense of identity and independence grows, we are learning the value of interdependence. We are very well supported by Central Baptist in Dundee, the planting church, and value the sense of partnership as we seek to develop into the future. We have a good relationship with the other churches in Carnoustie, and with other evangelical churches and organisations in the Dundee area through DECA, the Dundee Evangelical Christian Alliance. And we greatly value the support of the wider Baptist family in Scotland, both in the Unions nancial support and in prayer thank you!

Find us at www.scottishbaptist.org.uk

Scottish Baptist History Project

The Project will meet on Saturday 26 April 2014 at Granton Baptist Church, 99 Crewe Road North, Edinburgh, EH5 2NW. The programme is as follows: 10:00 Tea / Coffee 10:30 Gary Ketchen - The History of Granton Baptist Church (over 74 years) 12:00 Lunch (Tea / Coffee available) 1:00 Andrew Kaiser - Mary Martin Richard Missionary wife or Missionary? 2:30 Tea /Coffee 2:45 Neil Allison - A Scottish Baptist View from the Trenches: Lockhart Landels Ireland 4:00 Conclusions The Conference fee of 3 includes coffee/tea and biscuits. (You may like to bring a packed lunch.) Bookings to Rev. B.R. Talbot, 33 Kilmaron Loan, Broughty Ferry, Dundee DD5 3TD or to briantalbot@hotmail.co.uk by Thursday 25 April although it will be possible to register and pay on the day. Our autumn meeting will take place at Cupar Baptist Church on Sat 8 November 2014.

Interested in discussing movies, their themes and the ideas they raise? The Damaris Trust currently has resources on the powerful lm 12 Years a Slave which they are happy to provide free for churches. For more details see www.damaris.org. Maybe youd even be interested in starting a Damaris Film Club in your church or community? If so, you can register free at www.damaris.org/ lmclubs

BMS World Mission West of Scotland Womens Link

A warm welcome awaits you at our meetings in Adelaide Place Baptist Church, Bath Street, Glasgow. The next is at 10.15am on Wed, March 5th, 2014, when there will be a BMS Update with Rev Judy White.