MINISTER'S LETTER >

September 2010

Dear Friends,
Here are five areas of concern that I think we need to seek the Lord about over the coming months. I really do mean ‘seek the Lord’. We will be discussing them and praying about them among the Elders and Deacons and we need to be doing the same as a whole fellowship. They are not all ‘problems’; they do need more than a few words from the front of the church in order for us to make progress with them; we do need the Lord’s creative wisdom for them to become real areas of growth in grace and blessing. I’m only introducing them in this letter, and mention them in no particular order. They are interconnected.
Finance: the family accounts
Our monthly income is down slightly on last year but this ought not to be a huge problem for the growing number of us who worship together to put right. Now that we all know about the need the Lord will surely move us to respond as we are able.
More interestingly it raises for us the question of how we earn, give and spend such money as the Lord gives each of us. Whose money is it? Why does God provide us with money? What could we do as a family with more? What could we increase in terms of support for mission at home and abroad? How could we anticipate the material needs of the Lord’s workers near and far and show our ‘£ove’ for them? How can we demonstrate that we value the kingdom of God more than we value the kingdom of this world, when how much we value something is measured in terms of what we’re prepared to pay for it?
Belonging: the family bonds
We’re good at giving a friendly welcome now. We’ve worked on it deliberately and it’s made a substantial difference. But six months down the line, how many of those who are new to Gilcomston, particularly those who are also new to the faith, feel that they haven’t really got to know anyone? We need to foster a far deeper sense of belonging. It comes from the kind of company that provides loving support (‘when my daughter was rushed into hospital my friends from Church were here first’), shared laughter (‘fancy other people having the same problem trying on jeans!’), prayer and up-building conversation (what a great time we had just praying for each other’), sharing burdens (what a relief to be able to tell someone who didn’t judge me’), practical accountability (‘I could never have broken that porn habit on my own’). You just don’t get that in a crowd of over 300 on a Sunday morning. It needs smaller numbers: simple as that. But how do we do it? How do we creatively strengthen the whole family by spending time in smaller groups? There’s more to it than home-based mid-week Bible studies (though maybe not less to it), which aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and are no more possible for some than the current Bible study at Church. How do we invest time in each other when many are relatively money-rich but time-poor? What is the Lord’s way forward for us at Gilc?
Prayer: the family and the Father
Saturday evenings: about 25. Sunday 6pm: 3 or 4. Tuesday mornings: half a dozen at most. Briefly on Wednesday evenings: as many as are at the Bible Study, so currently about 30. Quite a few of these are the same people. You see, we’ll only really gather a greater proportion of the fellowship to pray when we feel the need to do so together for things that concern us together. It’s not that we don’t pray – far from it. It’s just that we don’t seem to have a great sense of need to bring our family life to God or to cry out to God together. Particularly given …
The Church of Scotland’s crises: the family ‘home’
Our denomination is in financial meltdown, numbers are still falling rapidly, and the Kirk is heading for a split over the ordination of people in same-sex partnerships and associated issues. What will Gilcomston’s response be? What will be the way in which we arrive at our decision? Which criteria will carry most weight for us? Stay? Leave? Stay together whatever? There’s not very long for us to work out our response to the predictable possible decisions of the 2011 General Assembly. The homosexuality issue hasn’t gone away over the summer holidays. Jude has been a wake-up call for us.
The Place of Church in the Redeemed life: family time
We face a cultural obstacle to progress: individualism. It’s just not part of our culture to commit to a larger body, yet God has formed us into precisely that: a body. My life makes no sense on its own – as a hand would be useless without the rest of the body. 1Corinthians 12 makes it so clear that none of us is too important for the body and none of us is too unimportant for the body. We need each other. Is a Morning Service once a week really it? My personal experience of that one service – is that really as good as it gets? Isn’t there more? What about serving one another? When does that happen in the week? Or what about the first four concerns – how can they be addressed if Gilc isn’t actually a family or a body in our minds but simply a place to go to church once a week and forget about most of the rest of the week? Sure, our culture of busy-ness doesn’t help. Work plus family plus travel means tiredness. We are a gathered (or scattered) congregation with many facing the hurdle of a journey straight after a late tea wolfed down immediately after getting in from work. Church isn’t meant to be a rod for our backs. But we do need to ask ourselves what place the rest of the body has in our lives and why?
Watch this space. Write your thoughts. Talk to others about these five concerns. Pray that that Lord makes them five lines of growth to his glory.
Your Minister and friend,
Dominic Smart