scottishbaptist Registration and Sign Up Information | scottishbaptist

View this email in your browser

A Roadmap to Reconciliation

By Martin Hodson, General Director, BUS

Following Jesus is a roadmap to reconciliation. We know that God 'was reconciling the world to himself in Christ' (2 Cor 5.19). And those who are reconciled by the cross become part of a 'new humanity' (Eph 2.15) where old hostilities are put to death.

Last Sunday's National Prayer Livestream** was a powerful witness to the reconciling impact of the gospel. Christian politicians from different parties came together to speak and pray about the needs of the nation and the challenge of leadership.

Bridging the Kingdom of Fife to the Kingdom of God

By Matthew Marshall, Associate Pastor at Glenrothes Baptist Church

When God graciously provided a new location for Glenrothes Baptist Church to move into in 2016, it presented a unique challenge. Not how to raise the funds, but how to best use the 20,000 sq ft space in the town centre shopping mall. Most of the building was spread over the first and second floors and easy enough to see how it could be used for church life and ministry.

Reimagining Church as Family

By Caz McCrone, Pastor: Youth, Young Adults and Integration at Queen's Park BC

Over the years, I have seen and experienced, the benefits of age targeted ministries. My current role is mainly focused on youth and young adults and I continue to see a place for some age specific ministry, but for a while now, God has been challenging me about what it looks like for us to be intergenerational.

Experiencing Faith, a newly published book by Jim Purves, is now available on our website. Jim takes a fresh look at the life of discipleship through the lens of three guiding principles: Recall, Renounce and Refuel. Listen in to Jim talking with Martin Hodson about his book.

High Blantyre Baptist Re-opens after Lockdown

By Steve Younger, Minister at High Blantyre BC

High Blantyre Baptist Church re-opened for a physical Sunday service on 19th July and has met each Sunday since then, with our Sunday Club also meeting at the same time. The Church had two key advantages. The first was personnel - three members who between them had existing experience and expertise in Infection Control in NHS and Education settings. The second is a small congregation - with a maximum socially-distanced capacity of up to 27 people (dependent on the make-up of the households attending) we have been able to fit in everyone who wanted to come without having to turn anyone away or having to create a 'booking/turn-taking' system.

Canopy 2020 Speakers Revealed!

Excitement is building as we continue to prepare for Canopy 2020. The programme is coming together and the time has come.we can now reveal some of our speakers and invited contributors! These are only some of our speakers and more contributors will be revealed in the coming weeks.

We are delighted that John Mark Comer has accepted our invitation to speak at Canopy 2020. John Mark is the pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon.

September Prayer Guide

If you or your church follows our prayer guide, this is available on our website.

Download this month''s prayer guide

Copyright ? 2020 Baptist Union of Scotland, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this because you are part of our network of baptist churches in Scotland.

Our mailing address is:

Baptist Union of Scotland

48 Speirs Warf

Glasgow, G4 9TH

United Kingdom

Add us to your address book

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Email

Spring 2020 Council Digest

By Ali Laing, Next Generation Development Coordinator

In July 1994 a business man decided to make a radical change. Whilst safe in a well laid and influential job he began to observe the Dotcom boom. Web-based businesses were springing up literally changing the way people lived their lives. He took a relatively modest business start-up loan and started Cadabra, an online bookseller. No fancy offices or distribution centre, Cadabra started operations in his parents' garage!

Fast forward 26 years and this company has changed aspects of life for the vast majority of the world's population. In fact, the majority of us reading this article have purchased something from it or received a gift from it, especially during the past two months of confinement. That business man is the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos and the company is better known now as Amazon.

Now, before you think this is a message about believing that anything is possible and that all small things must grow bigger. Or a message promoting churches developing business-based growth strategies. It's not!

Read More

By Mark Morris, Minister at Dennistoun Bapstist

We started as a church replant at the end of 2015 believing that God had not given up on this wee church in the East End of Glasgow. The church was an elderly congregation of 7 members and in need of much support and guidance. Pauline and I felt the call to leave our Church family at Calderwood Baptist and with their blessing and support we began a journey of replanting what has historically been a prominent church within our Union. By God's grace we experienced growth as we sought to be disciples who make disciples. The starting point to this was opening up our lives to the people in our community. This has resulted in salvations, baptisms, believers connecting and prodigals reconnecting to the life of Jesus.

Read More

By Rob Jones, Minister at Kelso Baptist Church

Lockdown itself has brought about the need to reinvent how to begin with this wonderful wee church of around a dozen believers and a rebirthed mission within the market town of Kelso. Being unable to move from Fife to the Borders at time of writing I have inevitably focussed on the need to quickly get a website up and running, with all the associated social media needed.

However, re-imagining what mission will look like after lockdown in a place like Kelso is the true challenge. There are no roadmaps for this. As both pastor and workplace chaplain I am all-too-aware that during lockdown there is an on-going process of collective trauma occurring within society. People are losing jobs; there is uncertainty, grief, anger, disbelief, but on a more positive note, perhaps a revaluation of life's priorities.

Read more

By Thomas Dean, Minister of Stenhouse Baptist Church

One of the advantages of being small is that it should mean that you are more flexible and agile than if you were massive. You stick an oar in the ocean and you can change direction just like that, it shouldn't take 24 hours to turn the tanker round! However, how many of us know that it doesn't matter whether there are 6 or 600 of you there are some things that churches are very tied to.

Read more

By Brian Gooding, Pastor

What's happening? Its Sunday afternoon. I'm the Pastor and so far today I've watched several online services and, later today I'll watch myself and some of our team as our weekly Sundays@Six Online service goes out - strange days and not what I would have thought our fledgling church needed!

It's over six years since our group started praying together and three years since we started our Sunday service at 6pm in a local church hall. With a regular attendance between 25/40, and a part-time pastor, the group was developing skills and a great team has been formed. The future looked bright.

Read more

If you or your church follows our prayers diary, our prayer link is available on our website.

View Full Month's Prayer List

Keep up to date with the Latest News and Events on our website

scottishbaptist.com

Why not have a look here

We have a dedicated news email address that you can send any stories from your church or community too so we can share your work.

news@scottishbaptist.org.uk

Twitter

Facebook

Website

Instagram

YouTube

Email

The contents of this email are confidential to the individual addressed. It may contain information of a confidential or privileged nature, therefore, if you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and destroy the email.

Any unauthorised copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this email is strictly forbidden. The views expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Baptist Union of Scotland.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that any attached files are virus-free, you should use your own virus checking system to confirm this. The Baptist Union of Scotland cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage caused to computer systems or data.

The Baptist Union of Scotland Ltd is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland.
Registered Office: 48 Speirs Wharf, GLASGOW, G4 9TH, 0141 423 6169 Company Number SC620266
Registered Scottish Charity Number: SC049047

View this email in your browser

Doorways to the new

It's about the Cross. So central. So hard to encapsulate with words. But dangerous. Disruptive of the status-quo. Radical, challenging the familiar and not for the faint-hearted. I'm talking not just about.

All under one Canopy!

We are pleased to invite you and your church to join in with Canopy on 23-25 October. Canopy is a new online gathering for all Scottish Baptist Churches. Over the weekend we will pray together, listen to God's word, hear inspirational speakers,...

Springing into action in Stenhouse!

Lockdown for us initially meant springing into action to get alongside people locally who''ve found themselves vulnerable through shielding, poverty or challenges at home. We''ve been really...

One Year as the Lead for Continuing Ministry Development

Over the past twelve months, I have occasionally described myself as a glorified hat-stand - a piece of furniture designed to carry more than one hat at a time! Let me explain. If you were to...

Rest & Restore in Cathcart

Just towards the end of 2019, conversations arose within Cathcart Baptist Church around the possibility of opening up the church each week - to be a place for people to come and find a quiet space, a time of...

Mental Health and Covid-19

These are difficult days. While some people sailed through lockdown, others have found it hard, and continue to do so. Some are grieving. Many are fearful...

Yearning for Hope - Stories of Transformation

Shaun gave his life to Jesus and was baptised in 2019 at Central Church, Edinburgh. Here he shares the hope he now has through knowing Jesus even in the midst of uncertain and unsettling times ...

Scottish Baptist College - Adjusting and Adapting

When you begin to tell the story of 2020, where do you start? Much has happened already in the first half of the year. Along with many others, the Scottish Baptist College found itself quickly...

August Prayer Guide

If you or your church follows our prayers diary, our prayer link is available on our website.

Download this month''s prayer diary

Copyright ? 2020 Baptist Union of Scotland, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this because you are part of our network of baptist churches in Scotland.

Our mailing address is:

Baptist Union of Scotland

48 Speirs Warf

Glasgow, G4 9TH

United Kingdom

Add us to your address book

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp

New Logo and Website for BUS

By Martin Hodson

This week we have launched the new Baptist Union of Scotland logo and our redesigned website.

The New Logo

The logo will bring a freshness to our communications. It retains the gold and blue colours of our previous logo but has a simpler and cleaner shape. The meanings it suggests will vary from person to person, but what has mattered most to us as we developed this is:

The cross is at the centre
The gold colour at the top represents the kingship of Christ
The blue colour at the bottom suggests the water in which we are baptised
The somewhat global shape points to our commitment to the evangelisation of the world, starting where God has place us in it

Eight new believers in Dumfries

By Eoghan Paterson, Pastor at Dumfries Baptist Church

We've been running an alpha course online by zoom during Lockdown. We began in February and had completed 5 sessions before Lockdown. We've been continuing to run 5 groups with 15 participants continuing out of an original 22. It's been encouraging to see that most of our participants are personal contacts through friendships and links already established through ministries of the church.

Each group leader sends out the video link for the week. The participants watch the video at home and then the groups follow up the video each week by meeting for discussion on zoom.

People coming together -
The Broughty Ferry Foodbank

By Brian Talbot, Minister at Broughty Ferry BC

On Sunday 22 March I was contacted by the proprietor of one of the local pubs to see if our church wished to be a partner with six of the local licensed trade proprietors in setting up a food bank in our area of Dundee. The deacons quickly and unanimously agreed to support this venture. We work in partnership with more than 20 other food banks in Dundee committed to ensuring everyone in the city has the necessary food to eat. Two weeks of preparation led to a launch on Friday 3 April.

How Covid-19 is affecting Bangladesh

By Louise & Phil Proctor, Dumfries BC and BMS World Mission

We are mission workers serving in Bangladesh with BMS World Mission. We took the very difficult decision to return to Scotland in March just as the UK went into lockdown and as Bangladesh was heading in the same direction. We have left friends and colleagues behind along with a huge part of our hearts. We will return as soon as it is sensible for us to do so.

Racial Justice

The Bible is clear that we should be 'quick to listen and slow to speak'. In that spirit, at our National Prayer Livestream on June 14 we invited some black and minority ethnic people from Scottish Baptist churches to share their experience and lead us in prayer. As a wider conversation about race continues, in our churches and beyond, we asked Peter Atkins to reflect on that evening.

A few weeks ago Martin Hodson invited me to co-host the Sunday evening prayer Livestream, our theme was 'racial justice'. [If you have not seen it please watch it now, what follows will not make much sense without it.] It felt like my public 'coming out' as a black person in Baptist circles because this is the first time I have placed my 'blackness' front and centre of my contribution. I experienced the whole thing as a spiritual moment of vulnerable and powerful testimony.

July Prayer guide

If you or your church follows our prayers diary, our prayer link is available on our website.

Download this month's prayer diary

We have a dedicated news email address that you can send any stories from your church or community too so we can share your work!

Send us your stories

The contents of this email are confidential to the individual addressed. It may contain information of a confidential or privileged nature, therefore, if you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and destroy the email.

Any unauthorised copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this email is strictly forbidden. The views expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Baptist Union of Scotland.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that any attached files are virus-free, you should use your own virus checking system to confirm this. The Baptist Union of Scotland cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage caused to computer systems or data.

The Baptist Union of Scotland Ltd is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland.
Registered Office: 48 Speirs Wharf, GLASGOW, G4 9TH, 0141 423 6169 Company Number SC620266
Registered Scottish Charity Number: SC049047

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Email

How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? (Psalm 137.4)

This is a strange land. Who ever dreamed of a time when a viral pandemic would turn our nation upside down? Who ever dreamed of a Scotland where we would be confined to our homes, except for essential caring, shopping and a daily round of exercise?

The Bible gives us a shaping question to ask at a time like this: How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? The lyrics of our lives are either written by our circumstances or by our faith.

Read More

We asked Rev Brian More from Newton Mearns BC, how they have been responding to the Covid-19 crisis as a church, here is what he had to say:

In these early days of NMBC responding to the crisis I confess to being both disoriented but energised. Every part of NMBC's ministry is people-centred and includes gathering and community and that's been taken away for most people. I attended a funeral with three people present yesterday. Janet my wife, who is a Pharmacist, came in from work with a plaster on her finger having popped so many pills from blister-packs. My children (Daniel and Rachel) tell me I'm an ok homeschooler.

Read More

We have recently heard of the great work that Pollok Baptist is doing with their new Kook Skool initiative as they seek to reach out into their local community in practical ways. Rev Dave Murray has shared with us the purpose and aims of the Kook Skool.

The Kook Skool is a purpose built unit within the grounds of Pollok Baptist Church that is equipped with five individual fully equipped cooking and prep units that will enable people from our local and gathered communities to learn how to cook, share in life and eat together.

Read more

We continue our series of stories of transformation in the lives of people from within our churches who have come to a saving faith in Jesus and have publically acknowledged this through baptism.

This month, Otto Sanderson from Pitlochry Baptist Church has given us permission to share his story of coming to faith and being baptised.

Giving my life to Jesus was a culminating point in my life. My way to Jesus started with an epiphanic moment of transformation, my young sons invited me to a church family service at Pitlochry Baptist Church and I reluctantly went along to the "happy clappers" church, escape planned (avoiding those pesky Christians). Sitting in the far corner of the church willing every minute to go by and BOOM! Jesus spoke to me. An atheist went into the church and an hour later a follower of Jesus emerged.

Read more

Peterhead is a thriving fishing town in the North East and has traditionally been a very 'churched' town. Most adults were associated with at least one church. However, over the past decade the number of those exposed to the Gospel and linked to a church has drastically decreased. More and more children have little or no understanding of the Bible and as a town this is hard for the older generation to understand that mission work can't start with a presumption of basic Bible knowledge.

Our traditional Youth Fellowship which was made up of mostly 'churched' young people had begun to get older and older, not seeing new teenagers coming through. A situation not uncommon across Scotland. We reached the point that rather than trying to motivate young people to attend a weekly Bible study, we had to stop the Youth Fellowship and start from scratch in terms of our ministry goals and how we would achieve them.

Read more

We recently caught up with Rev Alan Millar from Tiree BC to find out how the Coronavirus Outbreak is affecting the island community and how Tiree Baptist have been serving and worshipping in new ways.

Both Reporting Scotland and BBC ALBA have recently reported about the particular difficulties facing the Isle of Tiree during the Coronavirus pandemic and related how the Baptist Church premises were being used as an emergency 'Field Hospital'. The population of Tiree is not immune from the virus. Already 12 households are in voluntary isolation due to presenting with symptoms. In a population of 650 this disproportionately affects the community.

Read more

If you or your church follows our prayers diary, our prayer link is available on our website.

View Full Month's Prayer List

Keep up to date with the Latest News and Events on our website