No going back now...

Fantastic and humbling service yesterday marking the end of my 9 years full-time service at Greenview. Above is a presentation to the family of a photograph of Glasgow signed by all the church members. The Lord is good!

The War on Christians

'the global war on Christians remains the greatest story never told of the early 21st century...'

 '11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour, seven days a week and 365 days a year, for reasons related to their faith.' 

'of the 65 Christian churches in Baghdad, 40 have been bombed at least once since the beginning of 2003'

'300,000 Christians in North Korea have disappeared' 

Orissa (India), Burma, Nigeria.....

See full article HERE

New Role with FIEC

From November I'll no longer be Greenview's full-time teaching elder but taking up a role as Scotland Director with FIEC. Obviously it's a wrench to step down from serving in a church as good as Greenview - but it's with excitement that I'm moving on to serve the FIEC family of churches in Scotland.

See here for more details.

bye bye baby blue

Last week the UK Crown Prosecution Service decided not to take to action against doctors in the UK who offered to carry out abortions on the basis of gender . This decision was taken, not because there wasn't enough evidence or because the law isn’t clear, but because the CPS deemed such a prosecution ‘not to be in the public interest’. Now to be fair there has been considerable condemnation and unease expressed since in the media and political circles – and with the matter now being reviewed it may well be that action will be taken in the light of this pressure.

However, the moral confusion and double standards around abortion have been starkly highlighted by this case. For a start  the controversy has not been generated because people are concerned about on-demand abortions being carried out on an industrial scale in the UK (that is just accepted), rather what has upset people is the thought that sexism could be a factor (the phrase, ‘Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel’, does come to mind!).

Now, of course, to say abortion on the basis of gender discrimination is unacceptable cuts both ways – that is, it should protect both sexes. But we also know that the big driver for such gender based abortions is that in certain cultures, for economic and cultural reasons, boys are more valued than girls.  So let’s not be naive in recognising that globally this is largely an issue about girls and hence why it is so politically sensitive. 

David Cameron at PMQs (11/9/13) stated that abortion on the basis of gender was unacceptable. The question that assertion begs, and which no-one in public life seems to want to ask, is why? After all if it is unacceptable to abort a human life on the basis of gender discrimination - why is discrimination in the womb acceptable for the disabled, the poor, the inconvenient, and the unwanted. 

The whole basis of abortion is that foetuses are not really fully functioning human lives and thus can be disposable. But if so, what exactly is the relevance of gender?

It leaves us with the bizarre, indeed grotesque, situation where it seems the only defence to life in the womb (that our society actually cares about) would be because you’re not a boy. Sorry boys but the reality is that any protection you will get because of your gender will largely come because of a concern for girls.

Keep the clubs in the bag

At a meeting of church leaders I attended a while back one of the speakers challenged us about getting balance in ministry. Now keeping things in proportion, not neglecting important truths and avoiding unhealthily pre-occupations with single issues in ministry is important - the other way the cults lie!

However, in this instance the dichotomy being presented to us was misleading. The danger we were told was too much emphasis on doctrine and theology. This was the scourge of evangelical churches - and here comes the analogy - our churches historically have been too taken up with just one 'club' (i.e. doctrine) and thus neglected the other 'ministry clubs' such as evangelism, mercy ministry, community building pastoral care etc.

To be honest I can't remember exactly how it was put - but 'clubs' was the analogy and this blog is about the bigger presentation of these issues rather than a one-off comment - so apologies if I've over-stated that particular incident. However, the general point being made is a common one. Indeed the accusation that evangelicals are obsessed with doctrine is pretty old news - are there any sensible thinking evangelicals who aren't aware of the dangers of 'just having head knowledge' or who think evangelism, mercy ministries and pastoral care aren't really important. As a challenge to evangelicals it is somewhat hackneyed.

What got me intervening in the debate though was not the un-originality of the comments but the false premise of setting doctrine against those other things as if they are separate components of ministry. Doctrine/theology is not a separate club - but 'the bag' in which all the other clubs are kept. Get rid of 'the bag' or forget to take it with you, and all the other 'clubs' will soon be all over the place.

So when someone says (and they will sooner or later), 'Let's stop fussing about doctrine and just get out there and share Jesus'. The question is, 'What are you going to share - what will you say to people?' Because as soon as you make as statement, claim or pronouncement about Jesus - we're talking doctrine.

The 'clubs' of evangelism, mercy ministry, pastoral care, fellowship, praise (you name them) are all drawn out of the bag of doctrine and theology. So make sure the bag is in good order and make sure your clubs are kept inside it.

Summer Evening Services in Greenview

Followed by Cafe Fellowship @ 7pm

Summer Morning Services in Greenview