No.10 23rd August 2024
Welcome to the 10th Magazine of Mearns Free Church.
With the normal production team on holiday (i.e. Martin) this magazine is likely to be less well-formatted and less exciting! However, there is still a lot of important content below so please read on!
There is a special event at Belmont tomorrow (Saturday 24th August, 10 am - 2:30 pm).
Fuller details are below in the short article "Who We Are?". (Jacob sent out a detailed email today with more information.)
Lunch will be provided.
I am so happy to tell you that thanks to the diligence of our leadership team, Mearns Free Church is now a registered charity with OSCR. If you go to the Homepage of the Mearns Free Church website (here) and scroll down to the bottom, you will now find the words, "Registered Charity SC053568". Great news.
Scott
Sunday 25th August, 10.30am
Scripture - Romans chapter 15:14-33
Rev Scott Kirkland
LARGE PRINT - SONG WORDS + LIFTS TO CHURCH
If you find viewing the song-words on the screen in Sunday worship a problem, we currently print a limited number of large-print song sheets for specific people.
We don't want to print unnecessary copies so please speak with the door team and we will begin to make these available for you each week.
Also, if you require a regular lift to church, please let us know by emailing the office: office@mearnsfree.org
Who we are?
Saturday 24th August 10am to 2:30pm.
We would love as many of the congregation to be involved in this event as we seek to plan our future and understand best how to be salt and light in our community. From our children and youth right through to our most experienced members, please come along on the 24th!
If you cannot make the full event, feel free to drop in when you can, your opinions will be very welcome and greatly appreciated.
Meanwhile if you have any questions please email me at jgeddes0802@gmail.com
Thanks to all,
Jack Geddes
Letter from the Manse
Dear Congregation,
I do hope you had some opportunity to rest over the summer. Anita and I spent last week around the Edinburgh area. We had the opportunity to worship on Sunday at St Columba's Free Church on the Royal Mile and later in the afternoon at Esk Valley Free Church. It was great to worship with these brothers and sisters in Christ. How encouraging it was to be part of these very different congregations as they worship and serve the Lord. St Columba's is a very established congregation at the top of the Royal Mile with a very wide age range (and many students). Esk Valley Free Church is a "church plant" in a small village called Rosewell. The minister, Tom Muir led worship here at MFC a few months ago. I was so encouraged to count something like thirty youngsters heading out during worship for their age-related groups! How wonderful it might be for us when on holiday to explore the length and breadth of the Free Church and bring back news on how we can pray for them.
The Edinburgh streets seemed "full" with visitors for "The Fringe". We were bumping into people from all parts of the world (literally on both counts). However, it was great to hear how a number of churches, like Carrubbers Close on the Royal Mile, became venues for the Fringe. Carrubbers hosted their own "show" called
There is Hope. Many visited the premises where they were engaged in gospel conversations and gospel music. I am sure this will be just one example of what many churches may have done using the Fringe to speak into the lives of those visiting Edinburgh.
Here in the Mearns, we do not have The Fringe as a bridge into the community. However, over the coming months, we want to explore how we might take up opportunities to have gospel conversations with our community in Newton Mearns. More on this later.
On a different matter...This will be Jacob and Jess's last Sunday with us. We look forward to hearing from Jacob during the service about his plans and we hope to pray for them both on Sunday. As Jacob's ministry develops we hope to continue supporting him (and Jess) in prayer.
The elders have already met several times to discuss and pray about how we might go forward with this ministry (for both the short and long term). Please do pray with us for this important part of our church life. In the short term, we shall need congregational help fill aspects of Jacob's ministry. Let's pray that we can come together in this regard as the body of Christ.
With warmest regards,
Scott
Very many thanks to the young folks, bakers and talented musicians who contributed to the Cafe Connect in Community Week. It was such a pleasure to meet with a larger number of our young and old church family.
Hopefully a seed has been planted and that some will be encouraged to join when the main season starts again at 2 pm on 17th September at NMBC.
Muriel N.
on Sundays!
The new Hizkidz term has begun.
We currently operate two groups - under 5s and 5-12s during Sunday morning services. If anyone is interested in joining the team of leaders and helpers then please speak to Pauline.
Back To School With God - Spot The Difference
Last week our young people and adults who work in schools went back to school and we are spending a couple of weeks in Hizkidz thinking about the difference going back to school with God makes.
We are looking at the difference meeting Jesus made to the blind beggar, Zacchaeus, and the crowds in Jericho that day. We are also being challenged about whether people can spot the difference in us as Christians. To start with on Sunday we played a spot the difference dress up game. Can you spot the differences?
Would you join us in praying for the children and adults in our congregation who are in schools?
Below are the words of the prayer that were used on Sunday.
S stands for Speak: Lord Jesus, we pray that Christian adults and pupils in schools will not be shy about telling others of you. We pray that they will speak words of kindness and say things that will encourage and help others.
P stands for Pray: Lord Jesus, we pray for our children and young people, teachers and school staff. May they remember that you go with them as they go back to school. Please strengthen and help them. Remind us as a church family to support them and uphold them in prayer.
O stands for Others: Lord Jesus, others spotted the difference in the blind beggar and Zacchaeus after they met you. We have met with you today! Make us a joyful and generous people. May others spot the difference you make in us and come to know your love for them.
T stands for Thanks: Lord Jesus, thank you for meeting the blind beggar and Zacchaeus in Jericho. Thank you for changing their lives forever. Thank you for our schools and our community. Thank you for your Spirit’s power to change lives here, bringing hope for the future. Amen.
Drivers Needed
With the new season of church activities starting it would be good to have a larger number of drivers available to call on to supplement the existing team.
Drivers are required for:
Sundays (pick up 10.00 -10.15) and take home after coffee etc
Tuesdays (pick up 1.30 -1.45) for Café Connect located at the Baptist Church. This is a 2.00pm start and take home is at 3.30pm.
Your commitment can be on a weekly, fortnightly, once-a-month or just to be called on in an emergency.
Those being transported vary in mobility and frailty. Extra time may be needed for some.
There is disabled access at both venues.
This is a very worthwhile ministry as more people in the congregation are no longer fit or able to drive.
If you consider this to be part of your ministry at Mearns Free Church please let Alastair McLellan know at
office@mearnsfree.org.
(It is a requirement that all drivers have safeguard training and this will now need to be to Free Church of Scotland stipulations.)
Sandy H
Email Addresses For Mearns Free Church
Please make sure you change your email address list now we are part of the Free Church.
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Tom Brown (Office): office@mearnsfree.org
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Scott Kirkland (Minister): minister@mearnsfree.org
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Sandy McDougall (Treasurer): finance@mearnsfree.org
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Pauline Forster (Children and families worker): children@mearnsfree.org
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Jacob (Ministry Associate): youth@mearnsfree.org
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SATURDAY 14th SEPTEMBER
We have a St Andrews First Aid course entitled "Emergency First Aid" (plus baby and child CPR) booked and have some spaces available. Click
here to see details of booking.
This is a 4 hour course, starting at 10am and will likely be held at Belmont. We have secured a discounted rate of £83.40 per person.
Contact Pauline if you'd like to book a space.
"Galilee Books" - New Book Shop
I was invited to visit the new Christian book shop which has now opened at 36 Battlefield Road (opposite to what would have been the old Victoria Hospital). It is a small shop but most certainly worth a visit. It looks like they had some great Christian books for adults and children. There are cards for various occasions and some other items for sale. I would encourage you to have a visit if possible.
Scott
"The Pulse" - Mearns Free Church Prayer Meeting
We call our weekly prayer meeting at Mearns Free Church "The Pulse".
The Scriptures are full of prayers, exhortations to pray and examples of God's people praying.
Jesus himself regularly retreated from the crowds to pray. The Apostle Paul encourages the churches
to pray without ceasing.
The overwhelming impression from all of this is that prayer is vital.
Is it too much to say that prayer is as significant spiritually to an individual (and congregation) as the blood that pulses through the veins of a physical body?
When a medic takes "the vitals" of a patient, a key indicator of health is the pulse.
Where the pulse is found to be weak, it often signals ill-health. When no pulse is found,
it means the person is dead!
By calling the prayer meeting "The Pulse", it is hoped that the name itself will be a constant
reminder to us of how important prayer is to the life of Mearns Free Church.
Prayer does not bring us to life. However, our prayers are evidence of the life we have in relationship with God.
Prayer is evidence of the fact we understand God's affection is undeserved. Prayer flows from a recognition of being dependent on God. However, when we pray together, it is evidence not only of this intimate relationship we have with God but also with one another.
The key outcome of praying is worshipful obedience to God and a deepening relationship with God.
Other tangible outcomes will flow though we may never know how God has used our prayers as a secondary means to bring about His will. However, we pray in confident faith, knowing that God is at work in us and incredibly, through us.
In the coming months, we will explore how we can increase the number of us meeting together for prayer.
In the short term, can I encourage you to attend The Pulse?
Is the time of the meeting a problem for you? Let me know because we want to find a time that suits as many of us as possible.
We shall use different venues from time to time in the hope that this might make The Pulse more accessible. August is at the home of the Coopers.
The dates, times and venues are already visible on the website calendar till the end of November.
If you need a venue's address, don't hesitate to get in touch with the office and we will supply you with these.
As a fellowship of believers, we want to rejoice and weep with one another, first and foremost in prayer!
Scott
Please Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
You can do this by going to the channel
here, and simply pressing the tab with the bell that says “Subscribe”.
There is no cost. You will find all videos produced by Mearns Free Church at this location.
If you "Subscribe", when we post new videos on the channel, you may get a notification.
This will help you stay in touch with all our news/worship. Since we rarely post videos more than once a week, you will not get inundated with notifications! The more subscribers we have on the channel the greater potential online visibility we shall have.
You will also notice that below each of our videos, there is a little tab with a "thumbs up". if you appreciate being in worship at Mearns Free Church each Sunday or participating in worship through the YouTube Channel, please press the “thumbs-up” icon. This also helps encourage online visibility.
On a different but related matter. Thanks to all who have been searching for the Mearns Free Church website on Google.
We have now reached the top of the listing. Check it out. Search for "Mearns Free Church" using the Google search bar. You should find our website now at the top of the list! Have a read through the website. Find it helpful? Is anything obviously wrong? Many thanks to all who helped move us up the Google search rankings!
Safeguarding in Mearns Free Church
Our safeguarding team is here to help ensure Mearns Free Church is a safe place for all. However, this ambition must be embraced by all of us if it is to be successful.
Let's get our PVGs in place, get ourselves trained and put safe practice into place week by week.
Free Church’s Safeguarding Training
Our Safeguarding Team (including Sue Anderson, Ian Forgie, Marlene Smith and Sue Amery-Behr) have so far processed the safeguarding paperwork for 63 folk in our congregation;
Disclosure Scotland have issued PVG certificates for just over half so far and we expect their task to be completed soon.
All who have applied for PVG certification need also to engage in the Free Church’s safeguarding training. This is currently provided online from the comfort of your own homes, and takes a couple of hours.
The next training session for congregations is Thursday 31st October at 19.30.
You can sign up for the training sessions through this link to the registration page: Safeguarding Training Booking – Free Church of Scotland
Office Bearers can sign up for their training on Tuesday 24th September.
Thank you for embracing safeguarding.
Doing so is essential to ensure that Mearns Free Church is a safe environment for all who worship with us and for all who engage in our ministries to children, young people and vulnerable adults.
Alastair McLellan
Mearns Free Church has a What's App Group for Prayer
Purpose: A platform to share information regarding a sudden and crucial need for prayer.
How to connect: Speak to Margaret Boyd if you would like to be added to this group or email Margaret at: mandmboyd@hotmail.co.uk
What tech do I need?: You need to have a Smart Phone with WhatsApp to get set up.
B.Y.O.C. please
CAN YOU HELP?
it makes such a difference if people bring their own cups rather than using the disposable ones each week - can you help?