No.36 7th March 2025
Hi
Hope you have had a good week.
The most watched clip on the internet this week will have been the Oval Office spat with Trump and Zelenskyy.(2nd is probably John McN's intimations from the start of the service last week... both remarkable in their own way.)
If there is one thing Scott has made clear as we've looked at the opening chapters of Genesis it's that this is God's world and we are his creatures - unique and valuable being made in his image...everyone, every single person!... to pick up on that idea and to let us see how getting Biblical thinking right will (must!) shape how we see the world around, I've put a link below to Glen Scrivener's comments on the Oval Office video and he highlights really well how someone's value doesn't depend on having 'the right cards'. Worth a look.
Lots of other events and activities are mentioned - please take time to see what you can be involved in and support.
Enjoy the mag,
MB
Sunday 9th March
Morning service- 10.30am
Scott Hamilton
Proverbs ch3:1-12
JOINT EVENING SERVICE
6.30 for 700.pm
PRAYER MEETING
NO PULSE MEETING THIS WEDNESDAY - see details of Free Church Prayer meeting below.
Letter from the Manse
Dear Congregation,
Thanks to all who play in the band, sing and also serve us by providing audio/visuals each Sunday.
I was not able to watch the service (as I was driving!) but it was great to listen to as I drove home from Kilmallie Free Church last Sunday night. My car sound system helped me appreciate the quality of the music, the singing and of course the other elements of worship.
I was just north of Fort William leading worship at Kilmallie and Ardnamurchan Free Church. I was invited to lead their preparatory service on Saturday night, the communion service on Sunday morning and then their evening service on Sunday night.
The minister had an opportunity to speak on Highland radio on Sunday morning also which he invited me to do instead. I agreed since I do have a good face for radio.
The building at Kilmallie FC was rebuilt around 2012. It is a lovely modern and functional building with good light and great ability to look out, but also see what is happening inside. It is very welcoming. The building is located in the middle of the village of Caol and has one of the nicest views from any church hall. I believe Caol is pronounced “Cool”. At the Sunday morning service there would have been about 60-70 present, 40 on Sunday evening and maybe just less on Saturday night. Rev Euan Dodds served as a student outreach worker at Holyrood Abbey Church Edinburgh before entering the Free Church Ministry. It was great to see a new part of the Free Church.
Back at MFC Sunday Worship services…This Sunday morning, Scott Hamilton has kindly agreed to come down from St Andrews to share in our service. This is the first time Scott has been among us since we announced his appointment as our Associate Minister from the summer,.
Scott will also join us at the Baptist church as we share in that evening worship. Worship begins at 7pm, tea and coffee served from 6.30pm.
Prayer This Wednesday…
This coming Wednesday, we shall suspend our usual prayer meeting, “The Pulse”. We plan to join with other congregations for prayer at Dowanvale Free Church. The Director of Mission, David Meredith and Chief Executive Officer of the FC, Andrew Giffen, will lead the meeting. It would be good to travel together and share transport. You do not need to be normally at Pulse if you would like to go with us. This is open to all.
Let’s gather at Belmont School on Wednesday night with a view to leaving at 6.45pm. We are heading for Dowanvale FC at 35 Dowanhill St, Glasgow G11 5QR. This is in Partick in the West End. The parking is tough because it is tenement block territory. Parking will be on the street and wherever possible. It will be good to minimize the number of cars going across.
LAMPS Passion Play…
I want to give advance notice of an Easter Event we are delighted to host. On the evening of 14th April (7.30pm) we have invited “LAMPS” a Christian organisation, to perform a version of the Easter Story. They are in Scotland touring with this production. We have asked them to come and perform at Belmont.
It will be a great opportunity to invite friends and family to hear the Gospel message as dramatized by these actors. (See the flyer below.)
They are coming from Oxfordshire and we aim to host the five cast members in our homes. We will provide dinner and overnight accommodation on 14th April (3 male and 2 female). Would you like to host one (or some)? Please let me know.
I mentioned this new initiative in the magazine two weeks ago for the first time.
The aim of “MFC-Connections” is to help ensure we have good, consistent connection with one another as a church as we experience all that life can bring to us. I am personally very enthusiastic about this and I hope you will come to share in that enthusiasm also.
You will find more detail here.
We are sending out our planned initial connections by email this coming week
AGM
7pm, 21st March
Please read the article further down the magazine about the upcoming Annual General Meeting.
Please put the date into your diary. This is an important meeting.
Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday,
With Warmest Regards
Scott
Trump vs Zelenskyy:
Deals, Diplomacy and God
The link for the Glen Scrivener view on this week's Oval office press conference video is
here.
Scrivener then comments on how President Trump can be viewed as 'post-post Christian' scroll - this start at 29mins.
Saturday 22nd March
Please put the date in your diary and plan to come along to our coffee afternoon in aid of the Haven.
Tea and coffee will be served between 2pm and 4pm and you are very welcome to come and go as you are able, or stay for the whole afternoon.
As well as enjoying each other's company and some delicious home baking, we will have the opportunity to hear a short presentation from 2 representatives from the Haven.
The Haven is a 24 bedded Christian residential facility near Kilmacolm that helps people with drug and alcohol addiction aim for abstinence. The Haven is a lifeline to men that are caught in a cycle of addiction and the workers there share life with them including the hope of the gospel.
All donations at the Coffee Afternoon will go to the work of the Haven which really needs to expand its reach in view of Scotland's spiralling drug problem.
Find out more at www.havenkilmacolm.com
United In Prayer:
Dowanvale Free Church Wednesday 12th March
Our weekly meeting for prayer will be suspended on 12th March for us to join with others in the Free Church to pray. You are welcome to come over to Partick with us even if you are not regular at the Wednesday prayer meeting. We hope to share transport. Arrangements for sharing transport will be confirmed in next week’s magazine and by email.
If you do plan to go, but want to travel on your own, we shall be praying in the building of Dowanvale Free Church is at 35 Dowanhill St, Glasgow G11 5QR
(See the invitation below.)
Scott
“The vision of the Free Church of Scotland is for ‘A Healthy Gospel Church for Every Community in Scotland’.
We recognise that we are completely dependent on God to bring about this vision.
Therefore, our focus in 2025 is going to be on thanksgiving and prayer. Giving thanks to God for all that he has done among us in the last 5 years and praying for the next 5 years.
We would love for you to join us at an Area Prayer Meeting at Dowanvale Free Church, Partick, Glasgow, on Wednesday 12th March. It will start at 7.30pm but doors will be open from 7pm with the opportunity for conversation and a cup of tea.
We look forward to joining with you in prayer. In prayer we express our complete dependence on God. And we join together in prayer asking that we might indeed see A Healthy Gospel Church for Every Community in Scotland.
To find out more, click here.
Wrestling in Prayer
One of the most poignant of Jesus’s parables tells the story of a persistent widow.
Having faced injustice at the hand of an adversary, this woman appealed to the local judge. She asked him to use his power and authority to right the wrong that had been done to her. But to her sorrow, she learned this was an unjust judge who did not care to help her. Still, she returned to him again and again, she made appeal after appeal, until she wore him out. Eventually, if only to preserve his own sanity, the judge relented and responded to her pleas.
Jesus wanted his hearers to make a comparison from the lesser to the greater. If even an unjust and uncaring judge will eventually grant the pleas of someone he dislikes, how much more will a just and caring Father grant the pleas of the child he loves?
Luke explains the moral of the story: We “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).
It is for this reason that J.C. Ryle once said, “We must wrestle earnestly in prayer, like men contending with a deadly enemy for life.”
Yet though we wrestle as if we are contending with a deadly enemy, still we have the tremendous blessing of knowing we are actually making our petitions to a loving God.
Tim Challies
A new MFC magazine feature.
It doesn't necessarily need to involve holding a tea in your hand but it does involve stopping for a few moments to enjoy a short video which will encourage, challenge, inform and help deepen faith.
The first is a classic from John Lennox -
WATCH - there are so many good lines in this 10min vid.
Oxford Mathematician DESTROYS Hawking's argument (BRILLIANT!): God or Science - Why the Choice?
eg. "Science has its limits...it can't even answer the childlike questions...'where do I come from?, where I am going?, what's the meaning of life?'"
MARCH 2025
This
link takes you to a whole range of news and information from across the Free Church of Scotland.
Annual General Meeting
21st March 7pm-8pm
The Annual General Meeting for Mearns Free Church will be on the evening of Friday the 21st March, 7pm-8pm at Belmont. All are welcome but especially if you are a member of the congregation.
This AGM is very important as it will be our first at Mearns Free Church. We need to hear how we can pray MFC forward into a second year.
Finance Committee: We will appoint members to the Finance Committee for the new-year.
The current Finance Committee members are: Catherine MacKay, Daniel Clarke, Lawrence Renn, Lorna Hamilton, Margo McNicol, Tom Brown. You may nominate others at the meeting (though they would have to agree in advance). All nominations will be voted on and a majority is necessary for each to be elected. Each member of the committee is elected for one year but can be re-elected annually.
The current Finance Committee members, who have actually only served less than one year are all willing to be re-elected.
Finances: It is important there is financial transparency. We shall review the annual accounts. However, it is also important that we all understand the relationship between Mearns Free Church and our former church entity, now called NMNC Trust Limited.
The AGM I am speaking of in this notice is for
Mearns Free Church. However,
NMNC Trust Limited will also make their accounts available to us at the same meeting so that we can see the full financial picture for both entities. The relationship between these two entities (Mearns Free Church and NMNC Trust Limited) is of great importance presently. We currently employ/pay ministry assistance (our Family and Children Worker and future Associate Minister) from the Trust. It may also be of great significance for future ownership of property.
Please put this meeting in your diary.
Passion Play
Monday 14th April (7.30pm)
At Belmont House School
Keep a look out for details soon
Save the dates! Looking ahead to:
Easter
-
Saturday 5th April - Easter Family Event
-
Sunday 23rd March - info/prep meeting for Easter Family Event
Summer
-
Sunday 3rd - Sunday 10th August - Community Week
-
Sunday 1st June - Community week team meeting
As always, we will need people to get involved in many ways to make these events happen. If you are interested in finding out more please speak to Pauline or Scott.
Easter Code
24th-28th March
Every year the Baptist Church plays host to P7 pupils from all the local schools to help them explore and discover Easter.
The sessions run Monday - Friday 10am -12noon. Many people are needed to enable the sessions to happen.
If anyone would be interested in helping out for one or more mornings then please speak to Pauline. On the day you would be paired with an experienced team member and would help the pupils with activities, discussion and snack. All teaching and leading is done upfront.
Ladybird Book of Mearns Free Church
SU Lunch on 23rd February
– Thanks For Donations -
Dear Friends at Mearns Free Church,
Thank you for your generosity!
I write to thank you for your gift of £413.50 in support of SU Scotland’s ministry with children and young people, collected after Jenny Hamill’s recent speaking engagement.
We have allocated your gift as below:
£413.50 to Renfrewshire, East Ren. & Inverclyde
Your gift is transforming lives by giving children and young people in Scotland a chance to explore the Bible and learn about Jesus.
A young leader shared feedback on our COmMISSION program, which prepares 16- to 23-year-olds for missions with children and youth:
“The COmMISSION programme was a defining part of my life, the skills I learned with youth work have been more than beneficial in leading camps and
working with kids in general. Not only that but the connections and friends I’ve made through the programme are for life, meeting like-minded young people has given me so much security and confidence in myself and our mission”.
We’d love to keep you informed about the work you’re supporting! To receive our latest updates, sign-up at suscotland.org.uk/mailings, email us at mailings@suscotland.org.uk , or call
0141 332 1162.
Yours in Christian service,
Jennifer Babb
Head of Fundraising
Safeguarding Training
We want encourage those involved in service at Mearns Free to sign up for the Free Church’s training on safeguarding. We and the Free Church believe that training is essential to deliver on our safeguarding responsibilities. The training is free and is delivered online; it takes about a couple of hours and is delivered well.
The next training sessions (you only need to do one of these sessions every 3 years!) are on:
Tuesday 22nd April at 7.30pm
Monday 19th May at 7.30pm
Tuesday 26th August at 7.30pm
You can register by filling in the form that is available online here:
Safeguarding Training Booking – Free Church of Scotland
For more details speak with Alastair McL.
Each Wednesday we meet to pray for the church- local, national and worldwide.
you should try and get along - 1 hour flies by and it's such a important time of fellowship too.
7.15-8.15pm
Praying for One Another
The Free Church page on prayer is found here
It includes the Praying for One Another
Each week we send out a prayer calendar, via email, with prayer points for the week ahead.:
"We pray for the church locally, nationally and globally. It is a real encouragement to see all that God is doing in our communities.
What a privilege we have in prayer! We can approach the throne of grace with utmost confidence that we are coming before a God who knows us perfectly and loves us endlessly.
Click on the link to sign up for weekly updates.
LARGE PRINT -
SONG WORDS
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.
Mearns Free Church has a What's App Group for Prayer -The "PRAY NOW" Group
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.
Emailing The Minister
Please be careful when emailing Scott that you are using the correct current email address minister@mearnsfree.org. A number of emails continue to be sent to accounts no longer in use. Please be doubly careful when sending from a device that is not your normal communication device (like a phone) or if you use “reply to all”.
Email Addresses For Mearns Free Church
Please make sure you change your email address list now we are part of the Free Church.
Tom Brown (Office): office@mearnsfree.org
Scott Kirkland (Minister): minister@mearnsfree.org
Sandy McDougall (Treasurer): finance@mearnsfree.org
Pauline Forster (Children and families worker): children@mearnsfree.org