No.37 14th March 2025
Hi
Hope you have had a good week.
March is a busy month with activities on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
This week is Home Groups...the Tweet of the Week below is a way to maybe understand Jonah...the Home Group I am in will soon tell me if I am wrong about that.
And of course Wednesdays too - those who went across to Dowanvale FC and met with others from a range of churches enjoyed a really great time of fellowship.
This week we are back in Southside - if you don't normally come along can I encourage you to consider doing so-prayer changes things. You can read about that in a short reflection on Psalm 58 below.
The Tea Break video this week reminded me of the phrase 'And now for something completely different...' Take a look - quite a remarkable story and at the end there is a really important aspect of what we are asking people to do when we encourage them to trust in Christ.
Enjoy the mag,
MB
Sunday 9th March
Morning service- 10.30am
Rev Scott Kirkland
Matthew ch10:1-15
Home Groups This Week
PRAYER MEETING
PULSE MEETING THIS WEDNESDAY
7.15pm at the Coopers
After morning service...
Thanks again to John, Sarah, Margaret and others who regularly organise and serve the Tea and Coffee etc after the service.
Couple of things
1. CUPS
Each week we go through quite an amount of disposable cups - I know a lot of folk do bring their own cup but the more the merrier and this means we can save a bit of money on the cost. (And we can help reach Murray's target of net zero by 2026...please take a moment to ask Murray about this.)
2. BAKING ROTA
we know that people like a nice treat with their cuppa and we have been spoiled over the last while with nice home baking...so if you would like to contribute and be on a rota (hopefully there will be a few people on this and it won't be a burden on people.)
Speak with Margaret Boyd about this if you are interested.
Letter from the Manse
Dear Congregation,
On Wednesday night sixteen of us joined with other Free Church congregations at Dowanvale Free Church to pray for the denomination and the gospel in Scotland. Led by the Mission Director, David Meredith and CEO of the Free Church, Andrew Giffen, it was a wonderful evening of multi-generational prayer. Next Wednesday evening we resume our normal gathering for The Pulse 7.15-8.15 pm (at the Coopers house).
We are also delighted that several of our 18-30s will join with other Free Church young adults this weekend at Lendrick Muir for the Free Church Youth conference.
Rev Andy Pearson from St Peter’s Free Church of Scotland in Dundee will deliver talks with additional times of worship, seminars, testimonies and other activities. The blurb about the conference adds, “…another central component to a great youth conference is the food and organisers are blessed to have an excellent team of cooks who have done an amazing job the last few years…”! Let’s pray there is good food for our young people, for body and soul.
“MFC-Connections”…Every member of the congregation should have received an email about our new initiative called “MFC-Connections”.
These should have connected you to a named person in the congregation. That specific person has kindly agreed to connect with a number of members of the congregation regularly.
For the most part, nothing will change, as these connections will often be already established. However, we know that this is not always the case and so the aim is to try and ensure greater continuity and consistency of “fellowship” across our congregational life. I am personally very enthusiastic about this and I hope you will come to share in that enthusiasm also. Debbie and Sheila are helping to organize this for the Kirk Session. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them or me. My hope is that even starting something like this would stimulate us all to a new sense of desire to come alongside one another, especially those who are newer to the congregation and those we know less well.
You will find more detail here.
Scott Hamilton…It was great having Scott Hamilton with us last Sunday.
We are looking forward to Scott joining us in the summer. We shall seek to provide Scott with accommodation. Does anyone have access to a 2-bedroom property that we as a congregation can rent for Scott H? We would want it to be within short reach of the Mearns
AGM 7pm 21st March …Please read the article below and put the date in your diary. Last year only 30 attended the AGM of NMNC. This will be our first AGM as Mearns Free Church. This meeting is important as we rejoice in the Lord’s presence over the last months and how he has provided for us as a congregation (see article below).
The Haven Coffee Afternoon 22nd March…It will be lovely to hear of the work of The Haven next Saturday afternoon and support that rehabilitation ministry.
Bring a friend for coffee and cake! (See details below)
Accommodating 5 People 14th April… We are looking for accommodation for 3 men and 2 women from Oxfordshire for one night (14th April).
We have invited them to perform a Passion Play. Can you accommodate any? It will most certainly mean B&B. (We may get together at one location for the evening meal.)
Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday,
With Warmest Regards
Scott
At Cafe Connect on Tuesday Debbie will give a short presentation on persisting pain.
I'm sure this will be helpful for all of us. If you've not been before but would like to hear what Debbie says, please feel free to join us.
We're also looking forward to Martin Smith bringing the Bible Connect message
Elizabeth
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
Psalm 58
Martin S sent this reflection in for the magazine... from Alec Motyer's Psalms by the Day
What a challenge Psalm 58 (see below) is to our feebleness in prayer, our lack of rigour and our limited awareness of the scope and power of ‘praying about it’! The situation the psalm envisages is one familiar enough to us : Unrighteous rulers; rulers that look on in silence when unrighteousness is being perpetrated. Even looking no further than verse 1 we could write a book about planet earth in the twenty first century ! In the face of wicked powers and crafty powers, how often we contemplate those earthly rulers whom we are well aware know better, and we shake our heads sadly and say, ‘But they don’t know what to do?’ Then we look into ourselves and admit ‘Neither do we.’
Psalm 58 would confront our defeatism with its straight questions, ‘Don’t you ? Have you thought about praying about it ?’ David does not tell us whom he had in mind – the Bible often leaves gaps like that, so that we can fill them in with our own problems – but he knew what to do: Take it to the Lord ! In the psalm, verses 1-5 raise problems: unrighteous rule (1-2), and the problem of original sin infecting wicked rulers (whatever can alter that!). After verse 6 the unrighteous ones are leaking away, melting away, their weapons falling to the ground uselessly, gone before you can say Jack Robinson ! The loving, raging God has acted – because his people asked him to do so (6). Mind you. The prayer made in verse 6 is vivid, practical, resolute, realistic: Dare we pray like that ? We admit it: when we pray on a world scale we like to concentrate our thought on the more bland request that suffering be relieved, the hungry fed, persecuted Christians be delivered, prisoners released. But, to say the least, there are situations when these desirable ends can only be realistically met if unjust governments (and their representative) are overthrown, cast down and deprived of their power to injure. Is it time we too began to pray about teeth being broken and fangs drawn ?
Psalm 58 (from THE MESSAGE)
1-2 Is this any way to run a country?
Is there an honest politician in the house?
Behind the scenes you weave webs of deceit,
behind closed doors you make deals with demons.
3-5 The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle;
their first words out of the womb are lies.
Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison,
drips from their forked tongues—
Deaf to threats, deaf to charm,
decades of wax built up in their ears.
6-9 God, smash their teeth to bits,
leave them toothless tigers.
Let their lives be buckets of water spilled,
all that’s left, a damp stain in the sand.
Let them be trampled grass
worn smooth by the traffic.
Let them dissolve into snail slime,
be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
Before what they cook up is half-done, God,
throw it out with the garbage!
10-11 The righteous will call up their friends
when they see the wicked get their reward,
Serve up their blood in goblets
as they toast one another,
Everyone cheering, “It’s worth it to play by the rules!
God’s handing out trophies and tending the earth!”
The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
There is news from the team at Hope for Addiction
We've had an exciting start to 2025...
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A new arrival
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A new Women's Worker
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A new initiative
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A new building
Click
here to look at their news ...
This new MFC magazine feature doesn't necessarily need to involve holding a tea in your hand but it does involve stopping for a few moments to consider a short video which will encourage, challenge, inform and help deepen faith.
Last week we had the Oxford Mathematician, reminding us that Science doesn't have all the answers.
This week is something very different -
the testimony of Rosaria Butterfield's testimony on how she came to believe in Christ. Watch it here.
She talks about those involved, the invitation and welcome from other Christians, the cost of believing and realisation that becoming a Christian wasn't a case of weighing up things as we might do with car insurance, and see pros and cons, or what might be 'a good deal' for her. She didn't come to Christ because she had fallen out of love with her previous lifestyle choices. She came to Christ because of who He is.
Last week's Tea Break...John Lennox -
WATCH - God or Science - Why the Choice?
Annual General Meeting
Friday 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.
The AGM is authorised by the Kirk Session and therefore covers the whole of our church life in 2024, not just finance. Accounts have been issued to all members.
We shall:
i.
Report generally on the first 9 months of MFC life and invite conversation about this.
ii.
Receive accounts of MFC and answer questions on them.
iii.
Elect a new Finance Committee for the next year.
The current 6 members have made themselves available for re-election. (Catherine MacKay, Daniel Clarke, Lawrence Renn, Lorna Hamilton, Margo McNicol, Tom Brown)
We shall still have to vote for them as each nominated person must secure a majority vote of those present.
You can certainly nominate a person other than the six existing members.
Please ensure that the person is a member of the congregation and willing to serve.
Please let me know of your nomination by email by Wednesday 19th March.
We will not take additional nominations after the 19th.
The elders and FC members will be available at the AGM to share in any conversation raised.
In addition:
The Directors of NMNC Trust Limited will also have their AGM that evening.
This will allow us to see the full picture of all our resources and remind us how these two entities relate. The accounts of NMNC Trust Limited has also been issued to all members of Mearns Free Church.
Look forward to seeing you on 21st at 7pm, Belmont.
Scott
Passion Play
Monday 14th April (7.30pm)
At Belmont House School
We have invited “LAMPS” a Christian organisation, to perform a version of the Easter Story at Belmont.
They will be in Scotland touring with this production.
They say: The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are recreated in this moving, memorable and ultimately joyful retelling of the Easter story. Told from the perspectives of Peter, Mary Magdalene and a Roman centurion named Marcus, this powerful contemporary drama leads us up to and through the events of Holy Week, to the cross and beyond.
This is a great opportunity to invite friends and family to an Easter event at Mearns Free Church and to hear the Gospel message as dramatized by these actors.
So often, Easter provides an easy way to invite friends and family to a church event. Please do make use of this opportunity.
Here are some reviews:
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"The Passion by LAMPS is an utterly compelling retelling of the Easter story with actors whose talent is beyond words". Rev Nathan Ward St Margaret’s, Rainham
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"We watched and listened in complete silence for over an hour as the Easter story was told… The audience responded with a lengthy standing ovation – it was a great evening". Eleanor Jenkins Bury Green Chapel
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"A life-changing experience for me and my understanding of the scriptures… Like many others no doubt I shed a tear or two". Roger Dennett St James the Great, Radley
Save the dates! Looking ahead to:
Easter
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Saturday 5th April - Easter Family Event
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Sunday 23rd March - info/prep meeting for Easter Family Event
Summer
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Sunday 3rd - Sunday 10th August - Community Week
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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.
Ladybird Book of Mearns Free Church
Dear Friends,
Govanhill Free Church is holding a fundraising Afternoon tea on Saturday 29 March from 2.30-4.30pm to raise funds for Women For Mission.
Women for Mission are linked with the Free Church of Scotland and each year choose different projects to raise money for.
This year they are supporting:
-Blythswood Care (India)
-The Kerusso Trush (Malawi)
-The Tumaini Fund (Tanzania)
- Patty & Manuel Reano (Colombia).
More information about these projects can be found here -
Women for mission link
We would be delighted if you could join us.
TEN TYPES
WHO TROUBLE THE CHURCH OF GOD
Did you enjoy the booklet 'Listen Up' that Scott encouraged us to read. If it is lying around unread then definitely worth giving time to. We find in there a group of people who, like us, respond to hearing sermons in different ways...you might see yourself in there...or in more than one...or 'occasionally' one might resonate.
Professor Tommy MacKay an elder, Dumbarton Free High Church of Scotland (and my erstwhile Crusader leader) has written in a similar way about the sort of people we can meet in church...or we can actually be, in church.
He points out Ten to be aware of...I will highlight some here over the next few weeks. The booklet is available here.
THE PASSENGER
The Passenger is there to get and not to give. His primary question is not, ‘How do I serve the Church?’, but, ‘How does the Church serve me?’ ‘How do I like the preaching?’ ‘How much do I get from this or that meeting?’ He travels at the least possible cost, and comes and goes as he pleases. He does little if any work: that is left to others. In his congregation, he cannot be relied on for any task.
The Passenger likes to be at ease, and to have no unwanted burdens or expectations laid on him. He may be fulfilling God’s inalienable obligation that we must gather together as the Church, but he does not pause to reflect how the Church is there for him to gather at it. How are the lights on? How are the doors open? How is the building warm to welcome his arrival? How does he find everything ready for the comfort of his worship? How are the seats clean, the floors swept?
The Passenger knows nothing of the toils of those around him who bear ‘the burden and heat of the day’ in the Lord’s service. He has not read, or has read with dimmed and avoidant eyes, the divine exhortations which say, ‘Let not thine hands be slack’ (Zeph. 3.16), and ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’ (Eccl. 9.10).
The Passenger will not be found in the ‘commendation’ list Paul sent to the local church (Romans 16) – Phoebe, ‘a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea’; ‘Priscilla and Aquila my helpers’; ‘Mary, who bestoweth much labour upon us’; Urbane, ‘our helper in Christ’; ‘Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord’; and ‘the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord’. We can only urge the Passenger to consider the words of Isaac Watts:
‘Must I be carried to the skies
On flow’ry beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?’
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
At the Coopers this week.
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