Willow Creek Repents

I found a fascinating article last night which you might want to read here.

What happens when the church which thousands of other churches have been looking to for a lead, declares that a lot of its priorities have been a case of "barking up the wrong tree!"

The Manse Project

For all those keen to find out more about what is happening with the manse project - click here. The update by Iain Ross (who is Chairing the emerging team) will give you a feel for what is currently happening. We'll keep you updated on progress here as things pick up pace but in the meantime your prayers are very much needed at this stage on the resourcing of the vision - both in terms of people sharing in the vision and feeling that they have skills to contribute and in terms of £'s for fixing the place up. We're busy applying for funding at the moment so pray over the festive period that the answers to these applications will help us clearly determine God's will in all of our plans.

'Where there is no vision, the people perish' Proverbs 28 v18

What do you think?

We are currently beginning to make plans for the content of various teaching streams during 2008. I was intrigued tonight to note on the Mars Hill Church website, that the pastor there asks the congregation to identify areas they would like some response to in his teaching. If there are particular topics or questions you would like to be covered during 2008, please feel free to comment below.
DM

Hilton Hits the Courier - Twice!

Here's an article that will be of interest to all those following the adventures of our Peru Adventurers... Click here for a letter from our own Colm Black on his family work within the community.

Advent Celebration

Just a reminder to everyone of our weekend ahead where we hope to make a good beginning to Advent. You can read all about it here.

Hope to see you at the ALL AGE CAFE (7- 8.15PM) on Friday evening.

We also have a short teaching session from 10-12noon on Saturday. If you have primary school children, you could drop them off at CCC at the new JUMP event, and come along for what promises to be a very special time.
DM

Iain MacRitchie on Pastoral Care

Inspirational snippets from Iain MacRitchie's third and last sermon on Pastoral Care.

John 15
We need to be radically inclusive - an inclusiveness rooted in the love of God.
We are all a work in progress and we need to question our inclusivity.

Acts2
We should be a radical community which is prophetic.
The prophetic voice models an alternative way and contradicts our false gods eg the shopping mall mentality.
We are not sovereign individuals and intimacy is the alternative to individualism.

Romans 12
We should be a therapeutic community where we see one another as both limited and gifted.
Modeling Godly behaviours in our community ( the church ) means that gifts are shared in a healing way.
Pastoral Care should result in God taking us from exile into a therapeutic community where we can experience deep healing for ourselves and others around us.

I found it all very challenging and thought provoking. Thanks, Iain.
By the way I like the idea of a giveaway table--I am going to think more about that one.

Doda

3 Hectors at Hilton

We were delighted to hear of the safe arrival of Hector last weekend to Gillian and Andrew MacLennan. A baby brother for Harriet and a 3rd Hector at Hilton Church, along with Hector Morrison and Hector Waudy West. Congratulations to Gillian and Andrew and we look forward to seeing them at a worship service in due course.

SECOND SERVICE

This mornings second service was very confirming in terms of encouraging us to see the value of a gathering which offers something different from the 10am service. Today, there was a variety of spaces for various different people to share - an unaccompanied solo of Before the throne of God above by Chrissie Cumming and a very moving personal testimony by Alison MacCallum of what "Jesus is Lord" means to her. After Barry Dennis' talk on Jesus is Lord from Matthew 8&9, we had an opportunity to respond to Jesus' Lordship by placing our written prayers (on post its) in a bowl at the front. These are all little steps, but we trust that God will take them, and prepare us through them for opportunities for His kingdom that are as yet unseen.

Hilton Family Project

Christians Together recorded an interview with Colm about the 'relationship' work as part of the Hilton Family Project; and you can listen to this interview by clicking here. Colm is using the Prepare/Enrich materials but also using material from a variety of other sources. He is encouraging other couples to become involved in bringing their own experiences of 'being married' into play in order to work alongside others in this area of ministry. Colm has had a letter to the Inverness Courier published (13/11/07) as "Editor's Choice". The letter was a response to a recent Courier article about the renaming of Marriage Counselling Highland to become "Relate Highland"

Street Pastors

Over the last two weekends, the Street Pastors had their first taste of being in the city centre late at night and early morning. Ingrid and I were out on different Fridays-Ingrid had the luxury of being driven in a police car!! No cars available last Friday though. Having reported to and warmly welcomed at Burnett Road police HQ, 10 of us, accompanied by two policemen, set out on foot and walked for three hours along the streets, lanes and alleys of Inverness City centre. We were introduced to all the bouncers standing in the doorways of the pubs, clubs and even some takeaways. They had already been informed of our role on the streets and they were all most encouraging. We were invited in to the RAGS DISCO on Academy Street. It was fine! Baron Taylors Street and Lane was something else. On the whole the city was very quiet-some pubs closed at 12.30 because there were so few customers. The police told us that everybody was saving their money and energy for Christmas and New Year, but I rather think that God was breaking us in gently. This first taste was part of our training with the police and the main purpose was to show us the cameras and the no-go areas.
Looking down on the river from the castle I thought " What a beautiful city". Stepping into the backyard of Love2Love, the entrance to which is from the top of the Raining Stairs, I thought, " Yes, Lord, You are here in the midst of it ALL"
"But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him."
Oh, and by the way the owner of Mojos has offered us coffee and sandwiches at any time. We shall definitely take him up on that one. I came home buzzing and couldn't sleep thinking what a wonderful opportunity , albeit a scary challenge, to bring the Kingdom of God to the streets of our city. We shall be starting in earnest in the New Year. Please pray for the Inverness Street Pastors--there are 25 of us--a very mixed bunch, but united in purpose.
Doda

Home Group Material

Background notes for part 4 of our Matthew series available here. Questions and another of those entertaining ice-breakers available here. Leave a comment or send in a post and let us know how you are all getting on working through the material.

Community Engagement?

Reflections on Home Group Material

The west of Inverness home group gathered together on Wednesday to read and study the third installment of Hector's Matthew Bible Study notes. We have found the material quite challenging and the supporting reading very informative. It has been really helpful looking at Matthew as well during Sunday services. I was challenged by the call to treasures in Heaven this week. At this time of year in particular when we are bombarded and tempted to hoard things that 'moths and rust will destroy', I've been challenged by Christ's counter-culture exhortation to store up treasures in Heaven. It would be good to hear how other groups have been challenged over the material.
SMacQ

Light a candle in the darkness

try this. You need five minutes and get to say a prayer. it's very cool
DM

You are the salt of the earth

Fascinating article you can read here from the salt of the earth project on the impact of churches within their community. Many people in society fail to see what a massive impact churches have in terms of contributing to the well being of communities.
DM

What? No morning service?!

Before attending the conference in Sheffield which began on Monday morning, I had intended to go along to St Thomas' morning service to get a flavour of their congregational life. When I checked their website, I immediately encountered a problem - there was no morning service that Sunday! It was Cluster Sunday, a day when the small groups cluster together to engage in a variety of forms of outreach. Instead, I went along to their evening gathering when all the clusters gave testimony to what they had been doing together and what they had seen God doing through them and with them that day. It was such an uplifting service and you can get a flavour of it by listening to the sermon here. I found the experience of that day challenging and deeply searching. To what extent do our services make the connection with our every day lives?Does our tradition over emphasise the significance of Sunday worship at the expense of Monday to Saturday worship? I like what Michael Frost has to say on the matter:

"....worship services ought to be corporate expressions of the overflow of the regular life of a community that churches together at some level every day."

Peru Reflections

Here's a piece worth reading which Barry has pulled together on his reflections of the recent Peru trip. Download it here and find out how the trip impacted Barry and his take on life. Inspired reading.

A Book for Advent

For anyone who is perhaps looking for a spiritual accompaniment to go alongside their advent calendar (chocolates and all!), could I recommend "Beginnings and Endings: And What Happens in Between" by Maggie Dawn. You'll find a recommendation for it here.

Chaplaincy and Listening

During my week in Sheffield, I was staying with Richard and Linda Benn who are good friends of Stuart and Emily MacQuarrie. Richard works as a GP and during my time with him, I was able to visit his surgery. Two things struck me from the visit which I wanted to share on the blog for people to think about.

The first was, that the GP practice has a chaplain. In Scotland, we have chaplains in hospitals and many other places, but I haven't heard of chaplains linked to GP surgeries. In a country where a majority of people believe at the very least in God, a chaplain may be a great asset to a surgery.

The other thing that struck me from the noticeboard in the waiting room,was the LISTENING SERVICE which the surgery offered. Time to actually listen to patients is at a premium for hard pressed GP's. Local churches have trained up people in listening skills to help in this service offered to the community. Many of our congregation have been trained in Listening skills through the Acorn Foundation. Is this a service which we could offer to help a local GP practice with?
DM

WORSHIP in SHEFFIELD

The various musicians who led the times of worship in Sheffield during the visitors week were outstanding. At the close of the week, they made it clear that they were in the business of encouraging and helping in any way they could. For worship leaders who are interested, they have opened up a worship network on the new FACEBOOK site. If you sign up for Facebook, type in newwineleadworshippers and request to join the group.

Church v Footie

simple church!

Nelson Mandela

I'm back! I've had an amazing week in Sheffield, but more about that next week.

I came across the following fascinating quote by Nelson Mandela last night which I offer without comment.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Come on folks! There must be more going on than what I try and blog about. No pieces about Peru yet! I understand the street pastors were out on the streets for the first time last night. It would be great to hear all about it. "Time out", I hear is going really well. It would be good for us to know a little more about what is going on. "let your light shine."

Home Groups - Part 3

This weeks home group commentary notes available here. Study material available here.

Christmas - Celebrating or Surviving? Some Practical Tips

Here's a useful guide to navigating your way through the festive season prepared by our own Colm Black. Colm must have spotted the earliest Christmas tree this year (October 12th Perth! - are you sure this wasn't still up from last year Colm?). Download and read his thoughts here.

Bible Study Downloads

Small group Bible study material now available to download on-line for home groups. Click here for the commentary notes on Matthew 4. Click here for the accompanying questions (and a sneak preview of the ice-breaker!)
Admin

Richard's Installation

1ST PRESBYTERIAN , GREENVILLE, have posted a slideshow on their webpage of Richard's recent installation. You can see it here.
DM

St Thomas' Church, Sheffield

Every once in a while it is a useful exercise to step back from one's own church to reflect from a safe distance on what is going on. A good way to do this is to visit another church whose lifestyle and witness may be able to give some signs and encouragement in relation to possible ways forward. St Thomas' is such a church and you can read some of its fascinating story here. I am travelling down to Sheffield this weekend to share in their twice yearly visitors week. You can read a little of what is in store for me here. If I can, I'll send a few blogs from there. If not, I look forward to telling you all about it when I get back.
DM

'Aye, that's what you think'

I received an email from Jim Gordon this morning - Living Wittily - outlining his ideas for a weekend at Hilton Church to mark the beginning of Advent.

He wants to call it "Aye, that's what you think!" The Counter Intuitive Theology of Isaiah.

I think I'll leave the bit about counter intuitive out of our publicity as it sounds a bit academic, which knowing Jim, it won't be!
Isaiah was living at a time when morale was low amongst the people of God. They were in exile, and any positive word of hope was very likely to be met with the response "Aye, that's what you think!" For so many Christians in Scotland today the situation is very similar. The church is struggling, there are signs of death and decay all around. We are going through a time which feels like exile. Many people find it difficult to hear words of hope. "Aye, that's what you think!"

Over 30th November to 2nd December, we want to celebrate the fact that God's light has invaded the darkness and the darkness will never put it out. There will be a cafe service aimed at all ages from 7 - 8.15pm on Friday night, there will be a teaching time from 10-12 noon on Saturday and then on Sunday, Jim will be sharing at our 3 worship services. We are praying that this will be a superb weekend for us all as we engage with the Prophet Isaiah who brought the people of God a word of hope in the darkness.

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9 v2)

Jim has also thought very deeply and written on a whole variety of very important pastoral issues, as his post today on bipolar disorder and his post last week on autism illustrates. I'm sure the weekend will also give us some very significant insights into many dimensions of pastoral care within our fellowship.

DM

Remember - We Are At War

This Sunday is Remembrance day. There will be a 2 minute silence as part of our worship at 11am. GadgetVicar has posted an excellent piece today, which is well worth reflecting on, in the run up to Sunday.

TAIZE

A Taize service is to take place at St Stephen's Church on the 2nd Wednesday of every month (eg 14th Nov, 12th Dec...) from 7.45 - 8.30pm.
DM

life in a day campaign

Hilton Chuch particiapted in Compassions Life in a day campaign in September. As a result of the campaign 1,500 children have been released from poverty through the support of new sponsors. Quite a number of new sponsors came through Hilton Church. In Compassions words,

"Each number represents an individual child loved and valued by God, whose life has been transformed......."

As a family, we sponsor a 5 year old girl called Angie in Lima, Peru. While Shona was visiting Peru as part of the recent workparty, she was able to visit Angie - an experience which was very humbling and underlined the value of compassions work. Hopefully she will write about her visit in a future blog.
DM

Tonight, I am speaking on behalf of the Vine Trust at Trinity Parish Church, Inverness. One of the strengths of the workparties to Peru has been the variety of people who have come from many different backgrounds. On the most recent trip, we had a group of 4 guys from the Free Church of Scotland in Portree. On our next trip, perhaps we'll have some team members from Trinity Church.

STOP PRESS: The fund raising for the most recent workparty in October is now touching £30,000. Amazing - well done and thanks to everyone who worked so hard to raise such a remarkable sum. The money raised is enough to pay for running of one of the street boy centres for one year.

DM

Last Night at Presbytery

It took all my efforts to supress a hallelujah at Presbytery last night. During the ministry committee report, its convenor, Rev Hugh Watt revealed a nugget of information. The Church of Scotland is generally having to up its game in terms of its charitable status as new charity laws have been passed by the Scottish Parliament. It appears that the church has so much money that it may have to give some of it away! I have long felt that it is an absolute scandal and a denial of the gospel that the National Church through its Councils and Boards holds vast sums of money, while so many needs are crying out for funding. It will be intriguing to see how this ends up.
DM

Building Warrant

Today, we received confirmation from our architect that the building warrant for alterations to the former manse has been granted by the local authority. All we need now is the balance of the funding and we can start! Pray on.

The ongoing adventures of ASBO Jesus

Hilton Manse Project

For all those that missed Sunday's update on progress with the manse, take a look here for an update. Use the comments below to leave us your thoughts on what is a fairly ambitious project for us all at Hilton.
SM

Dot

For anyone flying from Inverness airport over the next couple of months, Dot Walker's latest exhibition, beginning there on 9th November would be well worth a visit.
DM

Free North, Inverness

The Free North Church has recently become vacant following the retirement of Ronald MacKay. A number of folk from Hilton Church have taken services there in recent months. On Sunday, I took their evening service. I was impressed by the grandeur of the building and its outstanding acoustics. It was a very enjoyable experience to share with such a warm and welcoming fellowship. It was also good to see Iain Polworth, one of our own members, who now works for the Free North. He is doing an outstanding job, working with families who are living with the challenges of alcohol and drug addiction.

Calling All Workparty Members

If you are interested in viewing photos of the recent workparty to Peru, another of the team members, Bill Roger, has posted a link to his photos here.

We would also love to hear about some of your adventures and your reflections on the trip so send a mail to us and we will post them up.

A post to make you smile!

2 Chronicles 31:7, is the 30638th most popular verse in the Bible out of the 31101 verses that make up the Bible. This is according to TopVerses.com, a site that ranks all of the verses in the Bible in order of the number of times they appear on the internet. Read more about it here.

Baptism

At our 10am service today, Palesa Mary Hammond was baptised. It was a very joyful occasion for her mother, Robyn together with all the congregation. Robyn adopted Palesa while she was working as a teacher in Lesotho, and they returned to Inverness last July. Today we instituted a new tradition as part of the baptism, which we hope will be helpful to children and their parents in the years to come.

While we were visiting friends in the German Lutheran Church last year, one of the children had a birthday. In the centre of the dinner table along with the cake and birthday candles was a large candle with the child's name on it and the date of her baptism. An annual reminder of her baptism and the new birth in Jesus which it points to. We plan to give each child a candle with their name and date of baptism on it, as a way of reminding them of their baptism from year to year.

DM

Peru 2007 photos

To view these amazing photos from Duncan Maclauchlan- all 770 of them!- click on the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25105658@N00/?saved=1

Matthew's Gospel

This morning, I have been preparing a sermon from Matthew 3 for tomorrow morning's services. There is so much in chapter 3, and with the services now lasting only an hour, it is going to be quite a discipline to keep the sermons at a suitable length! Only time for 2 main points!

I am comforted by the fact that Hector Morrison has put together some excellent materials for discussion, as well as highlighting access to the Bible Gateway commentary on the net. The congregation will therefore have easy access to good resources to follow up on the sermon.
DM

Iain Goodwill

"Death lies on him like an untimely frost,
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field."
(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)

The funeral took place this afternoon of little Iain Goodwill, aged 17 months, tragically killed in an accident last week. During the service the following words from the hymn When grief is raw were sung.

O Christ, you wept when grief is raw,
And felt for those who mourned their friend;
Come close to where we would not be
And hold us, numbed by this life's end.

Please pray for Mark and Helen, together with their children, Alan and Douglas, in the midst of such a terrible loss.

Hilton Inclusive Youth Project

Youth Inclusive do some outstanding work with young people in the Hilton area. One of their recent iniatives was a photographic project. Pictures were then exhibited at the Inverness museum and art gallery. The event is also on the BBC website.

Advent Celebration

This year we plan to do something special to mark the beginning of Advent. Over the first weekend of Advent, Jim Gordon, Principal of the Scottish Baptist College and arch blogger -Living Wittily - is going to be sharing with us.

On Friday, 30th November we are going to have a Advent Cafe Celebration which will be suitable for all ages. There will be a teaching time on Saturday morning, and Jim will be sharing in all our services on Sunday, 2nd December. More details to follow soon.
DM