Who are you a disciple of?

"Who are you a disciple of?" That is the question I am asking on Sunday morning. We learn from many different people in our life. I am focussing on Luke 5, and the call to be a Jesus learner, as Peter was. I have been trawling around the internet to find a quotation by an MTV executive. I haven't found the quote yet, but I did find this outstanding Lausanne paper on discipling young people which you can read here. Linday Howie of Inverness Youth for Christ is one of the authors. It is a big read, but it contains a very comprehensive reflection on the experience of young people worldwide.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.

"Conflicts are resolved through talking to enemies not friends."

This is what Desmond Tutu said today on a visit to Gaza. He called Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip an "abomination". You can read the full BBC report here

If we build it, they will come!

On the 6th of December, we had an evening of prayer for the community cafe project. Stuart wrote a stirring piece for the blog which I took a look at again today. I did so, because when I went down to the church this morning, I found that Rok Construction have placed their work cabins next to the old manse, ready to begin on 16th June. A project so long in the planning, and yet in the end getting to the starting line of construction so quickly. It is an exciting time to be part of all that is going on at Hilton Church.

CYC DAY OF PRAYER

The following invitation has come in from Inverness YMCA. It would be great if a good number from Hilton Church were able to be present to share in this time of prayer.

We are going to have a day of prayer in the CYC building on Thursday the 5th of June "this is for all ages"

The theme of the day is "Uniting to keep it simple"

Time 10am till 2.00pm

6.30pm till 9.00pm

There will be 5 main prayer points

1/ The work and outreach of the YM

2/ The Church in Inverness praying especially for the Churches without ministers

3/ The outreaches in the city YI, YFC, Healing on the streets, Street Pastors

4/ Camps, SU, Free Church, Faith Mission

5/ Mission field and Future outreaches like tent mission, Roots,Connect,Encounter

There will be an opportunity for personal prayer .We would ask that each congregation would have a minimum "there is no maximum" of 4 members to attend the day at some point, and it would be good if they could be together.this could be for 10min or 60min that's up to you.

Tea or Coffee will be provided free of charge

The parable of the talents

It's great to see various fellowships coming up with new angles on how to bring these gospel parables alive in our lives. My sister sent me this one from her church

Contemporary Bible Reading

A great contemporary bible reading for this Sunday written by Roddy Hamilton whose blog you can read here

Some upbeat chart music is playing in the background...

Voice 1 Ladies and Gentlemen… welcome to this years GQ Magazine best and worst dressed awards 2008… where at No. 16 we have future king… Prince William… that No. 16 on the worst dressed chart… Not so good for the next in line but other British Princes made a better attempt in the best dressed list… where Harry… Charles and Philip… all feature in the top 50 of this years chart…

Voice 2 Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever got taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference?

Voice 1 As for the women… Kate Moss has been voted top of the pops in glamour clothing… taking back her top place from Kylie Minogue… Experts believe it was that shocking cat-suit Kylie wore on X-factor… that was her undoing… Close to the top of the worst dressed men chart we find Prime Minister Gordon Brown shooting into number three… but opposition leader David Cameron can take comfort in the fact that he didn’t only get to No 1 in the bi-election this week… but he’s also in at number 8 in the best dressed awards… his third consecutive year in the top ten…

Voice 2 Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

Voice 1 Back at the women’s chart Madonna… Paris Hilton and Britney Spears all rub shoulders at the top of the worst positions… Interestingly David Beckham has once more figured in both lists of best and worst… being named 6th best and 9th worst dressed male… But who has made it to the top of the best dressed list… For second year running… Daniel Craig… the first blond James Bond… makes it to the top for the men… and for the women it’s Kate Moss… winning back her top place… But how many hours and fussing and dollars of grooming will they both have to take to keep themselves there…?

Voice 2 If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.

National Gathering

There will be many different perspectives on the National Gathering. You can read here the perspective of Archbishop John Sentamu, who preached on Sunday morning, as well as playing his African drums.

BBC iPLAYER

Tonight I watched last night's report from the General Assembly curtesy of bbc iplayer. The programmes last Sunday and then Wednesday, were well put together and give a good flavour of the breadth of life and viewpoint in the church of scotland. One of the most striking features of this year's assembly was a report on the number of congregations where there has been a major breakdown in relationship between the minister and various groups or individuals within congregations. There has been a fair amount written in recent months regarding "toxic" congregations - congregations which are bad for your health! Hopefully the Assembly this year has highlighted the issue in such a way that it will lead to these nightmare scenarios being addressed. If local congregations are falling apart, what message does that give to the communities they are seeking to serve.

Party Time!

The money required to re-develop the former manse into a community cafe has been raised, contractual negotiations with Rok Construction are at an advanced stage, work is likely to begin on 16th June. What else can the Project Team do, but hold a party! Tonight, the Project team which has worked so hard over the last 6 months, is having a celebratory bbq.....and for those who are interested, a certain sporting event taking place in Moscow will be on in the background!

Youth BBQ on Dores Beach

We have organised a BBQ on Dores beach on Wednesday 28th May, starting at 6pm. This is for all Teenscene and Nitelife AM young folk, plus all the Youth Leaders.

Please stick this in your diary and come along for some food and fun....if it is a nice day I would suggest bringing a towel cause you may get wet. :)

Hope to see you all there.
Chris

Tommy Burns

An interesting post by view from the basement

The joy and hope of yesterday has also evaporated with sad news of the death of Celtic's first team coach,Tommy Burns at the age of 51. Burns came up in conversation once with a Baptist Pastor from the Glasgow area. He had met Burns once for a meeting. It was Burns who suggested that they pray together and later commented that what the people of Glasgow needed was to know Jesus.

General Assembly

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland began yesterday in Edinburgh. It's decisions will have implications for every church of scotland across the country, so it is a very important week. If you want to find out more about it, you can do so by clicking here.

One very important announcement which has already been made this week involves a new fund for mission. It is encouraging to see the church at large investing money in mission.

PRAY FOR PEACE

Today is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel. You can read here about the plight of one man and his family ever since 1948. For 60 years, Israel has been a running sore. Today I pray for peace and a solution which will make it possible for Jew and Palestinian to live side by side in harmony. Come Lord Jesus!

Church without walls - next step?

Albert Bogle is going to be speaking to the General Assembly this week about possible next steps for Church without Walls. As ever, Albert has some very inspiring ideas. Take a look here. Why not comment on Albert's blog?

Komo and Kim In from Cambodia

On Thursday 22 May as part of a tour of Scotland, the Director of the Cambodia Hope Organisation, Chomno In and his wife Kim, are speaking at a meeting in the Stratherrick Public Hall, Gorthleck at 7.30pm. CHO is a Christian development organisation working amongst the poor of Cambodia. The work is supported by Tear Fund. More information is available from Stewart Jeffrey 230085, Minister at Dores and Boleskine Church of Scotland.
Murray

Every tent tells a story

The National Gathering took place nearly 2 weeks ago, but there is still a very real sense in which many of us from Hilton Church who attended (there were 24 of us!)are still on a "high" following the experience. Iain C gives a good flavour of the story telling tents which was a central aspect of the weekend.

HIGHLAND THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

We have just received this invitation to a lecture by Prof Andrew McGowan. The Highland Theological College has come through many challenging times to establish itself as an outstanding academic institution providing theological training for people at many different levels. In recent times, it has become a centre of training for Church of Scotland candidates for the ministry. This development was long overdue and among other things enables students from the Highlands to train without relocating to one of the major cities. Quite a number of people linked to Hilton Church have done a variety of courses at HTC and the feedback from them has been very very positive.

You are invited to join us for
Prof. Andrew McGowan’s
Inaugural Lecture
‘Is there a place for theology in a modern university?’
Tuesday 10th June 2008, 7.30pm
Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
All welcome.
Please come along and support this event.
Tickets available from the box office (no fee).
Tel. 01463 234 234
Highland Theological College UHI,
High Street, Dingwall, Ross-shire
www.htc.uhi.ac.uk T: 01349 780000
htc@htc.uhi.ac.uk F: 01349 780001
‘A Community of Faith and Scholarship’

Duncan

Discipleship Team (DT) Meeting 04.05.08

Jamie Grant, Rachel MacInnes, Barry Dennis & Hector Morrison met on Sunday evening to reflect on how things are going and to discuss how all the groups might be strengthened. The remit of the DT is to oversee, encourage and support the various activities that work in the church to try to disciple people. The Guild, Creche, Kingdom Kids, Sunday Club, P6/7, Teen Scene, Night Life, Youth Mentoring, the children’s and adult Libraries and of course the Home-Groups.
Those who organise and serve in these various groups deserve our thanks and our prayers as they faithfully work hard towards making the activities a success. Below is a brief synopsis of the sort of things the DT considered at our meeting:-
The Guild have had a good session based around the theme of ‘Let’s Live; Body, Mind & Soul’. An average of around 15-20 have enjoyed their meetings but the Guild would love to welcome more people into their midst. During Guild week in November they are hoping to participate in one of the worship services.
In Sunday Club Morag MacRitchie and her helpers do a great job in bringing the scriptures alive to the children. Morag is always looking for helpers and would love to see more men volunteering. It is important for boys to have male role models! They are also considering the best way of acknowledging the children as they move on to the next session or stage.
In Kingdom Kids Emily MacQuarrie is encouraged as they see an average of 16 kids coming along week by week and also one or two new helpers. Again they are always looking for new folk to help and would love to see the parents putting their names on the rota for helping. As the re-development of the Old manse gets under way we need to think about accommodation for this group.
Laura McCheyne leads the group of P6/7 and again we will need to think about accommodation issues for this group as the Community Project gets under way.
The Creche is as lively as ever and houses around 10-12 babies every Sunday. Jane MacLean and Pat Spence would love to get to grips with the room as they feel it isn’t particularly child friendly. It wouldn’t take a huge budget to freshen it up with paint and murals and put in some proper storage so look out for a re-juvenated Creche facility in the Autumn! They are also looking for baby bouncers. If any of our Bloggers have one stored away in a cupboard let us know. Jane & Pat find it rewarding to see parents being able to participate in the worship knowing their children are in good hands and again would love to see some more male helpers volunteering for the rota.
Chris says there are lots going on in Teen Scene, Night Life and with Youth Mentoring. Around 8-12 young people meet for Teenscene every week with 4 leaders taking it in turns lead the group. Since Nightlife moved to Sunday mornings the numbers have increased and Chris is hoping to see this group attend the second service regularly to take in Rob Barlow’s Christianity Explored series over the next 12 weeks. There are 7 young girls currently being mentored but it doesn’t seem to have taken off with the boys. Mentoring involves the teenagers meeting together regularly with some of our young adult Christians on a more personal level perhaps for a chat, a meal or bible study and to discover and pray for the issues that matter to these young folks. Youth work is an area of special interest to our new Assistant Jonathan and we are hopeful of Chris and his team working together to build a strong Youth Work in Hilton Church.
Libraries:- At the DT meeting we acknowledged the faithful work of the late Jean MacLellan in faithfully displaying and manning a good quality adult library every week. Mairi Ross does the same and we are blessed to have up to date quality Christian literature available to the people of Hilton. The libraries are there to be used and look out for some blatant plugs for both adult and children’s books over the coming months.
Finally the Home-groups. There are 9 Home-groups meeting at different times of the week. They are well established and perform an important function in the church allowing for fellowship, bible study and prayer during the busy week. It is always difficult to encourage, stimulate & develop these groups and the DT would appreciate your prayers as we already look to the session after the summer. Keep your eyes and ears open for news of a potentially exciting way of spiritual renewal being introduced to Hilton in November that could impact positively our groups and indeed the whole congregation! Hope we’ve whetted your appetite!
The DT can only function with the hard work that all the above teams put in and again we say a huge thank you to all who are involved and for the feedback that they give. As a congregation we are truly blessed in the spiritual life that these groups bring as they ‘Go and make disciple of all nations’. Hold them dear in your prayers.

The Discipleship Team

Church Without Walls - Feel the Full Blast of the Gospel

What a great weekend at Church Without Walls at Ingliston show ground. Emily, myself and our two boys trundled down the road on Friday and camped out part way between Inverness and Edinburgh. Saturday morning was beautiful and we set our course for the capital. It was an amazing sight arriving at the show ground seeing all the tents pitched out and with people starting to furnish them and put up banners and stalls. We spent some time looking around and getting to know new friends before heading for the opening worship.
For me there were some very memorable moments during the weekend. John Sentamu was quite something else and I got a real glimpse of heavenly worship when we sang the Hallelujah chorus with Bishop Sentamu accompanying on the drum. It was a very moving experience. Not to mention his simple call to full and joyful Christian living through our witness: the past forgiven, the present new life and hope for the future. Saturday's all age worship was fantastic with Fischy music. Our boys had a great time dancing up and down the aisles! It's great having two young boys as it gives you an excuse to worship with all your muscles, not just the brain or taping with a foot. On Saturday night I headed off late to the prayer tent which was a big marquee in the grounds set up to encourage contemplative meditation. It was good to rest there a while and put things into context. After that I headed to the youth rave........
On Sunday I went to hear Alistair McGrath speak about the Dawkins Delusion. I don't pretend to understand all the nuances of academic debate but Alistair made the main points very accessible without loosing the audience.
One thing that stuck in my mind though and which has been going through it since was a phrase used by one of the women in the worship group on Saturday when she prayed for those sheltering from the 'full blast of the Gospel'. I certainly felt the full blast of the Gospel and missional living this weekend and I come back to the Highlands full of a renewed sense of the life we have in Christ and the Hope we have for the future.

Stuart MacQ

National Gathering Eve

The National Gathering begins tomorrow. At Hilton, Chris, Colm, Ingrid and Sandra have been busy putting together a presentation which points to some of the key aspects of our congregation's life and story. We hope to share our story in the story telling tent which we have purchased for £300. After the weekend, the tent will be used by aid organisations to help in one of the crisis situations in the developing world. Albert Bogle has been blogging about the run up to the weekend and here is his latest entry.

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME!

"If you build it, they will come!"

These were the words which were clearly in my mind following the first prayer night for the cafe project.I am delighted to confirm that today we have reached a major target in the journey towards our vision of a thriving community cafe. We have just received confirmation that the last amount of funding required to enable the building project to begin, is now in place.

We are currently in talks with Rok Construction and the General Trustees and it is our hope that the building work can begin early June as planned. Thank you for all your hard work and prayers. I look forward to working together with you in the next phase of this exciting project.


Iain Ross
Project Team Chairman