GLASTONBURY

I've been watching Glastonbury over the past couple of days in the evenings. It's amazing how this festival has grown over the last 40 years from a small gathering in a farmers field. The band which I especially enjoyed were Mumford and Son.

NAIRN EAST BEACH OUTING

Our time at Nairn East Beach last Sunday afternoon was really enjoyable. The weather was overcast, but warm and dry. There were races, team games, swimming in the sea (freezing!) and plenty time just to relax and spend time together. Thanks to Morag Macritchie for all her hard work in organising such a good time together. We'll show a powerpoint of some of the pictures from the day at the services tomorrow.

golf challenge 2010

We had a superb evening between golf at Torvean and a bbq at the The Lighthouse. Congratulations to Barry Dennis who was the overall winner of the 7th Hilton anual Golf Challenge, and thank you to Iain and Mairi Ross for organising such an enjoyable event.

learning on location

Here's a note from Stuart MacQuarrie. If you have any positive experiences of missional congregations while you are on holiday, let us know.

I've been surfing for a church when we're on holiday and reckon we might end up here: http://www.bcf-elim.com/
One thing that caught my eye was the community survey link. The questions are simple and in line with what we might want to do?: http://www.bcf-elim.com/community_survey_
They've just bought a premises and are reaching out to their community through it (The Life Centre). Hopefully we'll get along to their fellowship and I'll report back. It might be worth asking others that go away on holiday this year to keep their eye open for things that might work well in our own fellowship? A sort of Holidays experience as a missional journey and report back?

BP AND THE BIBLE

BP has slipped from the top of the news headlines this week, but if you want to read a fascinating post about BP's origins read here.

the nativity of john the baptist

Only 6 months to Christmas eve!

prayer walk

The room where the Kirk Session (elders) used to meet when I arrived in Hilton had a notice on the door "Session room" which conjured up some pretty amusing images of what might be happening at the meetings! The KS met last night and we shared together in a new experience. We went on a prayer walk around Hilton in pairs. We walked the streets for an hour, we talked together about what we were seeing and we silently prayed. It was a very positive experience and I'm sure we will do it again before too long. In fact, I'm going to start doing it regularly myself. Here's another example of this kind of practice.

no hymns

I've just been having an exchange of emails regarding songs for Sunday morning, and then noticed this post from Eternal Echoes. We don't sing hymns at our cafe services, and at our most recent one we put weekend newspapers at every table and sought to discover stories where we saw evidence of God at work. It would be an interesting challenge to have a Sunday morning service where there were no hymns or songs! How would people react? Can you have a real service of worship without songs? ( I think the answer is "Yes!") Something to think about.

TRUE TUBE

At the Rank meeting last night, I came across True Tube which looks like a great medium for encouraging discussion and reflection, especially among young people.

lighthouse garden

The lighthouse management team recently approved plans for the re-devlopment of the garden. The works are being co-ordinated by Emma Watson. We are currently trying to secure funding for some of the work, and we hope to be able to make a start before the end of the summer holiday.

gifts offered

A few weeks ago, as part of our worship, we invited the entire congregation to write down what gifts they felt they had to offer God as part of the church, and we filled jars at the front with all the gifts. Here are all the gifts laid out in front of a stunning Dot Walker painting. We have now recorded all the gifts offered, and we hope to represent them in some kind of painting or banner.

flowers

Some of the beautiful flowers around the font at Rebekah MacLean's recent baptism

PARISH DEVELOPMENT FUND

Yesterday, the Lighthouse also hosted a meeting of the Parish Development Fund. The Fund was set up in the wake of the Church without Walls Report, and has been very effective in supporting outreach projects in communities across Scotland. The Lighthouse received £40k from the Fund several years ago. Their confidence and support was vital in helping us to forge forward with our vision of developing the Lighthouse project.

Rank Foundation

Last night, we hosted a meeting of the Rank Foundation in the Lighthouse. The history of the Rank Foundation is fascinating, and the continuing story of how they support youth work across the UK is inspiring. I love the image of being a pebble in a pond.

golf challenge

The anual golf challenge takes place at Torvean golf club tomorrow evening over 8 holes with first tee off times from 5pm. There is a bbq and prize giving taking place at the Lighthouse from 8pm onwards. As always, the golf is more about having fun than anything else. For several folk it is their anual game of golf!

MSM

The final Saturday of MSM took place this last weekend. It's been a privilege to have had over 40 folk each month sharing in the course at Hilton Church. It has also been a sharp learning curve for me in terms of teaching on a course like MSM, along with John & Olive Drane. Michelle and Alison have done an outstanding job in providing all the catering for these events. There is a commissioning day at Hilton Church in early September, and after that the challenge will be to take all we have learnt, and apply it in seeking to establish fresh expressions of Church across the North of Scotland.

Bana Trust

It's Bana Trust all the way this weekend with Robyn Hammond sharing in both services. At the morning service, her daughter Rorisang will be baptised. In the evening, we will have an African cafe experience together. The trustees are inviting folk to bring along baking. It should be a great day.

Lighthouse opening

The evening are slowly picking up at the Lighthouse cafe. Word is beginning to spread and from very quiet evenings, there are now quite a few there each evening. From expereince it takes quite a bit of time to build up awareness and custom, so hopefully it will be quite busy by the end of the summer. Pass the word on!

Catch up

I'm not sure if it's the good weather, the amount of football on the TV or just a sense of weariness, but I haven't had much time for the blog recently. I'm looking forward to a holiday soon. There has been a lot happening lately. There was an excellent article in the Courier yesterday highlighting a recent presentation on Euthanasia by Stephen Hutchison and Jeremy Keen to the Scottish Parliament. Here are the results of the consultation regarding Margo MacDonald's bill.

ALADDIN

Last night I was at Hilton Primary School for the opening night of the musical Aladdin. It was a quite astonishing performance by all the children. It was hard to believe that this was a production by a Primary School. The individual performances, the dancers, the choir, the set, the sound and the lights were all of an exceptional standard. Great credit has to go to Chris Watt who has worked so hard over the past 9 months producing this wonderful experience for the children and everybody associated with the school. It's on again tonight, with a final performance tomorrow evening. Well worth going, if you can get a ticket.

LIGHTHOUSE

I'm just back from tonights lighthouse management team meeting. It's always such an encouraging time. Income from the cafe is up, booking from the rooms have increased significantly, and there were quite a number of folk in the cafe as well this evening. Our major project ahead is re-development of the garden. Emma Watson presented a fantastic plan for the garden to the Board and we hope to take this forward as soon as we possibly can. Volunteers for the cafe during the daytime remains a challenging issue, so we need to continue to highlight this opportunity for service in the weeks ahead.

story telling

Jonathan and I have been thinking quite a bit about story telling in a variety of different contexts. If this is something which interests you, here is a helpful looking website on story telling.

WORSHIP at HILTON

Over the past few weeks that have been a significant number of pleas for help and involvement in various areas of ministry. I thought it would be good to give people the opportunity to find out more about these ministries and to have additional time and space to respond.This Sunday morning we are going to begin Sunday worship with hospitality on the lawn and all the various groups will be present at tables to share their work. Romans 12 talks about offering our bodies in worship and service. The time on the lawn will be a real opportunity to offer our worship.

iphone service

Albert Bogle has hit the headlines this week with news of his services being streamed via pc or iphones. On Sunday, as well as his real time congregation, 198 people watched the morning service and another 54 in the evening.

Top 10 volunteering trips

I see that the Vine Trust has made it into the Observor's Top 10 volunteering trips.

BP & JUSTICE

My sermon tomorrow has among other things ended up reflecting on the justice issues related to oil exploration in the world today. Here's a helpful post on the issue, and the clip above doesn't really require any comment.

facebook

The Lighthouse is now on facebook. Michelle is very excited that we have almost immediately gained 40 friends. May you make many more friends, Michelle in the coming days!

CELTIC DAILY PRAYER

Since the beginning of advent, Celtic Daily Prayer has been a significant inspiration in my life in terms of its prayers and readings. At the moment, the focus in the daily readings is on the sayings of the Desert Fathers. This one has had me thinking:

"If you are able to revive the dead, but not be willing to be reconciled to your neighbour - it is better to leave the dead in the grave."

I also see that Roy Searle is now blogging.

And while we're on a Celtic theme, here's an interesting opportunity. I've been meaning to go to Northumbria on retreat for ages, but there always seems to be something which gets in the way.

CAP

We have Gordy MacKay from Christians against Poverty sharing at our morning service this weekend. At a time when severe cuts in spending across society are about to be made, this may be a very timely visit.

MAF AUCTION

A late reminder of the MAF auction taking place tonight in the Large Hall of Hilton Church from 7pm onwards. Jean Green is an outstanding ambassador for MAF, and hopefully the auction will raise much needed funds for this worthy cause.

Missional in Suburbia

“what segment of the community that surrounds your church would seriously miss you if you suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth over night?”

Quite a question to ponder from this new website called Missional in Suburbia . The clip above is also very thought provoking.

AWAKEN!

I've just been responding to a request for links to various sites with quality video resources for Christian worship. This clip which we used recently in worship at Hilton really gives me a lift every time I watch it. Here's another good one.

St Columba's NCD

A meeting of the leadership team (Commision ) for St Columba's NCD takes place tonight.Here are a few points for prayer in these early stages:

1. Please remember thankfully the Ministry and witness over the years of the congregation of St Columba High and the influence it has had on the City.
2. Pray for those of the former congregation who have indicated they are not transporting to the new church – that they will quickly find a home in another congregation.
3. Thank God for the provision of the locum Minister, Rev.Tony Livesley and pray for him as he seeks to bring God’s word fresh each week.
4. Thank God for the provision of a place to temporarily meet in Holm Primary School.
5. Thank God for the connections made by the Audit team with those living in the new Parish, praying these might be built upon as we share the findings of the Audit report with the community groups and community councils which are at work in the Parish.
6. Pray that as we start to think about the process of calling a minister that at every step we would be following the leading of God’s Spirit.
7. Pray for the leadership of the new charge, the New Charge Commission and those leaders emerging within the congregation; that they would be united and discern the leading of the Holy Spirit in the establishing of the new church.
8. Pray for the provision of workers – that there would be enough people to share in God’s work, as we seek to serve and bring the message of hope, love and forgiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that see a harvest for Him.

energy saving trust

There are some very generous grants available through the Scottish Government for improvements to heatings and insulation. I know of one situation locally, where a couple recieved £4000 worth of heating improvements including a new boiler. There are obviously some limits to the assistance linked to age and other factors, but it may be worth your while having a look at the website and finding out more. It may be a real benefit to an elderly member of your family or a neighbour.

LIGHTHOUSE

The Lighthouse is now open in the evenings from 6.30-9.30pm. As expected, it has been a pretty slow start, but we would hope that the numbers will go up steadily as word travels. Our main vehicle of advertising has been word of mouth.We would be grateful if you could pass the word around, of an excellent venue to meet friends for coffee and cakes for a leisurely time together.

Wisdom and Magic - Leadership in Education and Life

If you have an hour to spare, here is a lecture worth watching.

SOUND & AV

Hilton Church tends to operate in terms of 6 months blocks when it comes to planning for worship. This morning I am working on a plan for preaching and preachers from June to December. This plan is complicated by the fact that I am now also involved in leading Sunday Club every second Sunday morning (so I am working on that in parallel)!

At the same time, Elaine Watt is also organising the worship bands and those responsible for sound and av. We are facing a crisis in the realm of av/sound, in that we have relatively few volunteers in relation to all the services planned. It may well be that we end up with lots of blanks on the plan and just have to sort it out on an ad hoc basis. We'll keep highlighting the opportunity for service, and leave the outcomes to God to sort out. I'm quite sure there are plenty of people within our congregation who are more than capable of helping, the challenge for us is to work out how to encourage and nurture greater involvement.

On a broader level, I'm wondering whether the challenge to find volunteers is saying something to us more broadly about the shape and nature of our worship and community. Perhaps we have to look more closely at forms of worship which demand less of people in terms of doing stuff. Food for thought and prayer as we look forward to the summer months.

picnic postponed

The rain began falling heavily on Saturday afternoon, and the weather today has been pretty poor too. We decided to postpone the church picnic until 20th June which is Fathers Day. Hopefully we will get a sunny day next time around.

Generosity

This morning we looked at the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17. We thought about generosity and welcome to the stranger, and we also thought about the gifts we have to share. The service included an opportunity to write down the gifts we believe we have to offer, and to place them in jars at the front. It was encouraging to see 5 empty jars filled with gifts. I used some of Steve's ideas in creationary and I would love to have used the stations in mustard seed, but the numbers and the space available make it very difficult. By the way, on the theme of strangers, there is a truly remarkable story on Robyn's blog.

Final munro

I've just been out for my first hillwalk of 2010,Beinn na Lap. It's a remote munro which included a train journey from Tulloch to Corrour. On our way back down, we met a group of 92 who were there to celebrate one of the parties final munro!

New Lighthouse volunteer

Here's Michelle inducting a new recruit to the cafe on Thursday afternoon. It's great to have Brian Irvine sharing in the life of the Lighthouse, and I'm sure he will have the coffee making down to a fine art before too long!

Mission after Christendom

I've just come across an interesting site called Nomad. The link includes an interview with Stuart Murray, who is one of the leading thinkers and practitioners on mission within a post Christendom society.

edinburgh 2010

A conference is taking place in Edinburgh this week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World Missions Conference 1910. You can find out about it here, and if you're awake early on Sunday morning, John Sentamu is preaching.

SUNDAY CLUB

Andrea Boyes and I have just had a meeting with Morag Macritchie who has been leading Sunday club for the last 3 years. Morag has done an outstanding job over these years, and is handing over at the end of June. But to who? Well that has been a major question for everyone to wrestle with over the past few months. Despite being a relatively large gathering of people, no-one who has been approached has accepted the invitation to lead.

At Hilton church we have no shortage of preachers on Sunday mornings, but we clearly have a major deficit in Sunday club leadership, so for the next period of time I am going to lead Sunday club on alternate Sundays together with Andrea. It will give me a new experience of leadership, help me to understand some of the issues which are perhaps discouraging folk from taking on leadership in this area, and best of all, it will give me an opportunity to get to know the children better.

I'll keep you posted on how we are getting on, and we would value your prayers for wisdom and insight as we seek to lead according to the gifts we have been given.

...and engagement

Congratulations to Jennifer Stephen and Ruaraidh Morrison on their recent engagement. They are getting married on 16th October, so Annice will now be in search of a new hat!

births....

Congratulations to Scott and Jessie on the birth last week of Leo Angus Colin. Baby Leo weighed in at a very healthy 8 pounds and 11 ounces. They are all now back in Skye, but we look forward to welcoming Leo together with his proud parents at Hilton Church in the near future.

changing your mind

I noticed a little snippet in the paper this morning which highlighted a radical change of mind.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Laurence Cload has done an excellent job since taking over as our H&S Officer. Last night we adopted a H&S policy statement which sets the bar very high in terms of our commitment to providing a safe enviroment for all who use our buildings.There was one discussion , however, at the Board which had me just shaking my head. From time to time, we do have situations where an elderly person may faint or take a turn during a service. Someone wisely suggested that it may be helpful to have a stretcher for such occasions in the building. A perfectly sensible course of action you may have thought. But there is a major problem inherent in such a plan. To use a stretcher in such a scenario, all the stretcher bearers need to go on a training course! I ask you!! What next do voluntary bodies have to do to be compliant with H&S? What if there are only 3 qualified stretcher bearers the next time somebody collapses? There are so many requirements made now in terms of H&S that it is hardly surprising that the number of people prepared to go through all these hoops is getting smaller and smaller in the voluntary sector. In my opinion the lose to society as a whole is much greater than the minimal risks that all the legislation is trying to minimise.

Board matters

At the Board meeting tonight, the main decision centred around re-wiring the church buildings. The cost will be in excess of £10,000. We are also projecting a deficit of £4000 based on our expected normal outcome, so we will have to give some consideration to how we are going to increase our income or decrease our costs.

We also continued to reflect on and discuss our vision for our buildings for the years ahead. I think it would be fair to say that we have a significant amount of work to do in terms of working this out. Over the next period of time, we plan to do a community audit to clearly establish what the local needs are and to encourage prayerful consideration of the issue within the congregation. It was interesting to hear the various views within the Board, and I look forward to seeing how this process unfolds over the coming months and years. On a more general level, it's really encouraging to be part of such an outstanding group of people within the Board who demonstrate a high level of commitment to enabling the ministry of Hilton Parish Church to go forward in a very positive way.

trinity sunday

What an amazing image on visual theology for trinity sunday.

NAIRN BEACH

We are all hoping and praying for good weather this coming Sunday. After the morning service we are all going for a picnic to Nairn Beach East. Last year the weather was superb.

...from the manse

Great to see that Rob& Gwen are now blogging....from the manse!

CREATIONARY

I often highlight Steve Taylor's blog, and yet again he has come up with a new stream of posts called Creationary. I'm going to try some of his ideas here this Sunday. For all those reading this blog who are going to be present on Sunday morning, can you bring a twig/piece of stick to share during worship. Try to chose a piece which won't get you arrested on the way to church!

NEW OPENING HOURS@LIGHTHOUSE

Today is the day! The Lighthouse opens this evening from 6.30- 9.30pm and in the mornings from 9am -3pm.

LIGHTHOUSE GARDEN

There was another very positive meeting for the garden on Friday. Emma Watson hopes to have a couple of plans drawn up in the near future for further comment.