Sunday Club Christmas Party 2010

Santa pays a visit to the Sunday Club party this afternoon.

the dance of the trinity

I'll be tuning in to Strictly Come Dancing tonight, and I hope Matt wins! I thought his dance last Saturday night was amazing. Here's a little post about dance which was in my mind as I watched the sheer beauty of the dance.

Parent & Toddler Christmas

The snow has returned, and there is more forecast. Parent & Toddlers Christmas service and party took place despite the weather. It was great to have Chris and Out of the Box sharing in this time.

ethical shopping

BLUE CHRISTMAS

Many congregations are holding Blue Christmas services at this time of year, recognising that for many people this time is especially hard. Here's a very poignant song which was played at one of these services.

INVEST

We hosted part of the one year course at the Lighthouse this year. An intensive long weekend course is being offered in February for anyone who is specifically drawn towards church planting.

digital nativity

Michelle Tumes

I've spent most of today planning towards the various services for Christmas. I often look at Mustard Seeds for inspiration and today I discovered the music of Michelle Tumes.

soul survivor 2011

Already, we are looking towards 2011 and planning........

You might be thinking that it's way to early to be thinking about next summer - we've not even survived Christmas yet!
But here's the thing... if your child(ren) wants to attend Soul Survivor next summer, if you get your ticket before the end of January you'll get it for £81 - a saving of £18! That's not to be sniffed at.
Soul Survivor 2010 proved a really significant event for the teenagers who were there. Everyone in Nitelife's invited (S3-S6). Basically, if you don't know, it's 5 days camping (29th July-2nd August) with about 4,000 fellow teenagers, spent worshipping God, learning from his Word and being changed by his Spirit. Oh, and it's at Stafford Showground and it's great fun. If you think this is something your child would be interested in you can find out more at http://www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/ss2011/index.html.
And, as I say, you can save £18 per ticket if you book and pay in full before 28th January.

carols for christmas

Well done to all the carol singers from Hilton Church, who successfully raised £300 for the Vine Trust in their hour of singing at the Eastgate Centre on Saturday morning. The songs are also a reminder of what Christmas is all about, as Colin Wilson reports

EVENINGS 2011

I have returned from the Lausanne Capetown Conference with so many different experiences and insights which I would like to share. The best forum for sharing the experience is not an ordinary service, but one which makes it easier for the congregation to share together and discuss their own responses. We also need a venue which has good multi media facilities.To fit in with all that criteria,, we are shifting the evening services for 6 Sundays from 12th January from the Church to the Lighthouse. It will be an interesting experiment to actually change the venue of the service.

ALL AGE CAROL SERVICE

We are continually in a process of experimentation, (like the image above!) trying in a variety of different ways to encourage a deeper and fuller engagement with all the many and varied themes of advent. This Sunday night, we are holding an informal carol service from 6-7 pm. We hope that this will be an opportunity for many people to come together to sing the well known Christmas carols. We will be serving hot drinks as folk arrive, and we are inviting the congregation to bring along mince pies/cakes to share as part of the experience. We are starting slightly earlier than normal, (6pm)in the hope that it might be as accessable as possible for a wide age range.

concert for joy

Music for Joy is always an opportunity for expanding my musical range and this year was no exception. Today I've been listening to Secret Garden. Last night, Elaine Kirkham , Catherine O'Rourke and Aileen Thomson played a couple of their tunes including Hymn to Hope. I've also been dipping into some of Jeremy's poetry last night which included Brendan Kennelly, Simon Armitage, Wendy Cope and Steve Turner. The final song at the concert sung by Julie was quite awesome - TIME TO SAY GOODBYE.

3rd Sunday in Advent

A special day for the Cload family today with Hazel's baptism. We also had a wonderful time of worship led by David Whillis. The sermon will be on line within the next 24 hours, and is well worth having a listen to.

IAIN WHITE

Hi,
Sorry to trouble you in the midst of December & Advent and all (so why have you troubled us? you ask). Just to give forewarning that Ian White (known to many throughout the Highlands - music appreciated throughout the world) an old university friend of mine - is about to start a Silver Jubilee Tour (25 years of writing and performing Christian music). He is coming to Drumnadrochit on Friday 11th February to do a concert in our Church (Urquhart & Glenmoriston Church IV63 6UG) at 7.30pm. I'm guessing loads of people will want to know - he is not planning to come to Eden Court this time - or anywhere else in Inverness. Concert is free (donations) - check out littlemistymusic.com
Thanks for your help at a busy time
Hugh Watt

music for joy

Another wonderful concert tonight - joy is an apt title for the evening. I can't read a musical note, but for over 2 hours I was entranced by every performance. The only pity is that it is a whole year until the next one! Perhaps we can encourage Julie and Jeremy to start having one for spring/summer as well.

advent activities

It's only Saturday afternoon, and already there has been a variety of different events and activities this weekend. Thank's to Dougie and Mhairi Robinson for donating the Christmas tree from their garden, and to Brian Fraser who transported it to the church. Shona decorated it last night and Jonathan "reached for the stars" and just managed to get the star on the top of the tree. This morning, a choir from the church, led by Audrey Whyte ( who has just arrived back from Peru) sang for an hour, and hopefully raised some funds for the Vine Trust. Last night, Ceildh for a Cause filled the large hall with a large number of young people. Tonight, at 7.30pm it's Music For Joy.

I WAS A STRANGER

Here is a truly remarkable picture from Dot Walker.

ALIVE FESTIVAL

Something else I also learnt about last night was the ALIVE FESTIVAL scheduled for June 2011. Alive Ministry have been organising occasional concerts over the past couple of years with worship leaders like Noel Richards. Their latest venture is of a completely different order, and the programme reads like a "whose who" of speakers and worship leaders who you would want to go and see. Alive Ministry is one more exciting sign of Christians across the Inverness area having a vision beyond their own congregation. This Festival will be a great gift and resource to the Church across the Highlands and I hope that it has the success and support it deserves.

St Columba NCD

Last night I was at the leadership team meeting (Commission) for St Columba NCD. I've missed the last couple of meetings because of study leave, but in the interim, there has been a significant amount happening. An alpha course has been running each Sunday which has been well attended, there is a very dynamic prayer gathering happening each week, and the closing date for the Ministers post is 31st January 2011. There is a very committed and gifted core group of leaders within this congregation, and I'm sure that whatever happens in 2011, the new congregation are in for an exciting journey ahead.

LIGHTHOUSE

On Wednesday evening, we had one of our regular Lighthouse management team meetings The general mood music for the Lighthouse is one of steady and encouraging progress. The Lighthouse cafe remains busy during the day. The evenings so far haven't taken off as we would have hoped, and we still have plenty of capacity in relation to room use. Our discussions highlighted the need for someone within our team who has marketing skills. We really need someone who has a little time each week to raise awareness across the area of the services which the Lighthouse has to offer. At the moment, I'm praying and thinking about who may be able to bring that skill to our team! Could it be you?

GREENBELT

Over lunch today, conversations turned to the amazing and wonderful experience that is Greenbelt. I've been for the last 2 years, and have enjoyed it so much. Camping for a weekend on the race course at Cheltenham seems a million miles away as we shiver up here in Inverness at the moment. I heard some great talks this year, including this one from Mike Yaconelli.

CAPETOWN 2010

Capetown is set in a beautiful location with Table Mountain towering above it. I'm a keen hillwalker, so one of my hopes was to get to the summit of Table Mountain on foot. Jamie Grant was also very enthusiastic to do the climb, so we took a taxi from the Convention Centre to the starting point for the walk. Two hours later we reached the summit, but sadly the weather had closed in, and we had no view. The views on the way up, however, were excellent ( as you can see) and it was much more rewarding to climb than to take the cable car.

sacred space

Too busy to think?
Too busy to pray?
No room for sacred space in your life?
We want to help.

Saturday January 22nd - 7am to 10pm The Lighthouse.
Come and experience a conversation with God.
P.S. you can come for a minute or the whole day or anywhere in between. You can even join us from home. All are welcome
Speak to Stuart MacQ. for more info.

THE BIG SILENCE

Now that "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" is over (mercifully!), could I recommend a much more life changing reality TV programme. I watched the final episode of THE BIG SILENCE, and the impact of silence on each of the participants was actually quite remarkable.

John the Baptist is a major focus of the lectionary readings in this week of advent. He spent a lot of time in silent places out in the desert. I'm inclined to think that we need to look for places of silence, not only in the desert, but in the midst of our frantic lives. If the lives of the participants of the The Big Silence are anything to go by, the impact will be very positive.

trust me on this!

The arguments continue over higher education at Westminster. Labour introduced tution fees, and now the Con Dems want to triple them. It is undoubtedly the case, whatever spin politicians want to put on it, that these costs will be a major disincentive to students from poorer families - that's why I'm writing about it here. Despite all the policies aimed at helping the poorest in our society, the gap between rich and poor has never been wider. But beyond that, this whole controversy has raised the question of trust within politics. The Lib Dems were elected on a pledge to oppose tuition fees. Now their leaders are voting in favour of them! This article by Jim Gordon sums up the sad state of affairs we have reached in our public life.

LAUSANNE CAPETOWN 2010

I had 12 very memorable days in Capetown in October. My time there was centred around attending the Lausanne Conference, a gathering of 4000 Christian leaders from nearly 200 countries. I have returned to Hilton Church with plenty of fresh inspiration, and I intend to use a series of Sunday evenings in early 2011, to share more fully about the key themes of the Conference. More information about this will follow in due course. Over the next few days I'll try and give you a flavour of CT 2010 through some of my pictures.

homegroups

I was delighted to be invited along this morning to share in the advent celebrations at Brian and Marea's homegroup. This group has met fortnightly for many years, and is a great source of encouragement and blessing for all those involved. The anual advent celebration is always a high point in the year. You can't beat a good warm glass of muld wine and I can't speak highly enough of Marea's meringues!

Fear for Pakistan's death row Christian woman

There is growing concern over the fate of a Christian woman on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy. The BBC's Orla Guerin reports from Punjab Province.

VOLUNTEERS

I asked for help from the elders yesterday setting up the communion service,and received an excellent response in terms of several turning up at 9am. I then asked for help with picking up a christmas tree for the church during this coming week, and have been inundated with verbal and email offers of help. Sometimes it feels like a bit of an uphill challenge finding people to help in various aspects of the congregations life, but these two situations have been exceptionally heartening. Thank you to everyone who offered to help, and thank you to so many people who do so much in a whole variety of different ways within the congregation.

congratulations

christians in sport

Hi friends in Inverness

Hope you are all well and coping with the big freeze!

Just wanted to remind you of three important dates in the New Year to get in your diary.

1. Next Inverness PPS group is on Wednesday 19th January – I’m hoping to be there so would love to see you and your friends. Please make a big effort to be there. We are in danger of having to stop the Inverness group due to lack of numbers which would be very sad

2. ‘Champions event’ is on Saturday 29th January in the Aquadome’s sports centre from 10am-12.30pm. This is an outreach event - a multi-sport tournament which gives you the chance to invite friends along, compete against other teams, and hear a half-time gospel talk. My colleague Wellsy and some of our gap year students will be helping run the event which is in conjunction with ‘Roots’. It will be a great morning and there are already 7 teams booked in. I have reserved a team for you and your friends so first come-first served – get back to me asap to book a place – it costs NOTHING! Teams must consist of between 5-7 players and must include at least 2 juniors (1st-2nd yrs) and 2 seniors (3rd-6th yrs). See flier and booking form attached.

3. For those in the 4th-6th year age bracket I would really encourage you to come to our Sports Plus Xtra weekend from 11th-13th February. This is being held at the BB headquarters in Larbert (nr Falkirk). Lots of sport, banter, friendship and a great opportunity to get God’s word open together and learn what it has to say to us today. Again I have attached the booking form.

Any questions on any of the above do get back to me and remember to book early for Champions.

Go well friends,
Kirsten

A WHITE WEDDING

It's certainly going to be a white wedding for Amy and Alex who get married tomorrow at 1.30pm in Ardross Church. It has been exceptionally cold this week, so there is plenty of snow around, but hopefully there won't be any more before tomorrow. The picture is of the band rehearsing for the wedding this afternoon.

HOPE

Hope is the theme for this Sunday's service, centred around Romans 15 v13. It's my first sermon after a significant break on study leave. It's always a bit of a challenge getting back into the way of preparing for Sunday, even after a short break, so I'm glad to be nearly organised by Friday lunchtime. I couldn't help thinking about this song - IN CHRIST ALONE MY HOPE IS FOUND - as I tried to focus on the overflowing hope that Paul speaks of.

l

SAINTS DAY

Within the Celtic Daily Prayer there are regular Saints Days - days to remember specific people who lived heroic Christian lives. Today Jean Donovan is remembered. In her short life, she displayed so much courage in her efforts to help many oppressed people in El Salvador.

bana trust

Dear Friends
It is with mixed emotions that I share with you my decision to return to Scotland. I have felt for some time now that, whilst I am privileged to have had the opportunity to work with the boys on the street and to do the job I have been doing, I have to consider my children, particularly Palesa, who is at the age where things start to matter.
I have prayed about this decision, and have not made it lightly. I trust that I am hearing what God is saying and that I am moving in His will. I believe that the signs He is sending me are very clear, and I have a great sense of peace about it.
We hope to be home by the end of the year, and I am very much looking forward to being amongst family and friends once more.
Please keep an eye out for the next newsletter for more details on how the boys are doing and on our decision to move home.
With love
Robyn and the girls

ready steady slow

"To play it safe is not to play" Robert Altman.

One of the quotes from the READY STEADY SLOW website for Christmas, which contains a video reflection for each day of advent beginning today.

2 minutes on preaching

We are now entering the 3rd and final cycle of the Lectionary readings, which we began at advent 2008. This time next year, we will perhaps look at a new structure to follow for a while. Here's a possible way forward from brian mclaren.

sermons

We were discussing preaching and teaching last night in our kirk session meeting, and one of the elders shared his practice of downloading sermon podcasts to listen to during the week as he travels back and fore to work. A particular favourite was Tim Keller who I heard during my recent visit to the Lausanne Conference in Capetown. I've just taken a look at the website, and I think I will be downloading a few sermons myself in the near future.

Senior Citizens Advent Gathering

The pastoral care team held an afternoon tea for senior citizens today, which was enjoyed by everyone who came along. It was the first time such an event had taken place. Another one is planned for St Valentines Day.

MUSIC FOR JOY

The anual MUSIC FOR JOY concert takes place on Saturday,11th December at 7.30pm in the Church. You can see my post from last year on it here. It is a truly wonderful concert which I would really encourage you to experience, if you haven't been before. Tickets can be purchased at the Church this Sunday or you can email julieandjeremy@braemore5.wanadoo.co.uk for more information.

winter evening services

Just back from this evening's kirk session which had a variety of interesting discussions. We discussed how to make a decision about the evening service in the light of the potential for a long hard snowy winter. We decided that if the weather was bad and the forecast was poor, we would seek to make a decision before the close of the morning service. If the service wasn't cancelled in the morning, we would hold the evening service, with the proviso that no-one should feel under any pressure to attend, even if that meant having no musicians or welcomers or tea makers. Maybe we won't have any such decision to make this winter, but at least it's good now to have a plan in place.

ADVENT BOOKS

Over the last couple of years I have shared here and here about the books I have been reading to guide my thoughts during advent. This year, I have chosen two books to read, GOD IS IN THE MANGER and READY STEADY SLOW. I'll keep you posted on how I'm getting along.

advent 2010

It's the first Sunday in advent 2010, and for the third year in succession Jonathan has come up with another stonking idea for the children - this time with a real live tardis in the church! We had a great service of worship this morning, and if you're looking for an inspiring message for the beginning of advent, look no further than Morag Macritchie's wonderful talk this morning - "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" It should be here within the next 24 hours.

SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE

The evening service was cancelled because of the weather tonight for only the second time in 15 years. The last time was on the Sunday before Christmas last year. The road conditions today are pretty treacherous, and we didn't want to have folk risking life and limb after dark coming to a service. If this bad weather is going to continue over the winter, we will need to work out some protocol for cancelling services. We phoned around and we also put a message out on facebook. We have a Leadership Team meeting on Tuesday night, so we can discuss it there. Hopefully, most people got the message.

Church Buildings

You may have noticed the occasional post on the blog throughout this year, highlighting that the Congregational Board and Kirk Session have been reflecting on several issues relating to the buildings of Hilton Church. At this morning's service we launched a month long consultation for the whole congregation to engage in the discussion. With the upkeep and development of church buildings being the responsibility of, and only possible due to the contributions of the congregation, we want everyone to be able to have their say on how they think we should move forward. Some of the challenges during the Board's reflection on buildings has been the acknowledgement that we need to consider the future development and use of our buildings, against the reality that no specific plan or vision for a major redevelopment has become clear so far, and the current economic situation may well affect any fundraising efforts. So we've focussed the consultation around priorities. What are your TOP THREE PRIORITIES for improvement of our buildings?

There are a number of ways you can have your say:

• Paper forms are available in the church to fill in and leave in the boxes at tables in the foyer and large hall
• Email your suggestions to buildings@hiltonchurch.org.uk
• Comment and join the discussion online with our special Buildings Blog at www.hiltonchurchbuildings.blogspot.com (links on church blog and website)
• Chat to board members over coffee after services
• Join a focus/vision/planning group for ongoing reflection on buildings (email as above)
  
  

Everyone's views are equally important to us. So whether you think we should completely rebuild the church buildings, or think they're fine just as they are, or anything in between, please do let us know.

Mike Robertson
Congregational Board Chairman

Lausanne Capetown

This will be my last post for some time as I leave on Wednesday for the Lausanne Capetown Conference. This post captures the magnitude of the conference. I think it will be a once in a life time experience, and I look forward to telling you all about it in due course. The only downside I noted in this morning's email from the conference organisers were their words regarding dress code - "business casual or national dress!" At least it's not "robes required" as the invitations from Presbytery used to state. This was always a bit of a problem for me, as I don't possess any robes. I suppose I can go out and buy some slighty smarter clothes than I ordinary wear before I leave tomorrow!

Thank you

After a lectionary reading which highlighted the importance of saying "thank you", I want to say a massive "thank you" to Simon Varwell who performed heroics today with our visuals. The internet went down, so all my various clips on 10 10 10 were nolonger available. Thankfully we were able to go to the Lighthouse next door for internet access, and download the clips onto a USB and then take them back to the church. I could have done without that stress minutes before the service, and without Simon's knowledge and skill the outcome would have been very different.

10 10 10 - what's your promise?

10 10 10

Ceildh Bands

I was at Jodie & Muir's wedding reception last night. The Band for the ceildh who are called RhythmnReel were quite outstanding. There are certainly no shortage of good ceildh bands around these days. Skipinish and Meantime are two other bands which come to mind from various events over the years.

Wedding

Congratulations to Muir and Jody who were married at Cawdor Church this afternoon. Jody's late grandmother Evelyn was a much loved elder within the congregation.

TED TALKS

I came across some TED talks last night, and was impressed by the quality of them. I was also struck by the fact that these talks have a maximum length of 18 minutes. Why?

It’s long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention..... ....By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to really think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.

I'm wondering whether this is a discipline we need to follow in relation to our preaching? How long can the average person comfortably listen to a speaker? I don't think it would be much more than 18 minutes.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu ends public career

In a week when my thoughts are turning to South Africa, here's a short film on the life of Desmond Tutu who is bowing out of public life at the age of 79.

LAUSANNE CAPETOWN 2010

Jamie Grant and I are both heading to Capetown for the Lausanne Conference next week. I don't know about any of the other 5000 participants, but I have found it very difficult to make time to read through all the various papers. I've just spent an hour reading through the programme alone! Chris Wright (above) gives a helpful commentary on the Lausanne Covenant. In his blog he writes about his hopes for Capetown.

Before we go out to the world, we must come back to the Lord
Before we try to change the world, we must change our own hearts and our ways (Jer. 7:3-8)
Before we take the words of the gospel to the world, we must take with us words of confession to God (Hos. 14:1-2).
Before we get off our seats to seek the lost, we must get on our knees to seek the Lord.

I have now managed to read through most of the papers for days 1-3, and work out which ones I am going to focus on. There are some really outstanding papers.

Youth weekend away

Very encouraging to hear such positive reports about the youth weekend away in Altnacriche. We had 33 teenagers away with a further 7 not able to go for one reason or another. I don't think many of us realised we had that number of youth in our congregation! I also heard rave reviews about the catering, and especially about the Sunday dinner. A big thank you to Margaret Lamond and Sandra MacKenzie for all their hard work in the kitchen, and to all the leaders who helped to make it such an enjoyable weekend.

Sunday morning

An early start to Sunday morning as usual, putting the finishing touches to today's service. We are going to be thinking about the place of lament within our lives. I think it may feel a bit quieter than normal at Hilton Church this morning as 33 of our youth along with Jonathan and some of the other leaders are away for the weekend in Aviemore. Over the years, we have generally had a pretty small number of teenagers at Hilton. It has been really encouraging over the past year to see very significant growth in this area, and to have such a large gathering of them heading away for the weekend.

fischy music

We had the great pleasure of welcoming Fischy Music (www.fischy.com) to Hilton and Cauldeen Primaries on Monday. This was an event organised by the Youth Project that was very well received by both schools, so much so that both assistant head-teachers voiced their hope to have them back in the near future.
Sandy Butler and Joanna Jeffries were the staff members and they engaged with the kids superbly. In Hilton they led a workshop for the p6 and 7s. They wrote a song with them exploring things they liked doing and exploring what it means to like themselves. After that, they lead a whole school concert which was great. It’s quite rare that the whole of Hilton Primary get together as they tend to separate their assemblies into junior and senior slots. So the atmosphere was great and, as always, Fischy Music did so much more than just sing some songs, boosting the children’s self-esteem and exploring and promoting their emotional, spiritual and social well-being.
The same format was employed in the afternoon at Cauldeen, this time with a workshop for the p1s and 2s. It was incredible to see how they could adapt their material for use with such a different age group than they’d had in the morning. The whole school concert there was a huge hit too.
In all it was a super day and I left Sandy and Joanna looking forward to doing the same thing all over again at Kinmylies and Muirtown Primaries the following day. It was a day the children and the teachers (who were jumping and dancing and clapping too) will not forget for a while.
Jonathan.