INVEST

Here's a note from Alan MacWilliam about an excellent course on church planting which has been running for several years, and has used the Lighthouse as one of its weekend venues:

Invest is a year long course for pioneer church planters based on five residential weekends. We are now in the process of taking in applications for the 2011-2012 course. We wanted to alert you to this opportunity now since we have limited places available for the course, which starts in September.

We have just completed the 6th year of Invest, which now gives us thirty eight students who have passed through the course. These people have gone on to plant churches and set up new initiatives with a missional focus as well as being successful in procuring jobs with specific requirements for developing missional and emerging church opportunities.

Invest moves students from a place of having good information to being in a position to really move forward and pioneer new and imaginative missional initiatives.

For further information, please check out our website (www.investscotland.org.uk) where you can also pick up the application form.

NEW DAYLIGHT

I was very kindly given a complimentary copy of NEW DAYLIGHT, which contains 4 months of daily bible readings and comment. I have now followed it for about 6 weeks, and have found the daily comments to be well written and thoroughly stimulating. The last 2 weeks have been centred around the theme of Messy Faith, which resonated with me and my experience of faith. BRF have a wide variety of daily reading notes, and if you are looking around for something to help you, take a look here.

andrew walls

"Andrew Walls may be the most important person you don't know." Walls was a revered lecturer in the religious studies department of Aberdeen University when I studied there many years ago. I found this fascinating link to him here, and then read this article about him here.

"Western theology has pursued an inward-focused, intellectual, and pastoral agenda rather than outward-looking evangelistic and missional agenda … As Western theology moved into the university and was professionalized, it became increasingly detached from ecclesial reality and cultural context."

Steve Taylor has a very challenging post here, which raises some significant questions to think about.

messy church

I think we are now in a season at Hilton Church where we are re-evaluating what we are currently doing in terms of worship and services on a Sunday. We are asking whether we need to make some changes. Perhaps we don't, but it's important to be at least asking the questions. The landscape of a Sunday has changed beyond recognition over the past two decades in Inverness, but little has changed in terms of the way we do church or the times when we do it. I have been asked by the leadership within the congregation to sketch out a few possible ways in which we could re-think Sunday. I'll perhaps try and share a few ideas over the coming weeks. Perhaps we could have a greater focus on sharing food as part of our experience of worship. Are 10am and 6.30pm good times for services? Could we offer a variety of different servies and teaching streams in the morning, and not have an evening service? Could we offer a service on a different day of the week?Could we explore different approaches to worship such as Messy Church? I don't think we will be making any large scale changes, but I suspect we will use the next year to experiment in a variety of different directions. If you have any ideas or thoughts, I would be delighted to hear from you.

duncan@hiltonchurch.org.uk

60 plus

Northumbria Community

If you ever feel yourself to be in need of spiritual refreshment, I would highly recommend a visit to the Northumbria Community. I recently spent several days at the new Mother House, If you are interested, here's the programme for the rest of 2011.

new tables

We have bought some new wooden tables for the garden. All we need now is some better weather!

a summer in orkney

Good to hear that Andrea Boyes has arrived safely in Rousay, and is settling well into her summer placement.

church outing to nairn beach

alive ministry

Hi Friends
I hope you don't mind me contacting you directly.
We are coming to the end of our Festival week, and what a really blessed time we have had, with great evenings and fellowship together!
This Saturday sees the week end with a Worship Evening in the Ironworks from 5.30pm, with 4 great bands. Lou Fellingham & Phatfish, Superhero, The Steels and LZ7.
It was planned that this event would be a real celebration of the week and a chance for all churches to come together in worship, and an opportunity for youth groups to get involved and outreach.
Tickets still available: £10 Adults and £8 for U16s, and what a great chance to come together to witness and celebrate right in the heart of our city!
Thanks for your help with this, any queries please do not hesitate to email or phone me.
Warmest Regards
David

David Maclean
Alive Festival
The Alive Festival: 9-18th June 2011A week of Christian Events across the City!!www.alivefestival.co.uk

christian teaching

Last night I received an email from someone in the congregation who travels a great deal, and was looking for audio materials which might be helpful to her in terms of learning and growing in faith. There are so many good resources available on line, much of it free. One teacher who I know some folk in Hilton Church find helpful is Tim Keller. Today, I listened to one of his sermons which I can only describe as outstanding.

wisdom from dallas willard

interlude

Life has been fairly challenging on a number of fronts over the past couple of months, so I've not had much time for blogging. Hopefully begin to do a few posts over the next couple of weeks.

lighthouse garden

Over the next few weeks, Emma Watson is going to be doing a little gardening in the newly re-landscaped Lighthouse garden from 9.30-10.30pm on Saturday mornings. She would really appreciate the help of any volunteers in this work , and the Lighthouse will be laying on free drinks at 10.30am.

granddad's munro show

GRANDDAD’S MAD MUNRO SHOW
Gerry McPartlin’s record setting climb
283 hills, 1,191 miles, 443,000 ft, 88 days
the fastest Munro round by an OAP

Thu, 5 May, 7.30pm, at L’Arche
13 Drummond Cresc, Inverness, IV2 4QR
and
Thu, 12 May, 7.30pm
Lochcarron Village Hall

An evening of music, pictures & TV film.
Entry free. There will be a collection for L’Arche, the learning disability charity – over £42,000 raised so far.

what do you think?

"‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King, Jr."

How did you respond to the news yesterday that Osama Bin Laden had been killed? I personally felt very uneasy at the jubilation being expressed in the US. Sally has some very penetrating questions to ask here, and Steve also makes some very challenging points here.

what a beautiful day!

It really was the most beautiful day here in Inverness, and we shared in a very memorable day together at Hilton Church. In our morning service, Anna Charis, daughter of Scott and Heather McRoberts was baptised. Jonathan, our youth minister preached an absolute stonking serrmon. Tonight we were all delighted to welcome John MacLeod back to Hilton Church after a lengthy absence, and once again we were so encouraged by what John had to share with us. If you are looking for some inspiration, I can highly recommend going on to the Hilton Church website and having a listen to todays sermons. Outstanding.

hilton youth project

HYP has organised a series of study evenings in the Lighthouse for all of the main subjects at Standard Grade and Higher level. You can find the various sessions here. There is an open invitation to all our youth to share in these evenings along with their friends. There will be a teacher for each of the designated subjects present, to help with any last minute questions. The evenings will have a definite study atmosphere to them given the fact that the exams are almost upon us, but we also hope that they will provide a forum for some relaxation and friendship at such a stressful time. Well done to Jonathan Faser for organising these evenings. We hope they will be an encouragement and support to all those sitting exams over the coming weeks.

john stott

The Birds, Our Teachers: "Every Christian should be owl-like or Mr. Facing-Both-Ways, because all the time we should be looking back to the past with gratitude and on to the future with expectation....We can perform our essential spiritual contortion, looking back to Christ's death and resurrection with enormous gratitude, and looking on to his return with eager expectation."

Happy 90th birthday to John Stott who has been sharing wisdom, and inspiring the Church across the generations.

CHERRY TREES

The cherry trees next to the church are now in full bloom. They were very severely pruned back over the winter, so we wondered what the bloom would be like this year. More beautiful than ever.