Minister's letter

This letter appeared in the Christmas / New Year edition of the church magazine.

Dear Friends,

These wonderful words of the angel to the shepherds which we will be hearing again shortly are a marvellous reminder that Jesus Christ is good news. Good news to hear and receive and rejoice in. Good news to share. In that connection I’ve recently been re-reading John Dickson’s book ‘Promoting the Gospel’ which in the words of one of the reviews on its rear cover, is ‘ a biblical, practical, warm and encouraging book that does exactly what it sets out to do; equips us as the Christian community to promote the Gospel.’ As well as talking about our words and the role of those who have a particular gift for communicating the gospel, John Dickson indicates how prayer, good works, our money, our public praise of God at our Sunday gatherings and our general behaviour all have a part to play in commending the gospel to others. All of this illustrating how every Christian within a church has a real and possible part to play. There are good chapters on motivation and mindset too. Most encouragingly, littered throughout the book are some great stories of the way in which God uses different Christians in different ways to help others along the path (usually a fairly lengthy path) to hearing and receiving the good news of the gospel. Definitely a book worth reading!

One of the reasons for re-reading it has been David Collingwood’s recent arrival as our Outreach Coordinator. We’ve been reading and thinking and discussing the implications of the book together. When we first created the Outreach post we said that though the person filling it was always going to be involved at some level in organising and running events and activities, the primary remit was never to do our outreach for us but rather to help us as a congregation and as individuals to play the part God has for each of us in promoting the gospel of his Son. Therefore, much of these early months for David have been, and will be, about getting to know us and how he can encourage and help us; trying to grasp what we’re doing already and what might be developed (or maybe what has served its time); and within all this where his time and energies might best be spent. So do pray for him in this.

And pray too please for the other members of the Ministry Team -John with his particular responsibilities for pastoral matters and Mark providing vital administrative back-up. All of us need wisdom to see where and how we can best serve Christ and yourselves in growing in understanding and living out the gospel, as well as sharing it with others. Indeed here’s something we can all pray for ourselves and for one another within the congregation here at ‘Logies’:

Please show me Lord Jesus how my time, my gifts, my behaviour, my prayer, my money, my service of others, my praise might best be used in helping others to discover that Jesus Christ really is good news of great joy for all people.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and a New Year full of the joy of knowing Jesus Christ from myself, Susan, Julie, Katie and Paul,

Yours in the service of the gospel,
David Scott