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March 2019

Rediscovering Hospitality

We all know that the answer to Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is yes, of course. The New Testament version of the question is, “who is my neighbour?” Shockingly, the answer appears to be all those who share our humanity. These questions require us to answer a further question: How will we welcome the stranger?

There is fear associated with welcoming strangers and our modern lifestyle seems to hold neighbours at arm’s length. We no longer bump into neighbours as we walk but bypass them in our cars. We have delegated the care of the elderly neighbour to civic institutions and charities that employ professionals to care. Typically, we see more people but know them less. We have lost or are losing the ancient meeting places: the city gate, the village green, the community centre, the local church. Our TV’s teach us all about entertaining in our homes, but little about true hospitality.

At the centre of our understanding of hospitality has to be our understanding of Christ. Jesus, who as he hangs on the cross turns to a thief by his side and says, “today you will be with me in paradise”, demonstrates hospitality, just as he demonstrated in his life over and over again.

Christian hospitality is about responsibility, not reciprocity. It is about laying down ourselves as Christ did, without requirement of response.

Hospitality is a step of faith in a God who provides, be that protection or finances. In faith we welcome the stranger and feed the lonely, lost or wondering.

Hospitality is a response to our own salvation: when we remember that we, who were far away from God, have been drawn close to him. Ephesians 2:12Hospitality is an act of witness: we are called to show the love of the Father for all the world, for ‘neighbours’, defined as those who share our humanity, rather than our geography, culture, social standing, language or friendly response. It reaches out to the ‘other’ in the

Rediscovering Hospitality

name of Christ and in the way of Christ.

It will take a conscious effort on all our parts to break through the current cultural hesitancy to welcome strangers. Maybe we can start by simply showing hospitality to those in our congregations who need it most, by visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, going the extra mile to bring someone to church. Then we might feel ready to walk next door, or across the office, and reach out with the offer of community to those in our neighbourhood or network. Who knows, it may not be long before we are opening our homes to widows, orphans, the homeless or asylum seekers and discovering the presence of Christ in “the least of these.”

Rev Alan DonaldsonGeneral Director

Prayer StreamsThe line “Give us also springs of water” (Judges1:12-15) shared by Alan Donaldson at Assembly last year, served as a great springboard here in Galashiels to lead the church in a week of prayer. We gathered these thoughts into generous prayers for all the churches, the community and surrounding towns which historically are so territorial.

As a church we took up the “Give us also springs” theme into a three-Sunday series. We prepared a leaflet for everyone to use as a prayer guide and resource for the prayer week. The house groups were given to prayer that week, those able to prayer walk / prayer drive, did, and, some took the time to “people watch” and to take what they saw to the Lord in prayer. Others with maps and lists of street names in front of them did virtual walks in their own homes and mind’s eye.

We organised a prayer and praise evening on the Friday and a drop in prayer room on the Saturday. On the Sunday, opportunity for testimony and feedback from the week was givenThe very nature of the Border Towns are communities formed and established due to the route of the rivers, so it has been a very easy step to link these rivers to generous prayer for spiritual refreshment along these same routes.

This has given us a refreshing start and attitude to the year ahead and we look forward to joining with the other Baptist Churches in the Borders over 2019 to continue to pray “Give us also springs of water”

Churches in Dumbarton are two months into ‘Awake Dumbarton’ - two years of united, serious prayer and fasting for an awakening of the Christian faith in our town.

As the relative new boy in town and minister of Dumbarton Baptist Church, I felt convicted by the Spirit and encouraged by my own leaders to tackle a sense of paralysis hanging over the local ministers’ gathering and the grass roots Dumbarton Churches Together. God gave me Isaiah 51.9 to hang the whole enterprise on: “Awake, awake, arm of the LORD, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old.” In case there’s any misunderstanding though, it wasn’t God who needed wakening up but his people in our town!

The process of sticking with the vision and presenting it clearly is another article in itself, but after several months we finally arrived at our launch night at the local theatre on 12th January. What we now have is a weekly, early-morning prayer meeting at Costa in Dumbarton High Street, five prayer walking teams and a weekly fast on a Monday, where people pray for an awakening of the Christian faith in our town instead of eating lunch. New prayer groups are beginning and isolated churches are also getting involved. Awake Dumbarton is slowly but surely capturing the collective imagination and the atmosphere is changing.

None of us are prepared to watch on while the others go down. We’ve put on our collective spiritual armour and we’re taking a stand for our town.

Awake Dumbarton

quality time with them and it’s a relaxed environment where the kids can play with extra supervision, so that the parents can enjoy some adult company.

The families really enjoy these meals and have expressed their gratitude for what we provide. It’s often in our time together at the table that they share more of their stories and unload some of the burdens they carry from week to week. The first Christmas dinner we hosted took our hall to maximum capacity and each family received a small gift from the church. We pray that our hospitality will express our love for them and give them a desire to know more about the God who loves them even more.

Carluke Baptist Church – Family MealsOver the past few years, our church has developed connections with a number of vulnerable families in our community. These connections have come through specific support groups such as our Autism Support group, the Vulnerable Parents Nurture Group and our Centre of Hope café.

We found that many of the parents we work with feel isolated, particularly around meal times. One main cause of isolation is financial – they don’t have the means to host or go out for meals with other families. For some parents they find that their children’s additional support needs make it challenging to go out in public together because an unfamiliar environment can bring out challenging behaviour and they find it difficult to relax for

the duration of a meal. Some single parents in particular find meal times lonely without other adults to talk to.In response to this, we began hosting family meals in the church hall. Each month our hospitality team provides a three-course, freshly cooked meal to which we invite families from our various support groups. This has become a really valuable way to develop our relationships with each family. It allows us to spend some

Youth EventsThis year there are so many exciting events and opportunities for young people. Here are a few which we would love you to ‘save the dates’ for:

15th JUNE PowerPoint+ (VENUE TBC)

PPT+ is a day to experience the full breadth of the Kingdom of God from around Scotland. The day seeks to bring together young people from across Scotland to get to know each other through a variety of outdoor activities and engagement with various organisations. There is a core of worship throughout the day with

20th - 24th JULYSoul Survivor Scotland

One of the largest events in the young Christian’s calendar is Soul Survivor Scotland. It is back this year, for its final year with the Soul Survivor crew leading it. We are so excited and can’t wait! It is a 5-day event where teams of young people camp, worship in the big top tent, receive teaching from some of the top people in their fields, including the wonderful Mike Pilavachi and Andy Croft. At BUS Younger we are hoping to run, as we did last year, a BUS Camp where we can join as

1ST - 2ND NOVEMBERYoung Leaders’ Conference (Ages 14-21)

Another event that is taking place this year is the 150th Anniversary Assembly of the Baptist Union of Scotland. To celebrate and to get as many of our family of churches together, we are also running a conference for Young Leaders alongside the Assembly. This conference will be held at Hamilton Baptist and will merge with the closing session of the 150th Anniversary Assembly of the BUS. This includes worship, teaching, and a chance to connect

teaching from various guests, including Mike Pilavachi this year. Come and join us on Saturday 15th June for this amazing event.

many of our churches together in one place.

with others from around our family, while also engaging and connecting with God in a new and refreshing way. This conference takes place over the 1st and 2nd of November with an overnight stay, so our young people can really bond as a community.

Date Time Region Venue

Sun 24th March 7pm Borders Selkirk BC (1 of 5 gatherings over the year)

Sat 30th March 7pm Caithness Thurso BC

Sun 28th April 7pm Tayside Panmuirfield Baptist Centre, Broughty Ferry

Sun 5th May 6.15pm Shetland Lerwick BC

Sun 9th June 7pm East Fife Leven BC

Sun 9th June 7pm West Fife Viewfield BC, Dunfermline

Sun 23rd June 7pm Central Albert Halls, Stirling

Sun 18th Aug 6.30pm Renfrewshire Greenock BC

Sat 31st Aug 1pm South West Milestone Christian Fellowship, Girvan (The Big BBQ!)

Sun 29th Sept 6.30pm Highlands Alness BC

Fri 4th October 7.30pm Glasgow Bearsden BC

Regional Prayer GatheringsAs part of our 150th anniversary celebrations we are encouraging our churches to hold regional prayer gatherings throughout the year. The Perthshire gathering was held in January at Perth Baptist. A National Team member will attend each gathering, where possible, bringing the Prayer Baton as it travels around the country. So far, the following regional prayer gatherings have been confirmed:

Public Theology VideosBUS recently hosted a conference on Brexit and how Christians can engage with the wider issues stemming from this topic, with helpful input from CARE, EA Scotland, JPIT and SCPO. A series of short videos were made of the talks given: • Stuart Weir, National Director, CARE for Scotland – Forgiveness and Trust• Alan Donaldson, General Director, BUS – Hospitality• Norman Graham, Chair of BUS Public Theology Group – Submit to One Another• Kieran Turner, EA Scotland - Unity• Chloe Clemmons, Scottish Churches Parliamentary Officer – Hosting Community

ConversationsThese videos can be accessed using the following link:https://www.scottishbaptist.com/public-issues/

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