Organisation of a congregation in The Gambia

For the last few months, Stephen has served as Interim Moderator of a new work in Brikama, The Gambia. That role will come to an end with ordination of Sylvester Konteh tomorrow. Sylvester’s ordination and the organisation of the congregation will, God-willing, be available to watch via livestream. The details are as follows:

Our interim elder, Rev. Peter Loughridge (North Edinburgh), along with Rev. Stephen McCollum (Airdrie) are in The Gambia to take part in the ordination

“On Saturday 13th May 2023 at 6pm UK time (5pm Gambia time/Greenwich Mean Time), the ordination of Sylvester Konteh and organisation of Brikama RPCS will take place. The service will be live-streamed via a Zoom webinar. To watch, click on the link below. You do not have to have Zoom to watch, but you will be asked to leave your name and email address.Here is the link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89212436197

Please be aware that this attempted live broadcast via Zoom may not be successful due to internet issues and/or sound issues at the venue. We apologise in advance if that is the case! A cameraman will be present at the event to produce an official video which will be uploaded to YouTube at a later date. We will send that YouTube link out when it is ready.”

Gambia Update

Last month, after our monthly church lunch, Rev. Stephen McCollum (Airdrie) gave an update on our church’s mission work in the Gambia. At the last meeting of the RPCS Presbytery, having passed his final exams, Mr Sylvester Konteh was licensed to preach the gospel. He was then presented with, and subsequently accepted, a call to serve as organising minister of a Reformed Presbyterian congregation in Brikama, under the oversight of the RPCS Presbytery. You can read more about this on the RPCS website.

A video interview with Sylvester had been recorded to be shown at these update meetings, and you can watch it below:

Our own minister, Stephen, was one of those appointed by Presbytery to serve as an interim elder of the Brikama congregation, until the congregation is organised and they are able to ordain local elders. Stephen is currently serving as Interim Moderator as the session interview prospective church members over Zoom.

The plan is for Sylvester to be ordained and the congregation organised in May, with Revs. Stephen McCollum and Peter Loughridge travelling to The Gambia for the occasion.

Long term our prayer is to see the organisation of a new denomination - The Reformed Presbyterian Church of The Gambia.

Andy Lytle interview on Mission in France

Andrew & Heather Lytle, pictured with Sammy & Carol Foucachon (Eglise Réformée Evangélique de Paris)

We’ve been praying for the RP Church’s mission work in Nantes, France, recently - particularly in light of proposed new legislation targeting Islam, but which would also have severe repercussions for Bible-believing Christians. In fact, the French minister of the Interior recently said about evangelicals: ‘We cannot discuss with people who refuse to write on paper that the law of the Republic is superior to the law of God’.

A few months ago, Rev. Andy Lytle spoke about missionary life in France on the Generation Podcast. It’s well worth listening to, particularly as he describes what a Reformed approach to mission looks like:

Other helpful episodes of the podcast include interviews with Paul & Steve Levy and Rico Tice.

John G. Paton

In Sunday evening’s sermon, Stephen mentioned John G. Paton, who was a Scottish RP Missionary in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in the 19th century.

Paton, brought up near Dumfries, was initially and elder and city missionary in the Green Street congregation in Glasgow, planted by William Symington’s Great Hamilton Street congregation, after Symington moved there from Stranraer.

An excellent overview of his life is available in the form of a biographical talk given at a pastor’s conference twenty years ago by John Piper: You Will Be Eaten by Cannibals! Lessons from the Life of John G. Paton.

In a summary of the message, also available at the above link, Piper gives some background to the mission:

‘on the Island of Aneityum, John Geddie from the Presbyterian church in Nova Scotia (coming in 1848) and John Inglis from The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland (coming in 1852) saw amazing fruit, so that by 1854 “about 3,500 savages (more than half the population threw away their idols, renouncing their heathen customs and avowing themselves to be worshippers of the true Jehovah God”’

Paton arrived at the island of Aniwa in 1866. In the next 15 years he saw the whole island turn to Christ. Years later he wrote, ‘I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God Aniwa now worships at the Saviour’s feet’.

Piper’s talk was later published as an ebook, which is available to read for free.

The classic book on Paton is his autobiography which is introduced in the video below by Ian Hamilton: