September marked five years since Stephen’s ordination in Stranraer. In a recent sermon he reflected on some of the reasons that led to him accepting the call to come here, as he preached on a verse that is particularly relevant to the situation of the congregation both then and now. You can listen to the sermon below:
Christ’s Wake-Up Call to the Church
As part of our series on the letters to the seven churches of Revelation, we’re coming this Lord’s Day morning to Jesus’ letter to the church in Ephesus. Here are a couple of resources on the passage, as well as the seven letters more generally.
Love or Die: Christ’s Wake-Up Call to the Church
Love or Die is a whole book devoted to Revelation 2:1-7 by Alexander Strauch. Respected Christian book reviewer Tim Challies says:
“I can think of few books I’ve read recently that have had so immediate an impact on me and have given me so much to think about. I trust, that with God’s help, the implications of this book will be with me always”.
Outside In
This is a 4-part Bible Study course by Reformation Scotland, available free on their website, based around some of the insights of the Scottish Covenanter James Durham. You can watch part 1 below:
The Seven Churches of Asia
This little booklet, based on addresses given by Robert Murray M’Cheyne is available free on Google books.
Dignity but no life!
Last Lord’s Day evening, Stephen preached on 2 Samuel 6:12-23 under the theme ‘Dignity but no life’. For a sermon on the same passage which particularly applies it to the church in Scotland today, as well as the history of the RPCS in the twentieth century, we highly recommend this sermon preached in the Airdrie congregation by Carla’s father, Rev. Andrew Quigley, in 2011:
You can listen to the audio of the above sermon here.
For some more background on the transformation that the Airdrie congregation saw - and that by God’s grace we are working to see in Stranraer - see this article: Can a church turn around?
Can a church turn around?
The following was written in 2006 to describe the turnaround which had taken place in the RP church in Airdrie over the previous 12 years. Many of the things that were true of the church in Airdrie could also have been said of the church in Stranraer.
We're grateful to have had the input of two men who experienced the transformation of the congregation in Airdrie serving as interim elders in Stranraer and are confident that what God has done elsewhere he can do here.
"What’s the purpose of church? Why does it exist?
It’s a question we had to face a few years ago as it became clear that our church was dying. Attendances were falling year after year, reaching a weekly average in the 20’s, and an average age in the 70’s. People would ‘come to church’ on a Sunday morning, but beyond that there wasn’t any real interest in being together as the church.
As we began to face the question of what could be done, we were soon reminded that the church is God’s, not ours. This in turn led us to realise that unless we did things his way, our descent into oblivion would continue. So we stopped doing things just for the sake of doing them, and started focusing on what God wants from his church. This didn’t happen overnight, it took time. First we concentrated on getting everyone to enjoy worshiping God twice on a Sunday, morning and evening. Then we considered how we could help one another in our study of God’s Word, which gave rise to weekly Bible studies in people's homes, and in the past couple of years we have been encouraging each other to meet together for prayer on a Sunday morning just before worship. The result - God has been transforming our church. We are no longer a small group of elderly people wandering fairly aimlessly along. We now have a clear sense of our purpose as a community of God’s people.
This change in focus has seen God bring new people into the church, people from all sorts of different backgrounds but with one thing in common - a desire to know more about God."