On Swapping Pulpits

If you knock on my door this month, the chances are that an American will open it. (And if you see my car being driven by someone who looks like they’ve never driven in the UK before…that’s why!). The reason is something known as a “Pulpit swap”. For the month of July an American pastor will be preaching in Stranraer – and I’ll be preaching in his church near Kansas City. We’ve each brought our families with us, and swapped cars as well as houses and pulpits.

Although the church denomination in which I minister is small in Scotland, it is the mother church of congregations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, France, Spain, Japan, India, Pakistan, Sudan, the Gambia – and another country which is never mentioned in print because of security concerns. In the last couple of years in Stranraer we’ve had visiting preachers from Reformed Presbyterian Churches in the US and Japan. A few weeks ago, we heard from a man who spent twenty years ministering in France. As part of this current trip, our family also had the opportunity to attend the RP International Conference (normally held every four years; this was the first for eight due to Covid). We joined around 1600 other delegates and had opportunities to hear updates from some of the countries mentioned above. I also had the opportunity to speak to around 200 people about needs and opportunities here in Scotland. 

Pictured with the widow of an American pastor who did two 'stated supply' periods in my home congregation in Ireland when we were without a pastor

Such global interaction is nothing new. In 1789 Rev. James Reid, pastor for the whole region of Wigtownshire and beyond, travelled to America, visited and organised Covenanter congregations from New York down to South Carolina, before returning home to Scotland almost a year later. He brought with him an invitation for either himself or any of his fellow ministers to move permanently. (They all declined!). In the next century, Stoneykirk man William Milroy became the first Scottish Reformed Presbyterian minister to train for the ministry in North America. He studied at the university of Toronto, before being ‘licensed’ by the RP Presbytery of Pittsburgh in 1861, immediately returning home to become minister of Penpont, near Dumfries.

What are the benefits of such interactions? There are too many to name – but they go beyond simply experiencing (and having our children experience) different places and cultures. One of the things that I’ve found most striking about meeting Christians from around the world is how much we have in common. That has been the case in Sri Lanka (where I preached in 2014 with an interpreter translating into Tamil), the States, and everywhere in between. The last book of the Bible pictures those in heaven as ‘a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages’ (Revelation 7:9). Such interactions are a reminder of where we’re heading. (This also applies across history. Two of the Biblical interpreters that I turn to most often in my study in Stranraer are a fourth century North African (Saint Augustine), and a sixteenth century Frenchman (John Calvin)).

Another pastor's widow - with ministry experience in the RPCS and RPCNA

I would go as far as to argue that Christianity is a global movement in a way other religions aren’t: it has no holy land to which one must make pilgrimages, no holy language that the most devout must learn. The history of the spread of Christianity also refutes the vague notion many have that some church council at some point in the past added or removed stuff from the Bible. From the very beginning, Christianity was spreading and the Scriptures were being translated into the languages of the people they reached. Even if there had been a desire to change the message, there was no opportunity to do so.

Another benefit from such interactions is a reminder that there is more going on around the world than we realise. The decline of Christianity in Scotland has been well publicised. Taking a big picture view reminds us that that’s not the case everywhere.

So – if you happen to bump into the American family in question – that’s a bit of the background as to why they’re here. I’m sure they will receive a warm welcome in Stranraer. And if you want to hear a familiar message preached in an unfamiliar accent, they would be delighted to see you at church. Despite various outward differences, the message is the same around the world. It is a message that transcends time and cultural differences – because it is about “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 7:8).

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 11th July 2024.

Church Outing to Wigtown

On 18th May we had a joint church outing to Wigtown with some of our friends from Dumfries Free Church.

After arriving in sunny Wigtown we visited the grave of the Two Margarets, who were martyred in Wigtown 339 years ago the previous week. Stephen told the story of their deaths, which continued as we moved down to the Martyrs’ Stake. Our time there included singing a couple of psalms, including the verses of Psalm 25 which Margaret Wilson sang just before she died.

After this we headed to Wigtown Baptist Church where we ate our packed lunch, and then organised some games for the children on the grass outside. It was a great day of fellowship!

Something special in danger of being lost

I’ve just about calmed down after Stranraer’s extra-time play-off win. Billed as the most important match in the club’s history, there were plenty of nervy moments across the two legs. Everyone in the ground that day is still asking how João Baldé’s two chances – towards the end of normal time and extra time respectively – stayed out. If they had, it would have been hard to see a way back into the tie – and a way back into the SPFL. Sam North (‘Footy Adventures’ on YouTube) summed it up with the title: ‘150 Years of History Saved in 120 Minutes’. The club were on the brink – but came back.

As a minister, I couldn’t help but apply it to churches. We live at a time when many churches – often older than 150 years – are closing. When it comes to a football club, it’s fairly obvious why its loss would be a bad thing for a community. But do we lose anything when churches close?

Many would say ‘no’. They belong to a different era, and there’s no need for them in modern society. Others mourn the loss of architecture, or of a building with which many memories are associated – or of a place where they hoped their funeral would take place.

But can a case be made for the closure of churches being a net loss for a community? Perhaps surprisingly, I would argue that the closure of a church is not a loss in every case. When the Bible’s message is no longer proclaimed, and a church is functioning out of mere traditionalism, there’s little point in it still existing. In fact, it’s worse than that. If those looking for hope happen to come in, all they will find are counsels of despair: ‘be a nice decent person and you’ll earn your way to Heaven’. Self-improvement is the message of every religion except Biblical Christianity.

It's also worth pointing out that a building closing and a church closing are not the same thing. In the New Testament, ‘the church’ is the people, not the building. A church building is simply where the people meet to worship. Sadly, by the time a building closes, the church has often long since stopped being what it was meant to be – a worshipping community of diverse people who genuinely love one another because of the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives.

But what about when Bible-believing churches close? To put it another way: what does a post-Christian Scotland look like? We value things like compassion, freedom, equality, and consent – but as Glen Scrivener demonstrates in his book ‘The Air We Breathe’, these are fundamentally Christian values. When churches close, it’s not as if these things disappear overnight. But when the foundations on which they’re built disappear, we discover they aren’t as self-evident as we once thought. Just ask the Romans. 

It was reported last week that for the first time, most people in Scotland say they are not religious. Yet a non-religious society still has the concepts of guilt, sin and shame – but without the redemption which Christianity offers. Many thought that as Christianity disappeared, society would become less moralistic. The opposite has proved to be the case. People have a keen sense of morality – recycle, don’t eat meat, reduce your carbon footprint. Those who fail to support the ‘right’ cause feel the wrath of cancel culture. Our society has as keen a sense of morality as ever – but no place for forgiveness.

If Stranraer had gone down, the effects would have been instant and obvious: Civil Service Strollers and Heart of Midlothian ‘B’ visiting Stair Park, smaller crowds, a vastly reduced budget. The closure of gospel-preaching churches may not have such an immediate impact, but a post-Christian Scotland may not be the utopia many expect. Jonny Cash sang: ‘They say they want the kingdom, but they don't want God in it.’ And as Scrivener puts it: ‘The kingdom without the King is not a place of liberation so much as a place of judgment’. 

Above all the church is important because it is ‘through the church that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known’ (Ephesians 4:10). That wisdom was seen above all at the cross of Jesus Christ – where God’s justice and mercy shone out so clearly. Stranraer fans could sing ‘We are staying up’, because of what those on the pitch had done. In the same way, the believer looks at the cross, and sees that, because of Jesus, a place in God’s family is now ours, and the door of Heaven itself has been opened. 

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 30th May 2024