It would be hard to deny the impact that loan players have had on Stranraer FC's season. Scotland U19 prospect Matthew Gillies and mazy winger Dom Plank were joined in January by keeper Lyndon Tas and centre half Joe McGrath — not forgetting promising striker Dean Cleland, whose short time here has been marred by injury. The club have cultivated good relationships with Edinburgh clubs Hibs and Hearts — who can surely now be confident that if they send more players to Stranraer in the future, they will be given a proper chance at men's football. (It's been clear from the KDM trophy that the 'B' teams of Rangers, Celtic, etc are sorely missing that experience).
It's actually not unlike what we've been trying to do as a church over the last year and a half. As we've sought with God's help to revistalise the congregation here in Stranraer, our challenge hasn't so much been getting people through the doors, but seeing them come to faith in the first place, and then growing in that faith. Of course, a big part of that comes through teaching the Bible. The Bible says about itself: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). That's why we have two services each Sunday, where I preach through books of the Bible. My ministerial hero, J. P. Struthers of Greenock, managed to get through the whole Bible in 20 years.
And yet the Bible itself also stresses the power of example. The Apostle Paul could say: "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:9). Or as he put it elsewhere: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Jesus Christ is the supreme example for the Christian. He is more than an example — the reason he came to die on the cross was that a mere example of how we should have been living would have been no good to us — but he is not less than an example. This is particularly relevant in a day when many people get most of their spiritual input from YouTube. We need real life examples, not just talking heads on a screen. The idea of God's people being primarily taught the Bible by someone they don't know personally has no place in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul writes on one occasion: "For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you" (2 Thessalonians 3:7). On another, he can remind the same congregation: "But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children" (1 Thessalonians 2:7).
That's where the "loan signings" come in. In my decade in Stranraer, I've encouraged people to consider moving here permanently for the sake of the gospel, with one family having taken up that challenge. More recently, however, my focus has been on trying to get people to come short-term. And so over the last 16 months or so, we've had four retired couples — and one young family — come for between one and three months. (Two of them have come back for a second stint!). Most of them have come from our sister denomination in America, which is one of the blessings of being part of a global church.
Those who've come have led Bible studies, taught Sunday school, helped with hospitality, but above all have simply been examples of what Christians and church members should be like. They have lived the Christian life for decades, raised their children in the faith, and have much wisdom to share with those of us who are younger (or newer to Christianity). Personally, I've been surprised by how quickly those who've come have been able to integrate with the congregation. However as we've found even with random holiday makers visiting on a Sunday, we have more in common with fellow Christians we've just met than with others we've known all our lives.
Like Stranraer FC's loan players, we realise that they won't be here forever. But that's ok. It's all part of God's provision for us. He is the one who gives daily bread, and who keeps the widow's oil running until it's no longer needed (2 Kings 4). We won't see some of them again in this life — but we will in the life to come, when we will no longer need examples, because "when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 23rd April 2026
