On Sunday we were delighted to welcome three ladies into membership in the congregation. Lesley, Mary and Karina are pictured above alongside Stephen (minister), Gerald and George (elders). Please remember them in prayer and pray that new members joining the church will become a regular feature in the years ahead!
Edinburgh church plant becomes congregation
On Friday night, Stephen, Carla and Willow travelled to Edinburgh for the happy occasion of the constitution of the North Edinburgh church plant into a congregation of its own.
Rev. Andrew Quigley (Airdrie) preached, speaking of how five years ago he had encouraged the small group interested in starting the church that Christ would bring in people as his word was preached. Five years later, the size of the group associated with the congregation standing at the front of the room testified to the truth of that statement.
We are seeing the same thing happening in Stranraer, and Friday evening was an encouragement to keep going, looking to Christ to build his church through the preaching of his word.
Eastern Presbytery Youth Weekend
Hannah, one of our young people, recently attended the Eastern Presbytery Youth Weekend, held in Knockbracken RPCI (Belfast). The talks at the weekend were given by Graeme Hart from McKinnon RPCA who was in Stranraer recently speaking about the RP Church in Australia.
Here's her summary of the weekend:
At the weekend we had really good activities. On Friday we played fun games in the hall and on Saturday we had the choice of ice skating or clip n climb . I did clip n climb - it was amazing! The talks on this weekend were on marriage and gender by Graeme Hart. They were very, very good and I learnt lots. We had 3 talks. I enjoyed seeing friends again, as well as the talks. It was an amazing weekend.
Shorter Catechism resources
Last week we began a series of studies on the Shorter Catechism - one of the greatest summarises of the Bible's teaching ever produced.
There are a few helpful resources out there to help memorise it. Many of the questions have been set to music by Bruce Benedict. They are available to buy digitally via iTunes or on CD here. A sample of one of the questions is below.
An audiobook version is also available for free via Ligonier - read by Sinclair Ferguson, a well-known Scottish theologian who has ministered in Glasgow, the United States, and Dundee.
Various modern-language versions of the catechism are available, including one here by Andrew Conway that can be bought as a paper book or downloaded for kindle.
Update: I've also been reminded of a great resource for family worship based on the Shorter Catechism: Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade.
Update 2: David Whitla, who spoke at our Firm Foundations weekend, produced a series of handouts on the Shorter Catechism when he was pastor in Southside RPCNA.
Update 3: An online edition of the Shorter Catechism in modern English, along with comments, based on an edition by Rowland S. Ward, is available here, along with other resources on the catechism.
Update 4: Stuart Olyott has a series of sermons on the Catechism here.
Hugh Hefner: the rot goes deep
Given the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, our latest article in the Free Press from a couple of weeks ago seems even more relevant
There’s a joke about a funeral where the preacher got a little carried away, speaking at length about the admirable traits of the deceased. So glowing was the praise that the widow asked someone to open up the coffin…to make sure the person inside was the man she had known for all those years!
That joke came to mind over the last few days as various news outlets tied themselves in knots over the death of Hugh Hefner. Somewhat bizarrely, in death he has been cast as an aspirational figure, a likeable rogue who lived the dream while challenging the prudish restraints of a less enlightened era. The problem is that this version of Hefner’s story has about as much credibility as those who claim to ‘read Playboy for the articles’.
Let’s be clear: Hugh Hefner was a pornographer who made himself rich off the exploitation of women. He did not strike a blow for women’s liberation. His magazines, his clubs and his squalid mansion simply reinforced a lie that has been prevalent for millennia - that women exist for the gratification of men. Every cover girl who passed through his human zoo was judged on only one thing; their inherent worth as people was deemed irrelevant.
Hefner may have operated within the bounds of legality, yet his business was the selling of young women’s bodies. He had more in common with pimps and people-traffickers than with revolutionaries who have changed the world for the better.
And now that he’s gone, we need to look at ourselves. In every way that mattered, Hefner and the values he championed have made our culture shallower, coarser and crueller. The fact that his life is being celebrated raises real questions about what we value. In death, even more than in life, Hefner has demonstrated how blinded our culture has become to the destruction caused when sex is taken out of its wonderful, God-given place. That only a few are willing to come out and say that the man was obviously wicked is a reminder that the rot he spread goes deeper than we might like to admit.
We can’t point the finger. We have all misused God’s good gifts. We have all used other people to some extent. The values that Hefner packaged and sold are there inside all of us. Only in Jesus is there hope that we can be made clean.
Published in Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press, 29th June 2017
Inspired by a similar article by Jonny McCollum (Milford RPC)