First ever Firm Foundations weekend!

During the last weekend of October we held our first ever Firm Foundations weekend. Those signing up for it were promised a weekend of intense theological instruction, made up of both lectures and formal and informal discussion.

We were delighted to have seven guys attending - from both Scotland and Ireland, as well as inside and outside the RP Church. We were thrilled that David Whitla was able to join us to give the lectures.

David, a Scottish native and former pastor at Southside Indianapolis (RPCNA) is currently studying for a PhD focussing on Scottish Covenanter Theology and Spirituality at Queen's University Belfast in preparation to return to the States to teach at Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

David also helped pioneer the hugely popular and successful Theological Foundations for Youth programme, which has had a big impact for good in the RPCNA and influenced a future generation of ministers, elders and members.

Things began on Saturday afternoon (David had been speaking at the RPCS Presbytery on the Saturday morning) with a lecture on the Mediatorial Kingship of Christ - a topic on which the definitive book was written by former Stranraer minister William Symington.

After tea, David set the guys a 'Bible readiness' quiz, aimed at showing them how well we need to know our Bibles, but which also opened up many areas for discussion.

On the Lord's Day, the guys joined us for the prayer meeting and morning worship. Following this we had a church lunch, which provided a chance for the congregation to get to know our visitors.

After lunch, David gave a talk on where the RP Church came from, focussing mostly on the 17th Century Covenanters. We were glad that some of the congregation were able to stay around for it.

After evening worship, we had a 'Stump the Pastor' session where David answered questions the boys had submitted on topics such as Dispensationalism, God's regrets and Baptism.

On Monday, David gave two more lectures, on the Lord's Day and the Regulative Principle of Worship. After some more informal discussion, the guys headed for home.

We are grateful to God for a good weekend of fellowship and teaching, which hopefully gave those who came plenty to think about and work through, as well as giving them a taste of Stranraer!

Three new members

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.