Resources on Elders (2)

Stephen recently preached a 7-part series on Elders ahead of our forthcoming elder election on 18th January. Having previously listed some resources on elders, here are some more - with a focus on older, Scottish resources:

16th Century

• The Second Book of Discipline (1578) has a couple of useful sections on elders. It also states the historic Scottish position on how office bearers are to be chosen - namely ‘by the judgment of the eldership and consent of the congregation’.

17th Century

• The Covenanter James Guthrie published A Treatise of Ruling Elders and Deacons in 1652, following a request from the General Assembly of the church.

  He contended in the preface that God's wrath lay on the Church of Scotland because of 'rotten' church members and officers, polluting the whole. 'We have boasted of a Reformation of the ordinances', he wrote 'without seeking as really to reform Church-Officers, and Church-Members, according to the pattern thereof'. Guthrie's little book, aiming to summarise existing publications on the topic, was therefore an important contribution to furthering the covenanted work of Reformation in the 17th century in the area of church government. Indeed, while some things Guthrie addresses may no longer be around (eg the office of Doctor), much of it is still relevant. He warns elders against only punishing (certain kinds of) sins of commission, while ignoring sins of omission. He addresses the question of what to do if unqualified men have already been elected. He urges that if deacons are required to be tested before appointed, how much more should elders be? His pastoral heart comes through as he warns elders not to use church discipline as punishment or penance but 'a spiritual medicine, for humbling and gaining of the soul'. His encouragement to deacons tempted to count their office as less significant is a particular highlight: 'The Lord Jesus himself did not disdain to wash his disciples' feet; angels are all of them ministering Spirits, sent forth to minister for their sakes who are appointed to be heirs of Salvation; why then should any think it below them to serve the Church of Christ, and to minister to the Saints in this employment?'

18th Century

• A sermon preached by Scottish Borders minister Thomas Boston - on the day of an elder ordination - entitled ‘The Duties of Ruling Elders and People’. Under his section on the duty of the people to their elders, Boston says: "Can you fall upon a more expedite way to advance the kingdom of the devil in the congregation, than to discourage and weaken the hands of those who are set over you in the Lord? Is there a fairer way to rout the army, than to make their leaders useless?"

20th Century

• From a historical point of view, G. D. Henderson’s book The Scottish Ruling Elder (1935), contains a wealth of information, going back to the time of the Covenanters. He notes: “One of the most important steps taken by the early Covenanters…was to ensure the restoration of the ruling elder to a position of effectiveness”

21st Century

• In 2006 the RP Church of Ireland produced A Manual for Elders, stating ‘For the past 150 years the Reformed Presbyterian Church has rightly placed much emphasis on the training of its teaching elders. However we have not place a similar emphasis on the training those men who are called by God to the 'ruling' eldership in our congregations. The purpose of this manual is to seek to equip, encourage and train elders to carry out their God-given task’.

Congregational life in wartime

The beginning of a new year provides an opportunity to look back on the year that’s now past. Here’s a report from our own congregation written in early 1941, looking back at church life in the midst of World War II, with services taking place during black-outs and 20+ of the congregation’s young men serving in the armed forces, one of whom was a prisoner of war in Germany.

Consolidated Catalina Mk II of No. 240 Squadron RAF, Stranraer, March 1941 (Imperial War Museum)

Report of Session, 1940

The year 1940 has now closed and as a Session we would look back over our Church life in that year.

We would acknowledge first of all our deepest gratitude to Him who is our King and Head for his continued goodness to us. “The Lord of us hath mindful been.” [Psalm 115 v 12, Scottish Metrical Version]

The storm of war still surrounds us, and great damage has been done to many parts of our land, but God in His goodness has thus far spared us the destruction and sorrow that air-raids bring.

Naturally the war has affected our Church life to a considerable extent; over 20 of our young men are now serving with the Forces, one of them being a prisoner of war in Germany; the black-out has affected the attendances at evening meetings; and essential duties have called some of our people to Sabbath work. The requisitioning of our Hall has made the work of some of our organisations more difficult. But in spite of these difficulties the work of the Congregation has been carried on with a measure of success.

The Lord’s supper has been dispensed twice; and during the year eight new members were received into full Communion in the Church. The attendances at the Sabbath services have remained farily constant, and the evening service seems to be more suitable than the afternoon one. Session would appeal to those who are somewhat dilatory in their attendances to make a greater effort to come to the ordinances of God’s House.

During the year we have administered the ordinance of Baptism to two infants, while in the same period five of our members have been called to their reward. They were, Mr. Thomas Arthur, Mrs W. Murray, Mrs. John []ah, Mr. Andrew Hamilton, and Miss Jane []ay. To the relatives and friends in their bereavement we, as a Session, would extend our deepest sympathy.

The Prayer-meeting has continued and has been fairly well attended, and many have expressed the help they have received at these fellowship meetings.

The Sabbath-school too, has been carried on, and we are glad to know that the attendances have been improving during the year. The school has had to meet in the Church during the year because of the taking-over of the Hall.

It is with regret that we have to report that the C. Y. P. [Covenanter Young Peoples’] Society has not been able to continue its meetings owing to so many of its members being in the Forces, but we hope that when peace comes again that this Society will continue its fine work among the young people.

The W. M. A [Women's Missionary Association] held their regular meetings; while the ladies of the congregation have on several occasions sent parcels of comforts to the men who are on military service, and for these many letters of thanks have been received from the boys.

Our minister [Rev. J. Moffett Blair] has received the permission of Session and Presbytery to engage in Army Hut and Canteen work, and has has been engaged in this work for some time now as a voluntary worker in this area.

We must all realise more and more the need for faith and trust in God. He alone can support us in these troublous days. And if we look to Him to do great things for us, we must also be ready to consecrate ourselves to His service, and to show by our lives that he is our Saviour and our Lord.

For more information on Stranraer in WWII, see the book ‘Stranraer in World War II’ published by Stranraer & District Local History Trust (3rd edition, 2017).

The Love of Christ

Rev. Stephen Steele reviews his favourite book of 2021:

I spent most of the last year reading slowly through ‘The Love of Christ’ by Richard Sibbes - and it was one of the best things I did.

Of the 60+ Puritan Paperbacks, this is one of the longest, if not the longest, at 360 pages. It consists of sermons on Song of Solomon chapters 4-6, first published under the title ‘Bowels Opened’ in 1639. 

I first came across the book via Mike Reeves, who writes the foreward. As Reeves points out, the standard Puritan interpretation of the Song as a parable of the love between Christ and his Church is not held by the majority of commentators today - but ‘even if Sibbes is misappropriating the Song, the wonderful truths he expounds still stand’. Yet Sibbes is both careful and convincing in his exegesis, comparing Scripture with Scripture throughout and warning of the need to be ‘wary’ in applying some of the finer details (p. 285). Above all, he warms our hearts by fixing our attention on Jesus Christ and his love for his people. 

Sibbes believed that ‘it is the special office of the ministry to lay [Christ] open’ (p. 313) and he practiced what he preached. In fact, Sibbes’ sermons are a challenge to preachers today in how far short of this we sometimes fall. The consequences of a diet of sermons which major on ‘try harder’ will be tragic, because ‘our nature is such that we cannot love but where we know ourselves to be loved first’ and so ‘if the soul be not persuaded of Christ’s love it runs away from him’ (p. 340).

‘All preaching’, he says, ‘is that we may be able to say without deceiving our souls, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”’ (p. 347). Like Thomas Chalmers two centuries later, Sibbes believed in the expulsive power of a new affection: ‘One main end of our calling is to draw the affections of those who belong to God to Christ’ (p. 264).

Throughout the book, Sibbes (who died in 1635) quotes from the Geneva Bible, which results in some memorable renderings of familiar passages, eg ‘all things work together for the best’ (Romans 8:28), ‘with our eyes we saw his majesty’ (2 Peter 1:16); ‘I will not fail thee, neither forsake thee’ (Hebrews 13:5).

Unlike some of Sibbes’ other works in the Puritan Paperbacks series, the text has not been modernised; instead footnotes have been added to explain archaic words. As a purist, this is the approach that I much prefer - though a smattering of archaic or obscure words remain unexplained (eg ‘amain’, ‘tush’, ‘bane’ (in the sense of poison), ‘prevent’, ‘want’.) A typo has also crept into p. 132 where ‘loves till’ stands in place of ‘love still’. 

The fact that some of the earlier sermons are significantly longer than the others might mean that some will struggle to get into the book, but it will well reward those who stick with it. Sibbes is a joyful expositor who bubbles over with the love of Christ. Lloyd-Jones could testify to the help that Sibbes’ ‘Bruised Reed’ gave him at a particularly low point, and ‘The Love of Christ’ is similarly powerful. 

It will help guard against unbalanced introspection: when recommending self-examination, Sibbes encourages us to look for good within us rather than just evil, in order that we may be joyful and thankful (p. 47).

It will help protect against legalism: ‘Is not his obedience enough for us? Shall we need patch it up with our own righteousness?’ (p. 331)

It will help keep from despair: ‘In the most disconsolate state of a Christian soul, there is light enough in the soul to show…that it is day with the soul and not night’ (p. 212)

It will help us stand against Satan’s accusations: Just like a wife not liable for her own debts can say to a creditor ‘Go to my husband’, so we can tell Satan to go to Christ: ‘When we cannot answer him, send him to Christ’ (pp 333-4).

In short, it would be hard not to come away from the book rejoicing that ‘there is more righteousness in Christ than there is sin in me’ (p. 272).

Highly recommended, particularly for ministers of the gospel. We and our people need these truths!

Christmas reminds us that we can’t redeem ourselves

Following Manchester United’s 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool at the end of October, striker Marcus Rashford took to social media to say ‘We’re working hard to try and fix this. We have to redeem ourselves’. Things continued to get worse, however, and less than a month later, United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s time as manager came to an end. Since then the ship has been steadied, first by temporary interim manager Michael Carrick, and now by more-permanent interim manager Ralph Rangnick.

Although the picture at Old Trafford is now very different, I’ve thought quite a lot about Rashford’s words since I first read them. In fact, his comment ‘We have to redeem ourselves’ provides two very different ways of approaching Christmas.

At this time of year, many of us get a sense that we haven’t been living the way we should have been over the previous 11 months. Even if we wouldn’t admit it, we recognise that we’ve probably been a bit self-centred, and that our priorities have been fairly narrowly-focused. And so we try to redeem ourselves with acts of kindness. Food banks and homeless shelters don’t struggle for volunteers over Christmas.

Not that I’m knocking a bit of Christmas kindness. An awareness of our blessings should certainly make us more keenly aware of those who have so much less than us. As the two men who asked Scrooge for a donation put it, ‘it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices’.

But if we’re doing our good deeds in an effort to redeem ourselves, then we’ve missed the point of what Christmas is all about.

And on the other side of the coin – if we’ve realised that we’ve done so many bad things that we couldn’t possibly redeem ourselves – what amazingly good news it is to hear of someone who came to redeem those who could never redeem themselves.

After all, why did Jesus come into the world? Why was he born as a baby in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago?

Was it just in order that he might be an example for us? That’s probably what most people think. We’ve perhaps heard that Jesus came to save us from our sins. But we tend to think that he ‘saves’ us by showing how to do better. We’re still the ones who need to redeem ourselves.

Even when we recognise our excesses over Christmas, our first reaction is to try and turn over a new leaf in January. Whether it’s through New Year’s Resolutions, Dry January or whatever – our default reaction is to try and redeem ourselves.

But in doing so, we get things completely upside down. We forget that the very reason Jesus came was because we can’t redeem ourselves – and so we need someone else to redeem us.

The words of John the Baptist’s father Zechariah are often read at this time of year. His first words in response to the news of the coming of Jesus are ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people’.

From the very beginning, Jesus’ arrival into the world was seen as bringing redemption.

But how was that redemption achieved?

It came about through that little baby growing up. As the prophets had foretold for centuries, it would require his death to bring us life. He would take the curse we deserved, in order that we might know undeserved blessing. As the Apostle Paul put it in a letter he wrote to Christians in Galatia: ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us’.

On the face of it, the life of someone trying to redeem themselves, and the life of someone trusting in Jesus, might look pretty similar. They’ll both do good things – but their motivation will be completely different.

In fact, trying to redeem ourselves is lifelong slavery – because we’ll never quite be sure if we’ve done enough. Whereas knowing that we’ve been redeemed by the sacrifice of another sets us free to live for him and pour ourselves out for others.

To say ‘We have to redeem ourselves’ is ultimately to reject the true joy on offer to us at Christmas. It’s to look at God’s greatest gift to us – his own Son – and say ‘I don’t need him’. It’s to sing with Frank Sinatra ‘I did it my way’.

But if our way worked, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come.

So this Christmas – are you still trying to redeem yourself? Or have you met the Redeemer?

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 23 December 2021

40 years in Stranraer!

Last year marked 40 years since Rev. Gerald Milligan’s induction as minister in Stranraer. Due to coronavirus restrictions, we weren’t able to mark this anniversary at the time, but we were finally able to do so at a congregational meal held at Henry’s Bay House on 20th November.

At the close of the meal, our current minister, Rev. Stephen Steele, paid tribute to his predecessor for his work in the congregation and community (past and present). Gerald and Ruth were then presented with gifts and flowers to mark the occasion.

You can read the report in the local paper below: