Barnhill St. Margaret's Parish Church

A Church of Scotland Parish

OSCR SCO 11017

Mission Committee

 

Something to look forward to….

January can feel a bit flat after all the excitement of Christmas, but not in 2012! The church has booked a weekend away at Crieff Hydro for the 20th to 22nd January (Friday night to Sunday). The cost is £138 for a single room and £266 for a couple sharing and includes: dinner, bed and breakfast.

If you want to see what facilities are on offer then check out their website but it claims to be arguably the most comprehensive family and child friendly resort in Scotland, set in 900 acres of grounds.

More information and booking details will follow shortly.

Advertise Your M & S?

We can tend to think of mission as dragging people back to church, but mission is more about showing God’s love in action, mingled with talking about our relationship with Jesus. The way we live our lives either attracts people to Jesus, or turns them away from him. People will judge Jesus much more by what we do than what we say. In several of his letters St Paul comments on how the lifestyle of the early Christians was being gossiped about. So don’t be worried about what you can say – the sort of people we are already speaks volumes.

 But what can I say if someone does ask? Teaching forensic science has emphasised to me the importance of witnesses. All they do is tell (as best they can) of what they saw, no more and no less. It is then up to the jury to decide, based on the evidence of all of the witnesses. Jesus described his followers as witnesses – all we have to do is tell of what we know, no more and no less.

In 2012 we are having a year of mission and at first the idea may sound daunting. However, I hope it will actually be something that will excite us instead. What we hope to do is to arrange a series of different activities that you feel comfortable to invite friends along to, because you believe they will enjoy it. Some events may have a short talk, but others will simply be occasions for them to meet other Christians and have fun together. We already have a number of such activities in our calendar (e.g. the golf day, our cafe, and the men’s breakfast) but we’ve got a number of other ideas as well and if you have any suggestions we’d love to hear them.

So what has this got to do with advertising your M&S? Recently the minister used a carrier bag for the children’s talk and the bag was labelled “Your M &S”. It struck me that we’re a bit like carrier bags, advertising everywhere we go, except our inscription should be “Jesus, my Master & Saviour”!

 

G Wightman, Mission Convenor.