Recently I was thinking about the
Church and how it has held me from my earliest days. I suppose it began with a sense of belonging. Sunday was the day I went to
Church and there were people there who were kind and thoughtful. And they seemed interested in me. Always asking what I wanted to be when
I grew up. At that time my
horizons were limited to becoming a legend with a sporting institution not far
from where I lived but other ideas popped into my head from time to time.
There were the usual misdemeanours with my pals in Sunday
School. One teacher told me
years later that myself and my pal Eddie nearly drove him to distraction every
week. Little did he know that
Eddie was destined to be his future son-in-law and that his partner in mischief
would be at his side on his wedding day as his Best Man.
There came a day, however, when a
teacher at school who led the Scripture Union brought Jesus to life for me and
stressed how important it was for everyone to ask Him into their lives. That impressed me and in time
made me think of the Church in a different way. It was the place where we learned about Him and His
teaching. It was from that
place we would go to tell His story, share His love, and bring about change in
the world through lives that were changed. The Church wasn’t a building or a club or an
organisation. It was a dynamic
movement of people whose foundation was God’s Word, whose energy was the Holy
Spirit, whose purpose was God’s great plan to renew the earth.
That is the vision that has kept
me going through the years. I am
sure the same vision was before those who formed Milngavie Parish Church when
it was established 175 years ago.
So many things have happened since then on a global scale that have
challenged faith, not to mention the personal heartaches that individuals have
had to endure. So many
things have happened that have threatened the unity and peace of the
Church. But we are
still here, living the vision, telling the story, sharing the love.
The diary of a Free Church
minister, Rev Murdoch Campbell, was published recently. As he was nearing the end of his life
in 1965 he wrote this:
'There are times when the Church of God looks as if it
had perished, but how glorious and astonishing is God's power in giving her an
instant resurrection and clothing her with power! In the very hour her enemies
rejoice over her decay, powerlessness and death she springs to life,
"terrible as an army with banners." (Song of Songs 6: 10)'.
175 years behind us, an unknown future before us, we
stand on this faith.
