NETWORK NEWS
Children and Families Worker St. John's Church Linlithgow
CHILDREN & FAMILIES WORKER :- St. John's Church , Linlithgow
£19k - £21k FTE
St. John's is a thriving evangelical church with a long history of being grounded in Scripture , open to the Holy Spirit and in placing mission at our heart. A vacancy will soon exist for this post and thereby we are seeking an experienced , gifted and passionate individual with a heart for children and families ministry. You will join our team building on our existing thriving ministry. This includes Sunday Club , Messy Church , SU in local Primary Schools and a growing Parent &Toddler Group. You will also help the team by providing support as we reach out into our neighbouring communities. The hours are initially part time (20 hrs per week) flexible working hours and a potential for full time working or job share.
Further details can be found on the St. John's Church website or if you would like to discuss this further then please call 01506 517031 and ask for Keith Short (Senior Pastor.
ALISTAIR AND PATRICIA MACINDOE - LOCAL CHURCH RESOURCERS
ALISTAIR AND PATRICIA MACINDOE
LOCAL CHURCH RESOURCERS
Alistair and Patricia are well known and loved by those of us who connect with Scottish Network Churches, and also more broadly in the nation. They recently stepped out of leadership of the Rock Community Church, Dumbarton and are now free to pursue a wider calling, a calling which has been resting on them for several years. As a couple they have much local church experience, are both able teachers, and bring a wide gift mix to the table. This includes:-
Bringing a fatherly and motherly input to church leaders
Pastoring and mentoring of church leaders
Specific leadership/ministry training, including the nurturing of spiritual gifts in the local church
Bringing wise counsel
Theological refection and teaching
Retreats and spiritual direction
Creativity and the arts
Alistair and Patricia will continue to be rooted in the Rock Community Church, yet we see this transition time as a God-given moment for them to help resource the Network for growth and missional initiatives, which we sense God calling us towards. We believe that local churches and leaders benefit hugely from support and input beyond the local context and would commend Alistair and Patricia to this wider role in the nation. They can be contacted at or and by phone: 01389 890437 or 07876235173.
Scottish Network Churches Strategy Team
February 2014
GATEWAY COMMUNITY CHURCH
One of the real encouragements in this has been the local self confessed atheist left wing council community worker. Several months ago she invited us to use the local school campus by commenting; “You know I’m not religious but you guys know what community is and what community church looks like, I don’t want to lose you from this area”. Later when we were talking to the local head teacher about using the campus, she butted in on our explanation, and this left wing atheist lady, argued convincingly for us explaining to the head teacher why she needed a church in her school!
Chic Lidstone
Gateway Community Church, Perth
http://gatewayperth.co.uk/
ROCK COMMUNITY CHURCH
One of the challenges for churches is to effectively equip their congregations for the tasks in hand. If we really believe in full body ministry, how do we provide our bodies with opportunities to develop gifts that they have? At the Rock, we’re currently in the process of developing a stronger vision of where we are going and who we are called to be.
Undoubtedly our future will include the need for a range of people who can both live out the gospel but also talk of the gospel. The need to have people who are equipped to talk effectively about the good news of Jesus is vital to the furthering of His kingdom. I’d like to make it clear I’m not just talking about your standard church service sermon here. We’re looking further afield to people who can speak at small groups, outreach events, etc. We’re looking at people who can think through ideas and make them accessible for others.
With all this in mind, we recently offered a course, The Art of the Sermon, to those at the Rock. The course consisted of 5 evenings over the space of a couple of months. The sessions were built loosely around the metaphor of Frankenstein’s Monster (from the first book of Shelley chapter 2 verses 3-17.) We discussed the idea of creating something, like Dr Frankenstein, that had life to it. We looked at a few different elements connected to this metaphor including techniques for dissecting a Bible passage, finding the heart of your message, build a skeleton, fleshing out the skeleton and breathing life into it. (or alternatively if you want to be boring, ways to analyse a text, tools for structuring sermons and the use of language and voice in delivering a sermon.)
Unsure as to how many would turn up we were pleasantly surprised as to how many turned up for the first session (11 with another two saying they would be there in week 2.) The numbers dropped off a tiny bit but a core group of 8 stuck through the process. We were also pleasantly surprised with the range of ages present. There was probably about 25 years between the youngest and oldest there.
The course finished with the course participants each delivering a 5 minute sermon to those involved with teaching at the Rock. I think the teachers were simply blown away by the quality that the participants had produced over the previous 5 weeks.
We are now in the process of working out how we provide opportunities for these participants to grow and exercise the things they have learned.
Oli Higham
Rock Community Church, Dumbarton
www.rockcommunitychurch.org.uk
