Changing Church

For the last 3+ years our home church has been St George's Tron in the city centre. The teaching, fellowship and Gospel-oriented heart of the church has been a huge blessing to us in that time. Most of you know that we have recently moved back to Calvary Glasgow, in an effort to serve and support the ministry there, but we are still members at the Tron and we still attend Sunday evening services there whenever possible. Despite loving where God has placed us in serving at Calvary Glasgow, much of our heart and many of our dear friends still remain at the Tron.

Several months ago, in response to recent developments within the Church of Scotland, the congregation of the Tron voted unanimously to leave the denomination. After months of meetings and negotiations, the Church of Scotland decided not to allow the congregation to remain in their church building and rejected offers to lease and buy the building. Instead, they plan to appoint a new minister and install a new non-existent' Church of Scotland congregation to 'carry on evangelical work in the city centre'. It was a painful, but not unexpected blow, especially since the congregation had invested £2.5 million of their own money on renovating the church building a few years ago.

Last Sunday morning we attended the last service in the old building. It was an incredibly sweet service- a chance to refocus our hearts on what really matters and look to the future. As one of our friends put it, 'As of today our church has a new name, a new place to meet, and in many ways a new beginning. We don't have a new God, a new Gospel, a new message or a new task. Some things have changed, but the important things have stayed the same. In the middle of persecution, loss, disappointment, we go forward in the arms of the  unchanging God.' 

Unfortunately, the congregation's attempt to move on quietly and peacefully has been met with further hostility from the Church of Scotland, who took legal action against the minister and church leaders, interrupting a prayer meeting to serve them with papers claiming that they 'illegally' removed hymn books, bibles and the organ from the church building before leaving. These men will now have to waste their time/money in court proceedings in order to demonstrate/prove that these items were purchased separately by the congregation and have never been Church of Scotland assets. If that were not enough, the Church of Scotland has also reported the minister to the charity regulator, accusing him of failing to 'act in the interests of the charity' while he was a Church of Scotland trustee. (A more detailed report has been written by a Dundee minister. You can read this here.)

Sadly, all of this drama has been playing out in the national media- because journalists love reporting religious hypocrisy and accusations of corruption. These developments are disappointing and serve as a red hot warning of what happens when we place any institution, organization or denomination above the Gospel in our hearts. It would be easy to feel beaten down by ungracious actions of the Church of Scotland, by the war of words and the legal red-tape, but every time I feel weighed down, I am given gracious glimpse of how the Lord is building his church in the midst of what appears to be ruins. 

Just a few weeks ago, we had the privilege of welcoming more than 50 new members to the congregation. Among those baptised that night were two Iranian asylum seekers- just two of a growing number of new brothers from that closed country, who fled to the UK searching for political freedom and personal security, only to be introduced to the person of Jesus Christ and the real freedom He brings through the cross. The congregation will temporarily hold their services in their old church halls (now owned by Cornhill Scotland- a pastors training institution). The building cannot accommodate the growing congregation for long, but the leadership were recently able to purchase the property next door, which gives the church the ability to expand and maintain their vibrant city centre ministry. It will be cramped quarters for a time, while construction and renovation take place, but then the congregation is well versed in dealing with renovation projects. Our minister recently reminded the congregation that buildings can sometimes constrain ministry, so while we are saddened to walk away, it is incredibly exciting to see what the Lord will do in this next chapter. 

I could share so many other examples of the Lord at work through this mess, but since this is already a long post, I will leave you with two quotes I've had on my heart while mulling over this week's events. The first is the last verse of a hymn we sang on Sunday:

"And though they take our life,

Goods, honour, children, wife,

Yet is their profit small;

These things shall vanish all:

The City of God remaineth!"

(Martin Luther)

And finally, I end with an awesome promise from Jeremiah 17: 5-8:

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

    who draws strength from mere flesh

    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;

    they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

    in a salt land where no one lives.

 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

    whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

    that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

    its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

    and never fails to bear fruit.” 

There are certainly days when it feels like a year of drought, but how sweet it is to rest in knowing that if we trust in the Lord, He will still be at work, allowing us to bear fruit in this difficult place.