CONTACT MAGAZINE April 2020 Page 1
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FROM THE MANSE . Contact Magazine "Together, to share the love of Jesus and make disciples APRIL 2020 through prayer, worship, learning and example, reaching out to our community and beyond, with a vision for the future." Fullarton Parish Church Manse, 48 Waterside Irvine. Dear Friends, some snippets from my annual report with a little more: Big Picture: Since returning to our fresh buildings 4 years ago we’ve seen a continual rise in service attendees and 2019 saw a notable spurt in new members & adherents. Connexions open dai- ly as a hospitable thoroughfare for caring relationships is growing a large ‘soft fringe’ of people involved in our caring community, some of whom want to explore faith in Christ. The Learning Com- munities material has helped us become even more focussed on sharing Jesus’ Love & ‘apprenticing’ people in Christ. 30 people are completing their 18 month Grow Group journey in Spiritual Leadership and 2 new groups will enter the same growing pro- cess. We pray that, with a servant heart, graduates will pas- sionately continue on into positive roles & responsibilities. I’m grateful to the numerous teams that make up Fullarton Church & Connexions, freeing me to focus on supporting & encouraging leaders of our teams (e.g. Kirk Session, Pastoral Care, Worship, Music, Alpha, Grub n Gospel, Teen Challenge, Action Group, Phase 2, YaC & Sports, etc). I’m now Presbytery’s Pioneer Ministries Implementation Group team leader, which will demand more of my time as we grow a more outward looking, mission minded & disciple making presbytery and facilitate new pioneer ministries to help us plant new expressions of church. Fullarton has an important task, along with other congregations, in sowing some of our own pioneers into this planting process. CONTACT MAGAZINE April 2020 Page 1 Gaps: We congratulate Mike Rennie on 25 years as our dedicated A note from the trainee minister….. treasurer & welcome Sandy Dickson into the role. We salute Lind- sey Forsyth for her 10 years of faithful & fruitful service as our Youth & Community Development Worker, wishing her well in It is hard to believe, but by the time you read this article, I will have pastures new. This has left a gap, which we hope to fill by end of less than 5 months remaining of my placement at Fullarton Parish year, once funding is sourced. Church. As the saying goes… ‘time flies when you are having fun’. My time at Fullarton so far has been very busy and it has been my Till then the Gate drop-ins are in mothballs, as are Messy Church & aim, with the help of Neil, to experience as much as possible of the Encounter, until we find teams ready to take them on. Thank you life of a minister, and to learn from these experiences. I have been Wendy Johnston for previously leading us in Messy Church. We fortunate to participate in as many aspects of Sunday worship as continue to advertise for a part time Youth Pastor to help us Grow possible and I have really appreciated and benefitted from these Young (please pray) and help in re-establishing these outreaches. experiences. I have also had the great privilege of visiting people in their homes, in hospitals and in care homes. It has been so Phase 2: With a feasibility study & business plan we now seek interesting hearing the life stories of so many remarkable support from Fullarton members & adherents and major funders to characters. see what level of support we can realise for an extension to Connexions. The extent of this replacement of YaC’s Gate (Wilson The weekly calendar at Fullarton ConneXions is generally packed Fullarton Ch) & new sports’ space will depend on how much God with activities and so far, I have managed to experience Sunday provides. Within 3 years we should be able to build something new Morning Worship, Sunday Evening Worship, Worship in Fullarton to enhance the growing outreach of Connexions. Care Home, school assemblies, and meetings of The Guild, Grub n’ Gospel, Action Group, Boy’s Brigade, Kirk Session, Fullarton Family on Mission: The streaming of services has allowed us to ConneXions Management Team, Worship Team and Presbytery. I weekly reach 450 - 750 people and, via Alpha Course services, have also helped with Blythswood Shoebox Packing, led Seasons enabled us to share the Good News with friends & family who didn’t for Growth Home Groups and participated in street evangelism manage in person but watched from a distance. It thrills me to see with ‘The Turning’ In addition, it has also been my honour to such a welcoming, inclusive & diverse bunch that make up the conduct a number of parish funerals – both for Fullarton Parish Fullarton Family. Indeed, I have a skip in my step each time I enter Church and also for Dreghorn and Springside Parish Church. Sunday services! In managing, encouraging, enabling & leading our Fullarton ‘Family on Mission’, my focus is very much on There is still much to do, and people and organisations to visit, in apprenticing others in Christ and encouraging the young to step up the next few months but every minute of my time at Fullarton to be today’s church, not just tomorrow’s. Thank you for the Parish Church has been such a blessing and will be a great help to important part you all play in the Fullarton Team! Father, Son & Ho- me as I seek to become and Ordained Local Minister. I know that ly Spirit, lead on! God has a plan for me, and it will be so exciting to discover what that plan is. Yours fellow minister and friend Many thanks for being part of my journey. Neil God’s richest blessings, David. ([email protected]; 07858 966367) CONTACT MAGAZINE April 2020 Page 2 CONTACT MAGAZINE April 2020 Page 3 Impossible ConneXions Report - April 2020 It's impossible to find any other At the time of writing, the whole country is in the midst of a period who could suffer, die, of uncertainty surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic, which has be resurrected, shut down a number of countries and impacted massively on econ- and give an eternal gift omies, businesses and institutions. It remains to be seen how this to humankind. will effect ConneXions going forward but as I write, we are open for That's Jesus. business as usual. Albeit having suffered a growing number of cancellations. The NHS, who are one of our biggest clients for That's Easter. corporate bookings, have cancelled all public gatherings for the next few weeks, into April, and others such as Age Scotland and By Joanna Fuchs Weight Watchers have also taken the decision to close their groups down for the time being. We continue to take a day at a time and keep a close eye on the latest developments in official advice and We at Fullarton church/connexions have followed guidance handed down from the Scottish and UK governments, Government and Church of Scotland advice about the Church of Scotland and the Presbytery. We are aware that social distancing in view of the current Covid19 situation many people are feeling uncertain about the next few weeks, fright- ened about their or their loved-ones’ health and we wish to assure so all gatherings including services of worship and the everyone that we are taking all the appropriate steps to prevent the Annual Stated Meeting are suspended till further notice. spread of Coronavirus as far as is humanly possible. This involves Here is the link to see the live stream services https:// an extra concerted effort to maintain an extremely high standard www.facebook.com/FindingFullartonsFuture even if of cleanliness in and around the building, taking extra care to wipe you are not on Facebook. You can access it at 10.30 on down door handles and light switches with anti-bacterial wipes and Sunday. bleaching floors and surfaces. Our January and February turnover was 64% higher than the We will endeavour to have weekly service sheet which corresponding months of 2019, which has allowed us some will be available online on breathing space if March and April’s figures are down, so will not https://www.facebook.com/FindingFullartonsFuture prevent us from carrying out the subsidised activities and facilitating groups on the community rate to help serve the most vulnerable members of our local community. We continue to see or on https://www.fullartonconnexions.co.uk/news/ donations of food coming in so that we are able to always have a small amount of provision for people who are desperately in need We will also send out to all on the Church Roll, who and unable to get to a foodbank. have valid e mail addresses. Iif you would like to update e mail address;:[email protected] We now are closed due to coronavirus On the same theme, we are in the process of setting up a food dis- tribution services in partnership with the Fullarton Hub and the CO- CONTACT MAGAZINE April 2020 Page 4 CONTACT MAGAZINE April 2020 Page 5 Meetings with partners from other organisations and agencies, as well as volunteers are ongoing and we hope to be able to shed more light on this project in the next report. We are continually on the lookout for more volunteers to help run the facility, which is increasingly busy, so if this is something you feel you could help with, please do get in touch. In particular, we are looking for some evening caretakers, individuals (or perhaps This month’s Spotlight is on: a couple of people) who are prepared to give up one evening a Nathan Dawkins week to look after the building and our visitors.