I had the wonderful privilege to visit in Scotland in 2003 and 2004 doing mission/evangelistic work. Scotland is a beautiful country with many warm and friendly people.
In 2004, St. Peter’s Free Church in Dundee was one of our stops. We spent a couple of days in Dundee and helped St. Peter’s do some canvassing for an event they were to be holding soon thereafter. David Robertson is the minister there and does an outstanding job. You may or may not recognize that St. Peter’s Church is the one where Robert Murray McCheyne ministered. In fact while we were there, we helped Rev. Robertson with his new book presentation and signing in a bookstore in Dundee. The book being released then is titled Awakening, The Life and Ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne. I posted on McCheyne over on my older blog back in December. You can read that post here.
Enough background. What is Scotland’s need? In one sense, Scotland’s need is the same as the USA’s need, Ireland’s need, Russia’s need and every other country around the world. Scotland needs the gospel.
Bryan Kee, the Assistant Pastor at St. Peter’s, has written an excellent piece over at Reformation21 on Scotland’s Need. Here are a few excerpts.
Scotland today suffers from a famine of hearing the voice of God. People are so caught up listening to the many voices of modern life that they no longer have time, or the desire, to hear the words of God. The secularization of Scotland has removed the Christian heritage not only from the academy but also from the minds of the population. The God of the Bible has been replaced by the many and various idols of a pagan society.
Paul [in 2 Tim. 3:1-7] describes a situation which is very similar to what we experience today: lovers of self (individualism), lovers of money (Materialism) lovers of pleasure (hedonism) without self control etc (subjectivism) and you could even argue, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth (relativism). So for Timothy things were not much different than they are for us. How then does Paul instruct Timothy to deal with these things?
Surely there is a great formula and plan that can be worked out. Maybe Timothy needed to start a new organisation or run some sort of course. Maybe going to theological college could be the answer. No, none of these were options for Timothy. Instead, Paul gave him two basic instructions for ministry in the last days:
1- Continue in what he had learned from Paul and his mother and grandmother who taught him the Scriptures (3: 15,16).
2- Preach the Word, Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (4: 1,2)
So Timothy’s answer for ministering in a Pagan society was to proclaim the gospel of Christ Crucified from the Scriptures. Should our approach be any different? How else are people who are biblically illiterate and have no knowledge of God even begin to start to know God if we do not preach Jesus Christ from the Scriptures? How else will people come to knowledge of salvation if we do not preach the Gospel from the God-breathed Scriptures which are able to make them wise for salvation?
Indeed the entire Letter of 2 Timothy is a charge for Timothy ministering in Ephesus to preach the biblical gospel. As John Stott points out the Letter can be broken into four charges Paul gives to Timothy: guard the gospel; suffer for the gospel; continue in the gospel; and preach the gospel. (Stott, 2005)
In post-Christian Scotland what is needed are more preachers who will take Paul’s advice; preachers who will be Gospel driven, word based and willing to suffer and endure for the sake of the gospel. This is why I believe preaching is so important to the gospel and the Church. If the Word of God was able to make people wise for salvation and rebuke, correct and train in righteousness in the first century, then can we not have confidence that today in our pagan culture it can do the same?
Scotland’s need, as well as the Church’s need, is to follow Paul’s advice to Timothy. The gospel is what will change the world; and people need to hear it. So we need more Timothys who are prepared to guard, suffer, continue and preach the gospel. We need more preachers who will systematically preach the biblical gospel to build up and send out the people of God into the world to proclaim and live the gospel.
Gospel driven Churches with the systematic preaching of the Word at the centre of what they do is what is called for. If we are to re-evangelise Scotland then only the effective Word proclaimed in the power of the Spirit will transform the hearts and minds of a pagan people and stand against the philosophical and assumed beliefs of the age.
Some of this sounds really familiar. You really should read the entire post by Rev. Kee. I highly commend it to you. And perhaps we in the US can learn a thing or two from these brothers and what they face, as well as how God wants us to engage the very same need here on our soil. God raise up such preachers who will thunder forth your Word in your power, unashamedly and unapologetically!
