It was a great privilege to be invited to speak at Granton Baptist Church in Edinburgh on the occasion of their 86th anniversary. They were founded in 1940 when Europe was being engulfed in war, bombs were falling, and as Churchill took over from Chamberlain as Prime Minister to lead the wartime coaltion government – and David Attenborough was a just fourteen year old schoolboy!
Now a vibrant, growing, multi-cultural church in the heart of the Granton Community in western Edinburgh it has a bold vision to share the love of Christ with all those around them – both in practical social concern and in determined evangelism. It was a delight to get to know a lot of the people there and to find the church in such good heart!
As their anniversary service was a chance to both look back and give thanks as well as look forward and press on in mission, we turned to the following text from Joshua 4
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, ‘Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?” 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel for ever.’
God’s people were to make a memorial to what God had done – and that was to serve an inspiration to them in their future service. For us today the same applies! So we looked at five lessons for God’s people on the move. You can watch the message here:
At Solas, we love serving local churches like this and pray that we can encourage them in their mission for God in their communities!
