GadgetVicar

Microsoft Office 365 Saves My Embarrassment

A few months ago I bought Microsoft's Office 365. It's sold on a subscription basis at £79.99 per year. For that one gets Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, Access, Excel, and Publisher. It can be installed on five devices, including Macs and some mobile devices. In addition, there's 20gb of cloud storage using Skydrive (giving a total of 27gb including the free storage that anyone can have) and 100 minutes of global Skype calls per month. One feature that is also included is the ability to stream the Office applications to any computer. Frankly, I never thought I'd use this feature. Until last Saturday....

I'd been given permission to officiate at the wedding of Avril and John at a hotel on the south side of Glasgow. I'd made all the preparations, printing off the marriage ceremony and putting it at the front door, ready for our departure. When we arrived at the venue, I realised that I'd left the words of the ceremony at home. I think the apt word to describe me at this point was, 'Numpty'. I knew that I could find it online and cobble something together, but that would be complicated. Then I remembered that I'd stored the ceremony on Skydrive, so could download in from the Cloud. Then I realised that it was in Publisher format, so couldn't be read unless the computer had that application. However, I also remembered that I could stream the software, and did so, very quickly, in the hotel's reception. Problem solved. Microsoft Office 365 was a lifesaver on this occasion. I've since saved the file as a .pdf, just for future insurance, but I was grateful for technology that saved me from some considerable embarrassment!  

Tonight I Will Mostly Be Watching: The Lumineers

From Huddling to Standing

Thanks to our friend Darren and his family, we were at the Celtic-Dundee United game on Saturday and had a grand old time. Our nephew loved it. Eight goals and a tremendous atmosphere despite last week's defeat by Juventus. We even got one of these celebrations. My bluenose friends were somewhat perturbed by my visit, but they ought to know about my ecumenical credentials by now.

Two things lingered with me after the game. Firstly, "The Celtic Huddle". Here it is in action from a couple of years ago:

It was a joy to be there and see it happen. And ironic as well, because in the morning I'd been teaching about a different kind of huddling as a vehicle for discipleship. The plan is to try and roll this out in the coming year as a way of making disciples who make disciples. Details of what is involved can be found here.

The second thing that struck me was how often we got to leap to our feet when a goal was scored. The standing was an acknowledgement of excitement at success and the prowess of the players. My colleague Gordon was preaching at the morning service yesterday and one thing he mentioned was the importance of acknowledging God. Instantly a light went on for me about why we stand up in church. It's not just a ritual, or something we have to do. We leap to our feet to acknowledge God: what the Father has done for us in Christ and in sending the Holy Spirit to give us Life. Next time you are in church and the leader says, "Let's stand to worship", why not try leaping to your feet and remembering who God is and what has been done for you. I'll look forward to being part of that excited congregation.

New Scottish Hymns Tour

Here's some exciting news: the musicians behind the New Scottish Hymns album are to tour it. 

I'm delighted that St Silas' is to host the first gig on the 13th of March. Details and tickets are available here.

Take a listen to the music here and please buy the CD or download it if you like it.

Wouldn't be great to encourage a new generation of Scottish songwriters to put their creative gifts into writing hymns and songs which have powerful theology and will stand the test of time? 

The Civil Wars - My Father's Father

I'm seeing this duo perform in Glasgow tonight. Beautiful chemistry.

The Church IN Scotland

Could it be that as we see the historic reformed denominations tear themselves apart and many new churches springing up, we might be seeing the birth of something that could be known in the years to come as The Church IN Scotland?  There will be no organisation or heirarchy, no assemblies or synods, no national committees or central headquarters, but it will exist at a local level in every village, town and city, where followers of Jesus meet in homes or buildings, serve their communities and each other, worship in different styles from contemporary to plainsong, and truly love, respect and bless one another? Just dreaming aloud.......... 

St George's Tron

I've been watching the unfolding story of the secession of the people of the Tron Church in Glasgow from the Church of Scotland with some concern. I have questions about the timing of such a move and whether it would be better to have waited to see what happens in the coming year, but that is a question of tactics. My understanding is that the Tron congregation is willing to come to some financial arrangement with the Trustees of the Kirk  that would allow for payback of monies owed and the continued use of the Tron's facilities by the existing congregation for Gospel ministry in the city centre. Yet, no such agreement has been reached at a time when the Kirk is seeking to close churches down, merge others and sell off the assets released.

Something seems not quite right here. Yes, I've heard it said that the Tron has not payed its full dues in years gone by and that harsh things have been said on both sides, but there seems to be a vicious attempt to shut down the congregation's very existence. Some point out that the buildings don't belong to the congregation and that they belong to the Church of Scotland. Of course, that's true legally, but morally they belong to the people who pay for them and spiritually they belong to the Lord.

Since my letter which urged grace upon all concerned appeared in The Herald last week, several good folk have written lengthy letters to me seeking to clarify some aspects of the situation. I know there is a lot of hurt around. But the response to hurt is not to lash out but to forgive and be reconciled.

Therefore, I'm thinking that this situation is degenerating into questions of power, ego and worst of all, punishment. None of this is good and I'm cnow very concerned that this will play out in the glare of the media as it comes to court. My wee congregation knows what that is like from a situation it faced thirty years ago. In the end, the legal result was favourable to the congregation, but the resulting emotional and spiritual pain took many years to heal.

In all of this, I'm reminded of the separation of Paul and Barnabas. In Acts when a second missionary campaign was planned, Barnabas proposed taking Mark as a helper, but Paul resisted the idea. The New Testament record indicates that a “sharp contention” developed between them (Acts 15:36-41). This was over an opinion, not doctrine. They could not reach an agreement, and so they split up. As far as the biblical record indicates, these two remarkable people never saw one another again. However, the segmentation of their work did not disrupt permanently the love and respect that Paul and Barnabas had for one another. Paul would later affectionately mention Barnabas as being worthy of financial support in his work of proclaiming the gospel (1 Cor. 9:6).

On a wider note, it's worth thinking about the significance of this for "evangelicals" in Scotland. It seems there is much tribalism and little unity among us, and I feel ashamed of this. David Robertson of St Peter's Free Church in Dundee has written very perceptively about this over the last few days in his blog, "Why I no Longer Call Myself an Evangelical". It is a scandal that we do not speak of or treat one another well, but perhaps it's because when we can't agree on tactics (in this instance - stay for now, stay at any cost, or go now), we aren't mature enough to honour our brothers and sisters who discern a different way ahead. Such disunity hinders any possibility of the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ impacting very many people in Scotland, for we reveal that we are not very transformed ourselves. Now, I wonder whose plan that is?

Marriage (It's Happening Right Now!)

Love Is Patient & Kind

We're doing a series on 1 Corinthians 13 at our morning services through the summer, and this morning's preach was to be about love being 'patient and kind'. I got an object lesson in this, when a text arrived at 1038 from GV Girl #1, who has been unwell with tonsillitis asking if I could take her to hospital, followed by a phone call from GV Boy at 1100, saying that his sister was now struggling to breathe. The options were to stay put, do the preach, then go and check her, or to rush off and deal with it immediately. It seemed urgent, so I made my excuses, handed over to the other staff and left with a heavy heart.

There followed a visit to A & E (a bad call as they were very busy), then the GP out-of-hours service (who weren't busy at all). The pharmacy has suppied her with four different drugs, and those combined with honey and lemon lozenges should sort her out. The main bonus was some unexpected or sought quality time with GV Girl #1.

It's been a great reminder that, no matter what age my children are (and they are all grown up now), they need my patience and kindness, even when I ought to be working elsewhere. And a powerful reminder too of God's infinite patience and kindness towards me, awkward, difficult and sinful so-and-so that I am.

Scotland at the Euro 2012

It's a little known fact, but Scotland remains in the running at the semi-final stage of Euro 2012, at least at the website of Peter Ould. By some miracle, I've managed to reach third place in predicting the results of the games to date. After a rubbish start, things have picked up considerably. So, football-savvy readers, what do you predict for Portugal-Spain and Germany-Italy?

Maybe we could do this together and win, for the honour of Scotland. After all, other than the wonderful Homeless World Cup (Scotland holds the title at present, and this year it's held in Mexico) our qualifying abilities for major championships is pretty dire.