Final Call!

Last call for the "Ministering for the Master" conference this Saturday. Don't think you are too young or too old for the conference. I'm especially looking forward to seeing what other young people are going to be there. It will reveal which RP boys only attend RP events to see girls! If you are going you need to register by contacting Rev. David McCullough.

Other News
A post on possibly the best EP weekend ever is in the pipeline. I don't want to do the weekend a disservice by rushing a post on it! If you've got any pictures of the weekend you want to donate please email them to us.

Our Deepest Fear

The following quote i'm sure many of you will realise is from the film, Coach Carter (with all the spiritual bits taken out), or even Nelson Mandella's speech in 1994, but it was actually a women called Marianne Williamson, a "spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of Peace Alliance.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

There are many things we can take from this great piece of writing, its great to think about how we are in fact "powerful beyond measure" instead of usually seeing ourselves like a small and an insignificant being. Its a great point to see that who are we not too be, we are children of God and with God being our strength and portion, we are powerful, although we may not know it. It is important to realise these things in life so that "our prescense automatically liberates other" other people can see how wonderful being a child of God truly is. There may be other things that personally you can take away from this but here a just a few I found encouraging.

Also it was a busy weekend for both our congrecations, Jamesy along with 2 others came into membership at Dromore RPC, also had a baptism there, and had a meeting about becoming a congrecation, in Lisburn we celebrated our 25th Anniversary of being a church body. It was a brilliant weekend with a Praise and Testimony Night on Friday, a Dinner and Slides on Saturday and special services on the Sabbath. So its encouraging times in both our congrecations so prayer would as always be appreciated.

In closing, I would like to leave a special mention to Tania Whitaker, who was our very own Kiwi for the weekend, she is some how related to the Somervilles and was staying there, she had the usual tour of Ireland, Giants Causeway, Dublin etc. Also a tour of the Somervilles houses, where they have lived for the last 7 generations of their history...................unfortunately it only took 10 Mins as in 7 generations the have only manage to move up the road!

So all the best to Tania who is on her way back to N.Z after a tour to America, Paris then she's heading to London, then spending a day on a plane to get home!

Myself and Tania

Freemasonry and the RTC

This post is not inventing some scandal linking Freemasonry and the Reformed Theological College but rather is about two events in the near future. I suppose I could have entitled it "Dates for your Diary" but that would have less imaginative than a certain Irish international rugby coach.


"Freemasonry Uncovered"


A meeting uncovering the truth about Freemasonary.

Dromore Reformed Presbyterian Church

Friday 19th October 7.30pm

A latin saying of the Freemasons is "Aude Vide Tace". This means "Hear, see and be silent". As a church we want people to hear and see Freemasonry for what it really is and we don't want to be silent on it.

"Ministering for the Master"

The church needs more ministers, if people are to be pastored, new
congregations established and the lost reached with the gospel.

But what is the work of the ministry?

How can you know if God is calling you to it?

This conference will be answering these questions.

Date: Saturday 3rd November Time: 10.00 am - 3.00 pm

Content: Seminars, Interviews, Discussion

Registrar: Rev David McCullough (Tel 028 92690155)

Registration Fee: £5 - payable at event contributes towards lunch, book and information leaflet on RTC

Please register soon if you plan to go

This conference is not some sort of College open day nor if you go will you be forced to sign up for the next intake of students! Neither is it restricted to any age range. This is a conference which all men young and old (Moses wasn't called till he was 80!) should attend as we have a duty to consider how God wants us to serve him and how to help and understand our ministers better.

How To Be A Completely Ineffective Church Member (Part 3)

Only Take

"Take Away Church” is all the rage these days, in fact there is one on every street corner. It is the new way of doing church in this “get what you can and can what you get” age. Adopting this selfish, self-centred mindset will provide you with the ideal slippery snake for scooting down to ineffective church membership.

You must think of church life as a local takeaway laid on entirely to satisfy your every need. Don’t for one moment imagine that your local church is for the glory of God and the sphere where you are to utilise your Christ given gifts in the service of others. Try and see your local church with its busy programmes as a hot food outlet, which you can visit when you feel a little spiritually peckish and scan the menu for that essential ingredient that you enjoy and avoid everything else.
In “Take Away Church” you will notice that there are some people busy behind the counter. Don’t for one minute feel pangs of guilt when you see their sweat beaded brows, and at all costs don’t offer to lend a hand. After all they have nothing else to do and you are so busy. You simply couldn’t fit in any more to your busy schedule: Monday evening it’s badminton club, Tuesdays you have your weekly dose of soaps, Wednesday (MW night) you have those extra swimming lessons, Thursday you help with the Youth Work in 1st Whatever, Friday is your evening for walking the dog, Saturday you play golf in the morning and do the shopping in the afternoon, Sunday is your only morning for a lie in, a good snooze in the afternoon and visit the relatives in the evening. You couldn’t possibly fit in any time to help out at the Take Away.
Don’t take in too much by way of showing up when the church family meets for worship. You might stumble on to a series of body life sermons where the minister will be laying it on thick about the need for everyone to do their bit. Once a fortnight should be enough to keep spiritual starvation at bay. Not in your wildest dreams should you consider becoming a twicer (am & pm worshipper). This would be ineffectiveness suicide.
In this era of “Take Away Church” you need to develop skills in sermon tasting. Make sure that you do the rounds of all the Harvest Services, BB Enrolment Services, Children’s Day Services, Christmas Carol Services, My Gran’s Got a New Coat Services just to see what’s on the menu in the other Takeaways.
Don’t for one moment imagine that anyone in your Takeaway will miss you, after all you are not even a regular customer now that your family has four months out each year at your new holiday home.
Of course there will be times when you will need just a little more than the odd sound bite of Biblical matter. For those dark days remember that you are entitled to the undivided attention of the minister, elders and the church members, after all you are a paying member. Anyway, that is what the minister gets paid for and Mrs Jones has nothing better to do than call to see your family with a casserole each week. DO NOT feel guilty and avoid any desires to pledge yourself to helping others.
When you make your twice-monthly trip to church, remember, in and out as quick as you can. Arrive late and don’t linger at the close of the service or you will begin to see that there are others with needs and that you might have the where withal to help them. It is best to join in the stampede for the door and see if can you make it first off the grid from the car park three weeks in a row.
Remember church exists for YOU!Bible Bits to keep clear of: Hebrews 10:19-25, I Corinthians 12:7

David McCullough