Tron Times: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

Tron Times is the quarterly church magazine, with articles on a wide range of church life and contemporary issues, along with snippets of news from members and associates around the world.

See right for the contents of the current issue and links to past issues.

Q & A:

How do I read past issues?

You need either Mac OS X or a computer with Adobe Reader installed to view the PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Click on a past issue on the right to open/download the PDF file to view.

Who Is Tron Times?

With guidance from the minister, Ruth Hodgson, Eileen Cullen and Kenny MacLeod have been sourcing and editing information. Photos have mainly come from our favourite photojournalist Kieran Dodds. Many in the church have been contributing articles, especially those with leadership roles.

Current Lead Article: A Wide Open Door to the City (William Philip)

Dear Friends,

As summer turns to autumn, the end of the year approaches fast, and our thoughts turn to the question of when we shall return to Buchanan Street.  ‘Will we be in before Christmas?’ is the question I am often asked.

It’s a question I can’t answer.  We hoped we would be.  But, unsurprisingly for a large project, the timetable has slipped.  Considering the extensive rot we discovered, and the significant additional emergency repairs, that we are not further behind schedule — and much more over budget — testifies to the superb management of our development team.  The Kirk Session heard at our recent meeting the extraordinary news that the current estimated budget over-run of £130,000 (almost exactly the cost of additional unbudgeted repairs) has been more than covered by funds from unexpected sources in the form of grants and donations from outwith our congregation.

Furthermore, whereas we began the project knowing we needed to raise nearly £900,000 above existing pledges, our deficit is now below £700,000.  That is still a lot to raise over the next few years — we can’t be complacent. But we have so much to be thankful for to God!

What...not when?

But back to the question of ‘when?’  We are working hard towards getting into the building by early December.  It would be great to have the new building to add to the opportunities Christmas services bring.  If we make it, there will never be a better time to invite friends and relatives to church, not ever!  Let’s pray that this may be possible, and pray now for those we’d love to come and hear the gospel at Christmas. 

Yet it may not be possible; we can’t be sure of God’s timing.  But we can trust it, and we can be sure the time will come soon.  So, perhaps we need to focus on a more important question: ‘What?’  What is the building for in the first place?  That’s the question Jesus turned the disciples to before his ascension.  In Acts 1:8, he says, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons .... ’ directing them to something more important, ‘but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come .... and you will be my witnesses .... to the end of the earth’.  And the story of Acts shows us that beginning to be fulfilled throughout the world.

So, let’s not worry too much about timings, but let’s make sure we are focussing together on the vision for the work God has given us, because that vision drives everything we are doing to the building.  Let me remind you of some words from the brochure that explained our development at the very beginning:

’’When Paul arrived in the great cities of ancient Greece, he found them replete with impressive architecture, steeped in sophisticated learning, alive with exotic ‘spiritualities’ and overrun with sensual hedonism.  Little has changed in the urban landscape over two millennia.  That’s Glasgow today. 

But Paul saw beyond the buzz and excitement of the bustling metropolis to the crowds lost in the confusion of idolatry.  His response?  He did everything he could to get a hearing for the message of the truth wherever people were.  He reasoned with the God-fearing folk who came to the synagogues on the Sabbath, but also spoke in the marketplace daily with those who didn’t.

We have a unique position in our City’s marketplace.  And so we too have a responsibility to do all we can to get a hearing for the gospel of Christ whenever people will listen — not just on Sundays, but every day with those who ‘happen to be here’ in the city....  It is for this reason — mission, not cosmetics and comfort — that proposals have been carefully developed over several years to find the best possible solution that fulfils the potential of our extraordinary site for the gospel.’’

Two buildings, not one!

It’s because of this focus on the market-place, day-in, day-out, not just on Sundays, that we need to think not about going ‘back to our old building’, but forward to two new buildings!  There is the building we know and love, (now beautifully refitted), an auditorium for our Sunday and Wednesday lunchtime services.  But we also need to think about a second building created within the same premises, a new ‘gospel shop-front’, a flexible mission station to be used throughout the week.  That is the primary purpose of our whole redevelopment: that we should have a ‘gospel stall’ in Glasgow’s busy marketplace, not to sell, but to offer freely the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!  Much of the fitting out is being done to that end.  We want people to come in and find, as David Jackman put it, ‘the most comfortable surroundings possible in which to encounter the very uncomfortable message’ of the Christian gospel.  (Which, when you think about it, is the opposite of what is often the church’s approach today: trying to make the message more comfortable, by ‘redeveloping the gospel’ while leaving ecclesiastical premises as uncomfortable and neglected as ever!)

 Many opportunities for mission are opening up to us and we will no doubt change things as experience re-shapes our gospel tactics, but here is a taster of how we hope to use ‘building 2’ during the week with staff, apprentices, and weekday evangelism teams. 

In the area you’ll walk into from the foyer (to the rear of the auditorium, behind glass screens) we’re creating a book room.  That’s not just to serve the congregation with an expanded bookstall, but to make a pleasant area where visitors can browse during the week, and so meet staff and volunteers, leading to encounters with the gospel.  New rooms upstairs will provide attractive places for one-to-one bible reading, evangelistic studies, and counselling.  We want to offer a ‘visitor centre’ experience, so tourists and perhaps school groups can see the building, but more importantly discover the message of Christ.  The new lower ground room has projection facilities, so Euan Dodds has a team producing short films for visitors: Glasgow’s gospel; the Christian history of Scotland, and how Scotland took the gospel to the world.  These will be to proclaim Christ to those interested in finding out about our history, and lead on to deeper things.

Opportunity and Adversity

I could go on, but I hope that whets your appetite and fuels your prayers for this new stage of our mission.  Prayer, and partnership in the gospel, will be vital.  Writing from Ephesus, that strategic city centre of the ancient world, from which he reached all the people of Asia minor, Paul wrote, ‘a wide door for effective work has opened to me ....’ But remember the sentence continues ‘ .... and there are many adversaries’. (1 Cor 16:9).

The door is open, and opening further, for our witness to Glasgow and beyond.  One thing is sure: our adversary the devil is furious, and will continually make war on our testimony to the Lord Jesus (Rev 12:13ff).  He’ll do it through adversaries from without, and by trying to cause discord within.  But let us ‘keep the heid’! The Bible has just the answer for us at a time like this:

‘God .... gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.’ (James 4:7-8)

Let’s listen to that, and help one another be humble, obedient, and near to the Lord, as we rejoice in the wide door for effective work that is opening to us.

Yours in anticipation.

William J U Philip

continued in the magazine...