The Story of Isaiah
At this year’s General Assembly, Tommy MacNeil opened the Faith Action Programme
Leadership Team report by pointing us to the story of Isaiah. He could see something of
the desolation and grief that Isaiah 6 starts with in our own story in the Church of Scotland just now.
‘In the year that King Uzziah died…’ With the passing of that leadership, was a new and
really hard time to adjust to. A nation had lost a culture of encouraging the worship of
God, to seeing it somewhat sidelined. It was not like it used to be. The change was
bewildering and stark. A church leader – Isaiah – had lost a cousin – Uzziah. There was
personal grief and loss to process; something that many people in the Kirk are feeling
perhaps more deeply than they’d expected, about the things lost to us quite swiftly –
buildings, leaders, roles in church, connections with communities.
Finding Hope
We are at a time of grief and loss in the Church. Grief is never something to rush through it will take the time that it takes. And yet, all the while there is something we always had,
can never lose, that so much of the world around us suffers without – Jesus Christ. If the
Church needs hope just now, how much more so the world around us: rampant with
injustice, polarisation and despair; running out of money, patience, time – and tragically,
hope.
Tommy reminded us at the General Assembly that Isaiah, even in the middle of national
and personal grief, was called. Called to encounter God afresh, and be renewed by that.
And called to go to the world that needed to hear from him about God.
How can a bruised and hurting local church begin to walk out to the world around it that
needs the hope we still hold dear? Slowly.
Learning Communities
That is where Learning Communities can help. The Church of Scotland has partnered with the Cairn Movement to establish Learning Communities across the country over the
coming years. Learning Communities give church leaders a place to encounter God
afresh; to be renewed by Him. And they equip church leaders – one step at a time, over a
long, slow walk – to rediscover ways of discipleship and mission with which Jesus reached the world around Him.
Churches who engage in Learning Communities can expect to find leaders brought to life,
possibilities and partnerships open up, and new missional avenues discovered. Leslie, an
elder in the Local Mission Church at Dyke and Edinkillie in Cleir Eilean I, said of his
Learning Community experience – ‘I started as a pew warmer, really. Now, I’m on this
journey with Jesus. I’m getting to really know Him. And I’m leading things in the church!
I’ve just been so blessed by the people I’ve met here, and how my eyes are being opened
to God so much more.’
We are all in new shapes of church after the Presbytery Mission Planning work of the last
few years. Now we are in this shape, where do we go from here? Learning Communities
can help churches from across an area share those conversations and journeys of
discovery together, and to find the ways they can work together, as well as the unique
things each will bring alongside the others.
What Happens at Our Learning Communities?
Learning Communities are a two year journey for church leaderships – meeting over 4
weekends during that time for prayer, planning, teaching input, conversations and food
together. Over those weekends, we look at how Jesus started the Church from something
even smaller than most of our churches today – discipling 12 people, who discipled others, who discipled others… until there were 2.4 billion of us.
We’ll start on weekend one with helping church leaderships rediscover how Jesus built a
discipling culture – investing in the few and showing them what life with Him looks like. In
weekend two, we look at how that multiplies out – the few that we disciple from small
beginnings doing that in turn with others. And our churches – however small, however
weary – seeing their people discovering their gifts and how they work together.
In weekend three, we look at how we can step into new opportunities for mission that fit
what we discover about who’s in our church and what’s in our community. And in weekend four we discover what can be done together with others in the room and beyond that’s so much greater than what we could see at the start when we were faced with looking at the ashes of what has been.
Learning Communities also offer a fortnightly discipleship group for one key leader from
each church (perhaps a minister, elder or member of the Local Mission Church leadership) someone for us to invest in, support, offer more input to, and in turn someone who can share that with a few in your church.
Often people have told me that their church isn’t ready for a journey and a commitment like this. That they first need to take some time to find their vision and calling for what’s next after all of the changes of the last few years. But the reason that Learning Communities have blessed the churches who have invested in the journey with them is that this is how they have discovered that vision and calling – over time, with support and with others. The hope, clarity and possibility that it has brought to churches and individuals over the years – including my church, and including me – has been wonderful.
To find out more about Learning Communities, please contact me at:
[email protected]
Or sign up to our Learning Community Taster Day in Perth, taking place on the 30th November 2024.
