“Come over to Scotland and help us”

Agnes Brough, women’s, children and youth worker at St George’s - Tron in Glasgow, fills us in on the situation, and her experiences, in the Scottish church.

I think it would be fair to say that Scots have a tendency to be a bit pessimistic and cautious. We see the problems not the possibilities and suck our teeth and say, “I don’t think that will work.” I am no exception and so it was with some apprehension that I returned to Scotland five years ago after 15 years in the south of England. I had very much appreciated and benefited from a church in which the teaching of the Bible was central and in which many lay people were involved in Word ministry. I had loved camps where the Bible was taught well and I had done the Cornhill Training Course in London and made many like-minded friends – none of whom were going to be anywhere near Glasgow. I was apprehensive about leaving all that behind. I joined the staff at St George’s-Tron Church to do children’s, youth and student work and evangelism amongst women in the city centre. The Tron was unusual in having a ministry staff of 4 and a Trust established to make the most of giving for gospel workers. By and large, though, the pattern in Scotland was of one paid minister – rather than a staff team – and of most, if not all, of the Bible teaching being done by that one man on Sunday – rather than many people teaching the Bible in many contexts through the week.

The transition has not been particularly easy but good friends and contacts through conferences have helped enormously, as has the growing staff team at the Tron. And the fact is, however despondent I might be on a dreich¹ Glasgow morning, God is at work, our labour is not in vain and there are all sorts of signs of growth.

The biggest single encouragement has been the start of Cornhill Scotland. It was begun by Willie Philip, minister here and previously Director of Ministry at the Proclamation Trust in London. Edward Lobb moved to Glasgow with his wife, children, mother and chickens in 2005 to begin preparations and the course began in September 2006. Bob Fyall joined the teaching staff in September 2007. The course is an official Cornhill course and the syllabus mirrors that in London. Teaching days are Monday to Thursday to enable placements at churches outside Glasgow – with students able to spend four days in Glasgow and three away. One bold student last year combined Cornhill with a placement at his home church north of Inverness. (Consult a map. It’s very impressive.)

In the first year, there were 12 students. Of those from the UK, five are now in paid ministry in Scotland, one is training as a Bible translator in Nairobi and one is a full-time mum. The others have chosen to return to secular employment but are thoroughly involved in ministry in their churches. It’s exciting to think of them putting their training into practice for the sake of the gospel in churches across Scotland. The posts they fill would almost certainly not have existed without Cornhill. This year there are 10 students, and we pray the Lord will send many of them into the Scottish bit of the harvest field too. We pray too for another good intake for next year.

One spin-off of Cornhill Scotland has been the heightened sense of partnership with those churches which have had students on placement or had a Cornhill mission week team. That can only serve the gospel and the network of partnerships can only grow as the number of Cornhill students and Cornhill graduates grows year by year. Cornhill Scotland also organises a conference aimed at younger ministers in June and one-off day conferences primarily for church leaders.

In our own congregation, we set up a students and young workers Bible study and training programme called Release the Word. We pinched the format and name from others. The Lord has blessed it wonderfully – numbers coming have grown and numbers of students settling at the Tron with its focus on Word ministry has also grown in just 2 years. People have said that Release the Word has completely changed the way they read the Bible. We’ve seen a number of new leaders emerge and begin to handle Scripture confidently and well themselves. There are maybe 10 people leading this year who had not been trained or tried before. The Lord has been at work and providing all that we need – so much so that when we had to expand from 7 groups to 10 because of numbers this year, we were able to do so. And eight of the new CU leaders are students who have joined us in the last couple of years. We are grateful to God for blessing us in this way. We have felt on the back foot all the way along – very unsure of what we’re doing, out of our depth and at full stretch. GK Chesterton’s advice that if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly has been a very real encouragement to us and a good antidote to Scottish risk-aversion.

It has also been a great joy to be able to take on three apprentices this year – a new departure for us (though one or two other congregations in Scotland have similar, though less formal, schemes). Two are from the Tron and one is from Edinburgh via Cambridge – which gives us the twin encouragements of seeing home-grown folk training and of seeing someone return to Scotland. It’s great to share ministry with them and to see the work here through fresh eyes. We plan to recruit again for next year (please see the 9:38 website for details!) but these three will be around for another year. Our ministry training scheme has trainees at Cornhill full-time in year 1 and full-time at the Tron in year 2.

We thank God for His faithfulness and for all that is going on. Overcoming my natural reticence, I have to say that we would love others to come and join us in Scotland – there are many opportunities and lots to do. Many ministries that might be well established in similar churches elsewhere are at a pioneering stage in many places here. It’s very easy to get sucked into the south east (of England, that is) – reaching escape velocity took me 15 years – and we’d love to see Scots returning. We'd love student workers in England to encourage Scottish students to head north again after graduation. We’d love the help of anyone willing to come. There are keen churches throughout Scotland – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness – and in some of the wee places in between and round the edges. Cornhill Scotland obviously serves Scotland but could be a good option for others too. It costs less to live in Glasgow than in London and a smaller group of course mates may suit some.

When I was wee, I genuinely thought that the Macedonia mentioned in Acts 16 must be in Scotland because it began “Mac”. Maybe I could pick up on that connection and say, “Come over to Scotland to help us.”

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