BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

It has now been one year since we moved back into the old red church building on Great George Street. After planning and permission we spent all last week, from early in the mornings until late at night remodeling the front of the church building.

It looks amazing!!!

Tim Bailey lead the rebuilding efforts on our non-existent budget using whatever we already had or reusing the things which we tore apart. So many people gave time to pound nails, to tidy, to climb ladders, to demolish, to rebuild, to do whatever needed doing. I am so amazed by the enthusiasm and hard work of the people in our church.

To watch a time-lapse video of the week click HERE

These are some of the things I have been praying about these days.

• Thankful. After 5 years living in Scotland and praying over the University of Glasgow I was finally invited to speak at the Christian Union. It was a great honour to be asked to speak and God seems to really have blessed the time.
• Thankful. On Sunday our church had a feast. This time we also had an “open mic” for musicians and singers to play. Wade cooked up some fantastic food. Leah, Aimee, and Lesley pulled it off amazingly. (Stephen’s Blog Post)



• Fruit. God seems to have used the feast to intrigue people about Church and about Jesus. I am praying that God continues and nurtures this “interest” so that these people give their lives to him.



• Thankful. It has almost been 1 year since we have been back in our building. We do not own it yet, but in the mean time God has been so good to us. We perpetually live with the understanding we could be kicked out with the shortest of notice and yet one year later God still allows us to meet here. I do pray that we will be able to buy the building soon, but I am also thankful for this time of cheep rent.
• Re:Awakening. Next February begins the Re:Awakening conference; a conference targeting the Student population in Scotland. I have been invited to speak at it which completely lines up with my heart but I have been asking God, “Do You want me to speak?” and if so, “Will You powerfully move?” www.re-awakening.org.uk (site not completely ready yet)



• Revival and Awakening. One consistent message from our time in London two weeks ago was how Scotland is decades behind spiritually.  D.L. Moody in the late 1800’s was preaching and seeing a massive revival 1/4 of a mile from our church. For a while Scotland burned bright for God, but then generations grew up who knew nothing about what God did in the revival and who chose to reject God. I am praying for something I have never seen; a real reviving and awakening of the emerging generations here in Scotland. I invite you to join with me in praying for this until it happens.

God still hears prayers. God is still moving. I am so thankful for all of you who join with me in interceding for us and for Scotland.

Stephen Irwin has written two interesting blogs on the church.

The first is of our baptism and service yesterday which you can read HERE.

And the second, he found an old picture of our church that is nearly 60 years old which you can read about HERE.

Enjoy!

In missionary circles, much is made of the “10/40” window, roughly described as the nations between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north ranging from Northern Africa to Asia. In this window we find the centers of the other main world religions such as Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim… For the record, I want to state that I am a huge fan of mission’s efforts to these desperately dark nations, they need more missionaries, they need Jesus. The other day, I became aware of more Churches choosing to exclusively focus their efforts on this region of the world, and although it seems to have good reasons behind it, It is a short-sighted and unbiblical mistake to ignore the rest of the Jesus needing planet.

I was thinking about the missions need in Glasgow, Scotland. Now I have lived here for 5 years and have interviewed Christian leaders as well as heard reports on the state of Christianity from the Church of Scotland and conclude that I am being generous in the following Glasgow statistic. It seems 1% or less of people under 40 years of age in Glasgow would claim to be a Christian.

• Using the statistics from the most recent edition of “Operation World,” it seems that if you are in Saudi Arabia walking down the street you are 4 1/2 times more likely to be walking past someone who claims to be a Christian than someone within a decade of my age here in Glasgow.
• You are almost 13 times more likely to be passing a Christian in Egypt…
• You are 2 1/3 times more likely to be passing a Christian in Pakistan…
• You are 2 2/5 times more likely to be passing a Christian in India…
• You are 1 1/2 times more likely to be passing a Christian in Thailand…
• And shocking to me, you are more than 1 1/2 times more likely to be passing a Christian in Iraq than someone within a decade of my age here in Glasgow

That said, ‘Never believe statistics.’ There are regions in those nations far, far more absent of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than my generation here in Glasgow. Everyone of those nations in the 10/40 window continues to need more ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. Yet the great commission refers to ‘The ends of the earth,’ Jesus talks about ‘All nations.’ In our zeal to see the gospel sent to the nations let us not run the strategic error of neglecting the rest of the planet, places like Sweden, Argentina, Uganda, Russia…

Let’s not over think missions. Let us get those men and women, called by God, who have been divinely given a heart for a people or a place, to the field God is calling them to. And may they be ready for either years of ploughing hard soil or the altar of ultimate sacrifice. And may those who stay also prepare for years of sacrifice on behalf of the gospel being sent to the ends of the earth.

After way too many experiences of humiliation and failure over the past 4 months I have finally passed my driving test. One of the things about being an alien is that even the most little of things, like a drivers license, or opening a bank account seem to be so much harder.

I am not going to say, “I deserved to pass,” I still can’t believe I did. All I do want to say is a special thank you to all of you who through taunting and laughing helped to produce added humility in this heart of mine.

Also, a special “shout out” to Andy Ashworth for the long hours of patient instruction and the use of your car– “Above and Beyond, Bro.”

I also want to thank the optimistic faith of my father who wrote this card over 6 months ago in anticipation of me, one day, passing the British driving test.

PS. Those who are wanting to phone us, we continue to be without a home phone line and may be for a couple weeks yet. It is like we are real missionaries now:-)

Almost 50 people, including children, converged in two shifts for a time of remembering Jesus’ fulfillment of the Jewish Passover at our home last evening. A powerful evening. Leah did a brilliant job both coordinating the meal as well as massively rewriting our Seder service. Here are a few pictures of a fun and full evening.

“Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the Universe…”

Sorry about the terrible picture, but the retreat went great. We had lots of fun and great worship led by Andy and the Re:Band. I am always surprised by how fantastic retreats are. Leah and Mike did a great job putting the weekend together, it is great to be surrounded by such high quality people.

As for the messages, Stephen Irwin describes them HERE on his blog. I am not sure how effective the messages were yet. The messages geared towards us becoming us a missionary people. I guess I wont know how effective the speaking was until I see how people apply the things we talked about.

Thank you to all who prayed, I really needed it. And thank you to Mark Jones who somehow got his hands on Mountain Dew and blessed me with a can for breakfast each morning:-)

This weekend I am speaking at out church retreat.  I would really appreciate prayer both as I continue to prepare and for a significant weekend for our church.

Thank you to all those who pray…

These past few weeks of ‘silence’ have been some of the most challenging and personally enlightening days of Re:Hope. Times of tragedy and challenge can be profound in revealing what we are actually made of.

2 weeks ago, 25-year-old Chris Gaston died suddenly in his sleep without warning instantly stunning his family, our church, and all who knew him. The family invited me to travel to Northern Ireland to preach about Jesus to what turned out to be just under 600 people- half of whom didn’t believe in Jesus. (the memorial service in Northern Ireland can be listened to in it’s entirety HERE- I start talking around the 16:30 mark.)

Two days later, our church did a combination memorial service and church service for Chris hosting many from the Glasgow School of Art who came to remember Chris (the message can be listened to HERE.)

This season has revealed that we are a church who cares, who really do love one another. This season has revealed hidden pastoral gifts amongst the people of our church as they choose to pursue one another and listen and cry and sit with one another. This season has revealed our urgency as messengers of essential and good news.

As a church we grieve with Tony (Chris’ brother) and his family. In life Chris was loved and gracious… Not a day goes by I am not thinking about Chris and his family…

May our father of compassion, the one who is close to the broken-hearted be close to you.

I care…

Two or three years ago Mike Strunk, of Christ’s Church Federal Way, Washington, gave me a simple book penned by John Piper entitled, “The Passion of Jesus Christ.” A more precise title would be, “50 Ways Jesus is Good News.” Each ‘chapter’ is a brief 2-page reflection on a specific verse that identifies a significant aspect of what was accomplished on the cross and why Jesus had to die.

We know some of the more ‘normal’ ones:

To save us from our sins.
To make peace between us and God.
To rescue us from slavery to sin and death.
To redeem us.
To Forgive our sins.
To make for himself a people of his own possession zealous for good works.

Some less common ones would be:

To redeem us from the futile way of life passed down by our ancestors.
To no longer live egocentric lives but to live for him.
To show that the worst evil is meant by God for good.
To free us from bondage to the fear of death.

As I preach, I want every message to come back to at least one gospel truth—one reason to celebrate Jesus. I find in Pipers tiny book, an amazing resource for going a bit deeper in the many faceted great truths about Jesus. Thanks Mike.