This fall there has been an interesting development in Scotland – the launch of Reformission Scotland. To quote their web site:
Reformission Scotland is a Scottish church planting partnership.
Our aim is to plant gospel churches that will replicate themselves.
The Gospel Partnership page describes the partners as being “individuals, churches and organizations” that have a shared vision and ethos. These partners come from the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the Associated Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the USA.
From the web page describing the history of Reformission Scotland, we learn that this is an effort that goes back two-and-a-half years to an initial meeting in June 2007. From this developed a 10 man steering committee, six from the C of S, and two each from the Free Church and the APC. Their Council of Reference includes seven more men, three from the U.S., one from Surrey, England, and three from Scotland. On November 3 they ordained their first church planter, the Rev. Athole Rennie, who was trained in the Church of Scotland but ordained to the ARP. For more on all of this there is a nice description by Neil MacMillan (a member of the steering committee) on his blog, and a two-part article in the Outreach Newsletter of the Outreach to North America mission agency of the ARP. The newsletter article begins on page 2 with comments by Rev. Rennie and a good article on page 3 by Ivor MacDonald the chairman of Reformission Scotland. In the article he shares that the goal of Reformission Scotland is to have five church plants in five years. There are some nice pictures of those who gathered for the Rev. Rennie’s induction in the APC Newsletter.
It is interesting that this group has identified church planting as the key to church growth and spreading the Gospel. For more on their reasons for this emphasis you can check out their Why Church Planting Is So Important page, and the two articles that are linked there. The area identified for the first plant is Leith, the port area of Edinburgh that is now undergoing redevelopment and, from the sound of it, gentrification. This will be an interesting area in the near future.
I would also comment that the Reformission Scotland web site is attractive, easy to navigate, and easy to read. The front page alone was interesting because of the fine photography that cycles through the banner – although generic landscape shots they catch your attention. They have done a good job of providing summaries that link to more details for those that are interested. I would also point out that the page style, sans the rotating banner, is very similar to the Duke Street Church website I linked to above. For updates the Reformission Scotland page does not have a “news” or “announcements” section or a blog, but there is an RSS feed recognized by my browser. (Although I have not gotten my feed reader to recognize it yet – I’ll keep trying.) As I noted above, one source of news will probably be the Rev. Neil MacMillan’s blog since he is on the steering committee and is the Mission Development Officer for the Free Church.
A very interesting project bringing several Presbyterian branches together in mission. I look forward to how this project progresses.