{"id":1871,"date":"2015-10-20T13:36:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T20:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2015-10-20T13:36:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T20:36:22","slug":"moderator-designate-for-the-free-church-of-scotland-general-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871","title":{"rendered":"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are entering the GA preparation season with moderator candidates being announced and overtures being endorsed. So here one of the early announcements&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>A couple of weeks ago the <a href=\"http:\/\/freechurch.org\" target=\"_blank\">Free Church of Scotland<\/a> announced <a href=\"http:\/\/freechurch.org\/news\/former-london-chief-exec-named-free-church-moderator-designate\" target=\"_blank\">their selection<\/a> of the Rev. Dr. John Nicholls as their Moderator Designate for the 2016 General Assembly. Rev. Nicholls currently serves, in semi-retirement, as an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smithtonchurch.com\/new-here\/staffjohnnicholls\/\" target=\"_blank\">associate minister<\/a> at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smithtonchurch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Smithton Free Church<\/a> of Inverness, but may be best known as the former chief executive of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcm.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">London City Mission<\/a>, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christiantoday.com\/article\/london.city.mission.pays.tribute.to.outgoing.chief.executive.john.nicholls\/32396.htm\" target=\"_blank\">position he left back in May of 2013<\/a> after more than 20 years with the organization. He began his ministry at <a href=\"http:\/\/kilmalliefreechurch.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ardnamurchan, Lochaber<\/a> in 1975 before returning to his home town of London to serve at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.londonfreechurch.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">London City Church<\/a> and then the City Mission.<\/p>\n<p>He began his higher education, according to the press release, at the Universities of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bradford.ac.uk\" target=\"_blank\">Bradford<\/a> and then <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leeds.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Leeds<\/a> studying mathematics and education. He completed his theological training at what was then Free Church College (now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freescotcoll.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Edinburgh Theological Seminary<\/a>) and his doctorate is in practical theology from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wts.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Westminster Theological Seminary<\/a> in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/freechurch.org\/news\/former-london-chief-exec-named-free-church-moderator-designate\" target=\"_blank\">Free Church press release<\/a> says of him &#8220;Dr Nicholls, 66, is widely respected as one of the most gentle and gracious ministers in the denomination.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The press release includes these words from Dr. Nicholls in response to the call:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cAlthough most of my years of ministry have been spent outside Scotland, the Free Church has been my spiritual home for over 40 years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIt is a great honour to be asked to serve as moderator of the next General Assembly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cHaving seen much evidence of the vitality and growth of evangelical Presbyterian Churches around the world, it is exciting to see signs of similar growth and renewal in Scotland, with the Free Church growing in membership and in the number of its congregations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cWith record numbers of students enrolled at the Edinburgh Theological Seminary, these are days of renewed hope and expectation across the Free Church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIn such a climate, the General Assembly becomes far more than a mere talking shop or business meeting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cAnd yet, the work and witness of the Free Church will only truly prosper if there is a strong and healthy passion for prayer and for the Word of God, and a genuine love to Jesus Christ, among its ministers and members.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cThat must be the most important concern of any Moderator and any Assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He and his wife Sarah have two children and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>Our congratulations to Dr. Nicholls and prayers and best wishes as he prepares for this new call. We look forward to his leadership as he moderates the Assembly and will continue to pray for him in the moderatorial year which will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are entering the GA preparation season with moderator candidates being announced and overtures being endorsed. So here one of the early announcements&#8230; A couple of weeks ago the Free [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,4,32],"tags":[170,162,168],"class_list":["post-1871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-church-of-scotland","category-ga-business","category-moderator","tag-free-church-of-scotland","tag-general-assembly","tag-moderator"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly - The GA Junkie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly - The GA Junkie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are entering the GA preparation season with moderator candidates being announced and overtures being endorsed. So here one of the early announcements&#8230; A couple of weeks ago the Free [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The GA Junkie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-20T20:36:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Salyards\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Salyards\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Salyards\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e30c1b854f165e0423ea436d3961c1c0\"},\"headline\":\"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-20T20:36:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\"},\"wordCount\":457,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Free Church of Scotland\",\"General Assembly\",\"Moderator\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Free Church of Scotland\",\"GA business\",\"Moderator\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\",\"name\":\"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly - The GA Junkie\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-20T20:36:22+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/\",\"name\":\"The GA Junkie\",\"description\":\"The Politics of Presbyterianism\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"GA Junkie\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg\",\"width\":1,\"height\":1,\"caption\":\"GA Junkie\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/ga_junkie\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e30c1b854f165e0423ea436d3961c1c0\",\"name\":\"Steve Salyards\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f098d5fd6e11f0399f5340bc917d2834c81c2c84247856402d200760feff0c86?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f098d5fd6e11f0399f5340bc917d2834c81c2c84247856402d200760feff0c86?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f098d5fd6e11f0399f5340bc917d2834c81c2c84247856402d200760feff0c86?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Steve Salyards\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly - The GA Junkie","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly - The GA Junkie","og_description":"We are entering the GA preparation season with moderator candidates being announced and overtures being endorsed. So here one of the early announcements&#8230; A couple of weeks ago the Free [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871","og_site_name":"The GA Junkie","article_published_time":"2015-10-20T20:36:22+00:00","author":"Steve Salyards","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Salyards","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871"},"author":{"name":"Steve Salyards","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e30c1b854f165e0423ea436d3961c1c0"},"headline":"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly","datePublished":"2015-10-20T20:36:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871"},"wordCount":457,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Free Church of Scotland","General Assembly","Moderator"],"articleSection":["Free Church of Scotland","GA business","Moderator"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871","name":"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly - The GA Junkie","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-10-20T20:36:22+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=1871#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/","name":"The GA Junkie","description":"The Politics of Presbyterianism","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#organization","name":"GA Junkie","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Cross-Square.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"GA Junkie"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/ga_junkie"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e30c1b854f165e0423ea436d3961c1c0","name":"Steve Salyards","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f098d5fd6e11f0399f5340bc917d2834c81c2c84247856402d200760feff0c86?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f098d5fd6e11f0399f5340bc917d2834c81c2c84247856402d200760feff0c86?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f098d5fd6e11f0399f5340bc917d2834c81c2c84247856402d200760feff0c86?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Steve Salyards"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1871"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1873,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions\/1873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}