St James' Church of Scotland, Lossiemouth

For Christ, For You

Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

Prospect Terrace, Lossiemouth, Moray IV31 6JS.

The Union of the former Parishes of St. Gerardine's High Church and St. James' Church

Minister: Rev. Geoff McKee.

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Make Good Work

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Week 4 of “Fruitfulness on the Frontline” involves looking at how we “Make Good Work”, with Rev. Graham Crawford:

This morning, instead of ending my sermon with a video clip, I want to begin the sermon with the clip because – instead of it inspiring us to follow through on the theme of the sermon – this one issues us a challenge, a worthy challenge, a Godly challenge.

[Link to Common Good RVA video on Vimeo.com, which encourages the viewer to explore what it means to see our everyday work as a meaningful part of our Christian calling].

Childhood dreams

I wonder how many of us pursue our childhood dreams to do the things we dreamt of as youngsters?

When I grow up I want to: be an engine driver; be a fireman; drive a tractor; play football.

One of my favourite bumper stickers of all time was on the back of a wee red mini. It simply said: “When I grow up, I want to be a fire engine!”

I love that!

As the chap in the video said, they were all things that seemed like fun; exciting things to do that were full of purpose.

I do not know many 6 or 7 year olds who say that, when they grow up, they want to be stuck behind a desk all day.

And yet, as the video points out, for many of us our nine to five job ends up being a “toil of frustration”.

How can we redeem our work?

After all, as we have already said, Jesus came into the world to redeem everything. Not just people but the whole of creation – and that means our work as well. [Read more…]

Modelling Godly Character

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The sermon for 22 February 2015 by Rev. Graham Crawford. “Modelling Godly Character” is the theme for week 3 in the series “Fruitfulness on the Frontline”.

The Darwin awards and the Fruits of the Spirit

I wonder how many of you are familiar with the Darwin awards.

There is no actual award but it is a compilation of stupid things that people do – things that, in some cases, are life threatening.

The inference of the award is that these people are so stupid, they will eventually die out, while others survive.

It is a form of natural selection, evolution and the survival, not necessarily of the fittest, but the brightest, hence the name Darwin awards after the author of “On The origin of Species.”

They are sometimes shown on TV and you can find them on the internet. For the most part, while they might cause you to cringe or go “ouch”, they are pretty funny.

In a world where we believe that the strongest, the fastest and the brightest survive, the fruits of the Spirit, listed in Galatians 5, are somewhat of an anomaly.

Love, patience, humility and self-control, to name but a few, are never valued in a worldview where only the strongest survive and it’s everyone for themselves.

As a result, many people dismiss the fruits of the Spirit. Many disparage them and use their disparagement to confine them to Sundays only, or for those who don’t really work in the “real world” – you know: folk like ministers! [Read more…]

The Big Picture

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This is the text of Rev. Graham Crawford’s sermon for 15 February 2015 (Week 2 of the series “Fruitfulness on the Frontline”):

The disconnect between professed faith and demonstrated faith

In his book, “It takes a Church to raise a Christian” (which the Session are studying at the moment), Todd Bolsinger makes the startling claim that, while religion is highly popular, it is, to a large extent, superficial.

It does not change people’s lives to the degree one would expect from their level of professed faith. In other words, the faith we profess is not resulting in fruitfulness.

There seems to be a disconnection between our faith at 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning, and the way we live our lives at work and at play.

The studies that we are doing over the next few weeks, and the sermons I will be preaching, are my humble attempt to help you to reconnect.

In this attempt, one of the key New Testament passages is from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. [Read more…]

Fruitfulness in Scripture

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The “Fruitfulness on the Frontline” series of Sermons began on 08 February 2015 at St James with the theme “Fruitfulness in Scripture” –

This morning we start on our major theme for the next nine weeks.

We are going to be looking at fruitfulness on the frontline.

What do we mean by “frontline”?

We all have different frontlines.

Your frontline may be an office, a factory floor, a lunch club or a classroom. Your frontline could be the football terraces or the local pub.

In other words your frontline is anywhere that you spend time with other people, and, in particular, other people who are not Christians. [Read more…]

8 Things Jesus Never Said

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Rev. Graham Crawford’s Sermon for the Morning Service at St James on 01 February 2015:

The problem

On Tuesday morning I sat down at my desk and opened an email from a friend.

He is another minister.

He had been reading a magazine for church leaders and had come across an article from a minister by the name of Jarrid Wilson.

Jarrid, like many of us, is concerned about the rise in the number of sayings, quotes and platitudes that seem to find their way onto websites such as Facebook.

They sound very nice, often; they sound plausible, even; but also they are often just plain wrong.

Whereas it used to be that, to find your way into print, you needed to have some credibility in order for a publisher to commit time and resources to publishing what you had to say, people now can get published on the internet or quoted on websites who have no track record, no authority and – what is more – often no academic qualifications to back up what they are saying. [Read more…]

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Our Minister

Our Minister is Rev. Geoff McKee.

Lossiemouth Church of Scotland is a registered Charity No. SC000880.

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Our mission is to be a Christian community sharing the love of Christ, reaching out to the people in this area and encouraging them to worship God and grow in the knowledge of the care and love of Christ.

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