Dear friends,
At the Guild last night I showed a DVD of video clips of Dalserf Church Events mostly from 1990-1992. The experience generated a variety of emotions. Inevitably there was wistfulness as we saw those who have since passed on, in some cases spouses. There was hilarity as we viewed styles of dress and hair which we had forgotten about (and no bad thing in some cases!). There was deep regret as we saw ourselves with far fewer wrinkles and different coloured hair (and also more of it in my case). One thing that was evident was the decline in numbers attending certain events. One was the children's holiday club. I seem to recall that in the early days of summer holiday clubs (which we used to run ourselves) we could have over 100 children between Ashgill and Netherburn. This year the maximum we had was around 30. Another such event is Focus. In viewing the tapes in the process of compiling the DVD I came across an event in Rorison and at first glance assumed it must be some kind of special service since it is so uncommon to see a large congregation in Rorison. Then I realised it was one of the first meetings of Focus. When Focus first started we had around 60 attending. Another event we watched in part was a Christmas Eve service. Although this is still a well attended service, Dalserf church was certainly "bursting at the seams" on that occasion.
One danger in all of this reminiscing which we must avoid is that of hankering after "the good old days". To do that is to live in the past which is a sterile if not counter-productive exercise. Learning from the past however is different. We need as a congregation to consider what message is conveyed by these statistics. It is true that some reasons for decline are not ones that necessarily need give rise for concern. For example there are fewer children in the parish than there were in 1990 and so the decline in numbers attending the Holiday Club seen in the light of this is not quite as acute as it might appear. I can think of no corresponding reason to mitigate concern for the decline in Focus. The conclusion would seem to be that spiritual refreshment is just not the highest priority with an increasing number of people. Unless we the people of God are wholehearted in our devotion for God and desire to live and witness for Jesus Christ we cannot expect to see people finding faith and the church being built up. I would urge you to grasp every opportunity to develop your spiritual life and also as a Christian grasp every God given opportunity to commend the Christian faith to others.
With Christmas approaching I don't think there can be any time of the year more conducive to speaking about spiritual things to those outside the family of the church. For this reason this year we are going to combine the distribution of Christmas leaflets with a door to door visitation of the parish in early December. Please pray about this and if you are willing to participate speak to Rita Fairley who is coordinating the names of the visitors.
Have a happy and blessed Christmas.
D. Cameron McPherson
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