Times and Seasons
By Jenny Wilson, PA to the General Director, Sept 2022
‘My times are in your hands’ Psalm 31:15
After over 14 and a half years serving God at the Baptist Union of Scotland, God is moving me on to a new job with the Scottish Bible Society in their communications department. It has been a genuine privilege to serve the Lord and our network of churches in this capacity for such a long time. I have worked with some fantastic people on the staff team, as well as three General Directors over my time with BUS: Bill Slack, Alan Donaldson and Martin Hodson.
As you can imagine, I have been thinking about times and seasons recently! As the psalmist says in Psalm 31, our times are indeed in God’s hands. That well-known passage in Ecclesiastes 3 talks about ‘a time to plant, and a time to uproot’ (Eccles. 3:2) and I certainly have felt the uprooting and transplanting in recent weeks, which provides plenty of scope for leaning in and trusting God in a place of vulnerability and transition!
I think this is also a period of changing times and seasons for our churches in Scotland. So many people I speak to sense that God is about to do a ‘new thing’ (Isa. 43:19) in Scottish churches. Have we perceived it yet? It may not look like what has gone before. We may be uprooted from old ways of thinking and doing, and planted into a new way of being the body of Christ in this new season.
Are we ready to be vulnerable before God and allow him to move, speak and shape the church in Scotland as he never has before? May we be on the front-foot of what God is doing in our communities partnering with him as early adopters, not latecomers!
May we be praying for increase in vision, increase in the Holy Spirit moving in our churches and communities, empowering and propelling God’s people forward into all God has for us in the season ahead. I leave knowing that God is not finished with the Baptist family in Scotland yet, and I look forward to hearing more about the vision for Increase and what this looks like in the coming years – exciting times ahead!
As a team and as a network we know Jenny will be greatly missed. Her contributions, hard work, knowledge, attention to detail, relational ease and generous spirit have brought so much joy and efficiency to the work of the BUS over the last year 14 and a half years, and we are so thankful for the countless ways God has used her during her time as PA to the General Director. We pray for Jenny in this exciting new season, and trust that as she follows the path clearly marked for her that God will honour and bless her courage in stepping out in faith, on these new adventures.
Lyndsay
