So you’ve made it to church. Or you’ve opened a bible. Or you’ve started to ask questions about why things are the way they are. Or you are looking for a purpose larger than yourself.

Or maybe you’ve been a Christian for a long time, but you long to learn more, do more, explore more.

What next?

We’d love to be part of your journey of faith. It’s not an easy one sometimes and the support and encouragement of a community can make all the difference. We all need a place to belong.

Here are some ways you can explore further:

Joining in worship

Regular worship is at the heart of Christian faith. It’s what shapes us to be followers of a distinctive way of living, something stronger and more grounded than just being well-meaning people.

In worship we pray, we sing, we listen, we explore. We gain strength for our daily challenges, we get to know one another, and we work out how we can make what we believe real and relevant to the world we are living in.

If you find coming to worship difficult, or you live too far away, you can join our services online each week on our WestCast and/or YouTube channel.

Learning more

We also offer opportunities to explore the bible and its themes more deeply. For example we run a regular Wednesday evening Bible study via Zoom. You don’t need to be a member or have any prior biblical knowledge to join us.

Our Christian Education team also offer events such as an Advent evening and we have run periodic courses like Christianity Explored.

We also from time to time run more meditative style events, as part of initiatives such as the Aberdeenshire Mental Health Awareness weeks.

There are also plenty of other resources out there to help you grow in your faith. These include the regular Daily Worship readings on Sanctuary First and their associated Connect groups.

The Church of Scotland also has an online learning platform where you can explore a range of topics around developing purpose, gifting, and the journey of faith https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/resources/church-of-scotland-learning.

Getting active

For many people, faith grows in the doing. Getting actively involved in a cause which matters to other Christians can help us grow in faith as we build solidarity and make a concrete difference in the world.

Some of our examples include participation in Christian Aid events, the causes supported by our Guild or our Climate Matters group

If we’re involved in something you care about, do join us!

Making a commitment

While it isn’t necessary to be a member in order to be part of our community at the West, it can be an important part of your deepening faith to make a commitment to a particular branch of the church.

This usually involves meeting with our minister Rhona to talk about your faith and about what we, the church you are wanting to join, believe. If we have a few people wanting to explore this at the same time, we will run membership classes, otherwise this might happen on a one to one basis. If you are happy to go ahead you then take a couple of membership vows during a service and are added to our roll as an official member

Membership vows include the agreement to take seriously the idea that you will commit some portion of your time, talents and resources to support the work of the church. Our regulars do this anyway, regardless of membership status, but some like the accountability and extra sense of belonging which membership can bring.

Regulars who don’t wish or are not ready to become members (perhaps because they have a commitment elsewhere) can be added to the roll as adherents. This makes it easier for us to keep in touch with and look after one another.

If you would like to explore membership, or you’ve been coming for a bit and want to make sure you are on our adherents’ roll, you can begin by contacting Rhona on r.cathcart@inveruriewestchurch.org

Feeling the call

It’s also possible (and it’s very exciting when this happens) that you have begun to feel God calling you to respond in some more specific way - this could be a role within one of our teams or maybe you have a gift you would like to use in worship or as part of one of our projects. Maybe you even feel a call to some kind of ministry.

If so, Rhona would love to hear from you!

You can also find out more about how this works in the Church of Scotland https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/get-involved/serve/vocations