Welcome Service

On Friday 31st May we held a welcome service for Scott McFarland who is joining the work as an assistant Pastor. It was a great encouragement to see the church filled with many friends from around the fellowship joining us of this service.

We had been looking forward to this service for some weeks and were delighted to see many of Scott’s family and friends from his home church in Omagh taking their place for the service.

From the opening note, the singing of Charles Wesley’s hymn, " Arise my soul arise," set the spirit of the meeting.

Rev. Eric Lewis committed the meeting to the Lord in prayer before Nathaniel Brown brought his first message in song.

Pastor Scott McFarland shared a personal word of testimony and outlined his childhood, conversion and his call to the work of God.  He paid tribute to his parents and family for the upbringing and encouragement he had received and to his Pastor and friends from the Omagh Independent Methodist Church where the challenge of the gospel led him to give his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. His life was first impacted through the life of a schoolteacher who invited him to a mission where he was convicted of his spiritual need. However, it was not until a harvest service in Omagh that he sought the Lord for salvation. Scott shared of God’s mercy and grace in his life and his restoration after a period of backsliding.

The conviction that God had a plan for his life began to grip his heart and in response to the deep impression from the Word of God, he applied to the Faith Mission Bible College in 2015 where he began two years of training for Christian service.  During this time God dealt with Scott about being wholly surrendered to the Lord and filled with God’s Holy Spirit. It was while he worked with the Faith Mission that he was invited to take the church services in Bloomfield Independent Methodist church. Scott had been seeking the Lord for his future and the place that God had planned for his life.  The Lord gave a burden for the work in Belfast. Scott told of the clear direction that led him to apply to the fellowship as a pastor and his acceptance by the General Council to be placed under the supervision of Rev. Eric Moore

Rev. William Park spoke on behalf of the General Council welcoming Scott to the work and led the congregation in prayer for God’s blessing upon Scott’s life as he takes up the work in Bloomfield and Lisburn.

Mr. Noel McClintock from the Faith Mission shared of his time working with Scott and the great encouragement as he watched Scott develop in his walk with God and Pastor Bobby Mackay spoke on behalf of the Bloomfield Church.

Rev. Philip Johnston who has been Scott’s pastor brought God’s Word from 2 Timothy 4.  Paul’s charge to “Preach the Word.” The challenge of the task that God has given to preach the Word  must never be neglected, there is no greater calling, no greater privilege and there is no other method of impacting and changing the hearts and lives of the young and old in our world than the clear, faithful, powerful, anointed preaching of the Word of God.

We commend Scott to your prayers that he might know God’s hand of blessing upon him as he takes up the challenge of the work of God.