Now into it's second full year, Issue 5 of Spill the Beans is now available for download. This is another very full issue, 136 pages, based in Mark's gospel for the remainder of the season of Pentecost. Questions are often at the heart of the dialogues that Jesus had with people he met and spent time with. We explore those questions in this issue. As an additional bonus there are also ideas and resources for Harvest Thanksgiving.

Inside you will find worship ideas and resources, including Bible notes, stories, prayers, reflections, music suggestions, and more, and for age groups you will find suggestions for activities, crafts, games and teen discussion resources.

If you have already used Spill the Beans, you will know what a great resource this is, created by folks here in Scotland. If you haven't, but are intrigued, have a look at this sample.

If you'd like to download a full copy of Issue 5 for use in your church or personally, then click the button below. It is an absolute bargain at only £12. You can make a secure payment via PayPal and then the file should wing its way to you.

Please follow the instructions carefully. The Adobe pdf file is approximately 5 MB.

You can also get involved in feedback and discussion on the Spill the Beans blog, where we try to put up weekly PowerPoint backgrounds too.

If you would like a print copy of Spill the Beans, Issue 5, then this can be arranged. The cost is £20+P&P and these can be arranged directly with the office at Lanark Greyfriars Church. Each issue is in full colour and comb bound for ease of use. We have had to raise the costs of the print copy from our initial issues as we have found the original costs were not covering the costs of producing the copies.

If you would like to order copies (which are all printed to order so there may be a few days to wait before you receive yours) then you can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your order details. An invoice will be issued after dispatch of your order. If you prefer you can contact Greyfriars Church Office on 01555 661510 and place your order over the phone.

A very quiet blog during July is the usual sign of mayhem in the Johnston household... It has been an extraordinary month with Carolyn away in the United States for a couple of weeks spending time with her family. A longer taster of what it is like to be a single parent fairly opened my eyes, my hat is tipped to single parents everywhere who keep life together, organised, calm and happy. The kids were actually great, but I have been so busy working that we were not able to spend much time doing any family stuff.

On top of that, the house has been a worksite with a new bathroom being fitted - much needed to replace the rather decrepit room that had been the family bathroom for all these years. It looks great, but the work has taken three full weeks with lots of complications in the plumbing (old houses!) to work round. However, it all should be finished today. Yay! The guys have done a fabulous job, kudos to them all. [There's more...]

The day has been spent getting everything together for the end of year primary school services. Thanks to Karen Harbison for the idea of using sunflower seeds! I relieved B&Q of all their sunflower seeds, and visited the schools to give out plant labels for the Primary 7 children to add their memories of primary school on one side of the label, and then their hopes for next year at Secondary School (for most of them that will mean Calderside Academy) on the other.

After getting a planter bag for the children to place their labels into, along with a seed, I realised it looked a bit boring and plain without a backdrop of some kind to place behind the table. Great idea!! Fiddly execution... After five hours of cutting out and messing around with PVA glue on a funky foam backing, this is what I ended up with. It's about 1 metre square, so everyone should see it. It never ceases to amaze me how this kind of thing always takes far longer than you think.

Now to cut out all the cards with a message for the P7s and envelope these up with a seed to take home. It will be a fun evening...

[Update: From the first of the services yesterday for David Livingstone Memorial Primary here are some of the tags the P7s planted in the grow bag along with sunflower seeds. Another service for Auchinraith Primary this morning.]

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A wee treat for any rock music fans out there! Carolyn and I trekked down to Sunderland's Stadium of Light last Thursday to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in the most northerly of the UK gigs the band was performing as part of their Wrecking Ball tour. It was a rather scary thought when Carolyn asked me when I had first been to a Springsteen concert... almost 25 years ago at Wembley Stadium in 1988 was the answer. And the concerts are still as electrifyingly awesome today as they were 'back in the day'. It is amazing that he is 62...

The video above was from the very end of the concert with performances of Dancing in the Dark and Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, the latter which contained a very poignant tribute to Clarence Clemons, Springsteen's right hand man since the band began, who died last year. The many famous saxophone solos that Clarence used to perform where handled by his nephew Jake during the concert. [There's more...]

I finished reading Finlay Macdonald's new book "Luke Paul" this evening. Very Rev Dr Finlay Macdonald (to use the full title!) was Principal Clerk of the Church of Scotland until his retirement, a past Moderator of the General Assembly, and before that a parish minister. He has written before and I also have a very helpful book of his on my shelves summarising some of the big debates in the history of the General Assembly, "Confidence in a Changing Church". "Luke Paul", however, is a rather different book in comparison to this earlier work.

This is a piece of historical fiction, if you will. It is the story of a parish minister, Rev Luke Paul, nearing his own retirement, living through the period October 2010 to May 2011, with the backdrop of a Church of Scotland that (like many denominations) is in the process of deciding whether to accept the ministry of gay and lesbian people living in committed relationships with their partners. Dr Macdonald has to be commended for writing a book that tries to do justice to the intricacy of the debates and history of debates, while also giving a flavour of the depth of feeling and real lives that are affected by these debates within the Kirk. He uses storytelling as the means to provide what, he states himself, he hopes will be a positive contribution to people's understanding within the Kirk of this issue. On the whole, in my opinion, I think he succeeds. [There's more...]

First off, a big thank you to Andy Williamson and David Burt for stepping in to lead the worship on Sunday morning! I'm feeling a lot better, if still coughing and spluttering somewhat. Thanks for the prayers, folks!

I confess I have also missed most of the Jubilee celebrations for Her Majesty over the weekend - just not feeling up to watching much TV. We did, however, have our own belated celebrations for Robin's, ahem, 75th, with a festive union flag wrapped cake today!

In the evening, just as the clouds started to sprinkle we got out with Keely for her third walk of the day (truly spoiled today) to Redlees Quarry. I really appreciated getting out and about having been stuck at home for the past few days.

It is one of the delights of venturing back into dog ownership that you do get to explore many more of the local spots than you ever would without a beastie in tow. Two places we had never explored before (shameful, I know) have been the parkland around the old Priory where the football pitches are and the reclaimed Redlees Quarry. The latter we've been to regularly (in part also to get Keely used to the car, which is still troubling for her), but over the last couple of weeks they have really opened up the walks there with a number of new paths taking you around the site. It is great. [There's more...]

This one has been a long time coming, and apologies to all those (around 135 churches for Issue 3) that have been awaiting the next Issue. We had intended it to be available at the beginning of this month but my ill health rather got in the way of any extra-curricular activities, like editing together all the fab creative goodness from the team. However, finally, Issue 4 of Spill the Beans is here! This covers 3 June to 26 August, or Trinity Sunday to Pentecost 13 for the liturgical among us.

We're delving into the story of King David in this issue following 1 and 2 Samuel through the lectionary. It is quite a journey! We haven't skimmed over the tricky bits, but that does mean there are a couple of challenging albeit also helpful and enlightening weeks along the way. It is a worthwhile journey, however, and there is something each week for all ages.

If you'd like to download a copy of Issue 4 for use in your church or personally, then click the button below. It is an absolute bargain at only £12. You can make a secure payment via PayPal and then the file should wing its way to you.

Please note, when you have completed payment the window you will see has a yellow button saying "Return to Merchant". You must click on this button in order to get to the page where you can download the file. There is no other way to receive the file or link code to the file, it is not emailed to you. You have 24 hours to download the file, so if there is a glitch in the download, you can try again within that time. The Adobe pdf file is approximately 5 MB.

You can also get involved in feedback and discussion on the Spill the Beans blog, where we try to put up weekly PowerPoint backgrounds too.

If you would like a print copy of Spill the Beans, Issue 4, then this can be arranged. The cost is £20+P&P and these can be arranged directly with the office at Lanark Greyfriars Church. Each issue is in full colour and comb bound for ease of use. We have had to raise the costs of the print copy from our initial issues as we have found the original costs were not covering the costs of producing the copies.

If you would like to order copies (which are all printed to order so there may be a few days to wait before you receive yours) then you can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your order details. An invoice will be issued after dispatch of your order. If you prefer you can contact Greyfriars Church Office on 01555 661510 and place your order over the phone.

We always have refreshments in the form of tea, coffee and squash after the service, but this morning we had a wee treat with Jim Brown serving fruit juice cocktails with a very fine collection and the ability to mix your own exceedingly delicious refreshment. On such a hot day, this was indeed a refreshing refreshment.

It would be lovely to have this each week in the hot weather, but this was a special as the juices came from a Boys Brigade fund raiser for the World Mission Council and their work in Zambia.

Perhaps icecream floats next week if the weather stays good? Anyone?

Belatedly, a few pictures from last weekend's brilliant weekend away for members of Cosy Café Sundays. I became swallowed up in trying to finish editing Issue 4 of Spill the Beans as soon as I got back (and took a trip to visit the doctor!), but that is now finished, so I can catch up on these things!

We had a fabulous time. I was rather worried when we left Hillhouse Parish Church on Friday evening in our convoy of two minibuses and the luggage car when the rain started pouring down as we drove along the M8, and that evening it was pretty driech in Scoughall, just a few miles from North Berwick. But the weather just got better and better over the weekend so much so that instead of treking into Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon, we stayed at the campsite and played some wild games of nukemball! [There's more...]

After many months of planning our first Cosy Café Sundays weekend away has arrived. We pick up two minibuses from the Blantyre Volunteer Group tomorrow and will set off to a sunny (I hope) Scoughall near North Berwick for the weekend. We're staying at the Scripture Union Scotland campsite that is right on the beach.

We have 18 young people and 9 leaders, a full programme, and what should be the makings of a fantastic time together.

Please keep us all in your prayers over the weekend.