Andrew Quigley is known as a gifted preacher on two continents, offering gospel messages in the United Kingdom as well as the United States and Canada. His voice carries across the fields of Scotland when he preaches outdoors. But the pastor of the Airdrie Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland has a simpler self-assessment.

He calls himself a “plodder.” He is in good company with William Carey, missionary to India. Plodding runs against the grain in the United States and doesn’t synchronize easily with a fast-food culture. Andrew brought his message of perseverance in the Lord to Indiana in late December.

He spoke at the Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery CYPU Winter Conference, in Monitor, Ind., near Lafayette, on the theme of loving God. Then he taught and preached at Second Reformed Presbyterian Church on the New Year’s weekend Sabbath.

He married the theme of plodding with a vision for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom across Scotland. The vision comes from the Scriptures and its doctrine of Christ’s mediatorial kingdom and dominion over all areas of life, especially the church. That vision permeates the history of Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

But Andrew, who grew up in the Irish RP Church, has witnessed firsthand Christ’s pruning of the RP Church in Scotland during his 16 years of Airdrie ministry. Sometimes he has been discouraged, as churches have been closed. Yet there have been some new and encouraging developments as well. Andrew has been used of the Lord to see a plodding revival in the Airdrie Church. Today about 75 people now gather for worship on the Sabbath.

The church also just started a Sabbath meeting in Glasgow, in hopes and prayers for a new RP church. Quigley gives credit to the Lord and also attributes these welcome advances to a weekly one-hour prayer time he enjoys with his four elders.

But the work is hard. Andrew and his teammates in ministry can put in much time witnessing to Christ with an individual or family and get discouraged when the fruit does not come forth for months or years. In contrast to the Lord’s more rapid advances in some Asian or African nations, the kingdom seems to go forward at a slower pace in Scotland at this time.

He also knows that those of us in the Scottish and American church can be impatient. We give up on obedience to Christ too easily in matters of witness and discipleship. The pace can be slower than we are accustomed to experiencing at fast-food outlets, but our responsibilities for scriptural obedience remain.

“We need to get back to a plodding mentality, just every day doing what Christ would have us do,” Andrew said on his visit. “I am a slow learner. I have to keep being retaught the same thing over and over and over again.”

He attempts to combine the plodding principle with a vision for Christ’s kingdom, taking encouragement from the church’s history. The Scottish church faced the Stuart monarchy persecution of the late 1600s, until William and Mary peacefully took over the rule of England and Scotland as King James II abdicated the throne.

Not joining the state church, the reformation societies became the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the late 18th Century. They were called Covenanters as a nickname because they sought to renew the commitments made in the Reformation covenants in the late 1500s and 1600s. The Lord blessed the church with much growth in the 19th Century, when William Symington was preaching and pastoring and wrote his classic book on the kingdom, Messiah the Prince. That was the subject of Rev. Roy Blackwood’s doctoral work in Scotland in the 1950s, and early 1960s. His thesis has been updated and rewritten for easier reading by Michael LeFebvre, pastor of Christ Church Reformed Presbyterian of Indianapolis, and has been published by Reformation Heritage Books.

The Lord used Dr. Blackwood in church planting in Indiana, and Andrew enjoys coming to that state to catch up with many old friends, some of whom have been over to Scotland for mission trips and Covenanter history tours.

Andrew also keeps this history alive for the RP church worldwide with a semester in Airdrie, as well as Reformation Tours that highlight Covenanter history (www.reformationtours.org) and www. reformationhistory.org).

Andrew also offers learning and discipleship opportunities for college-age kids through the Semester in Scotland program he runs in conjunction with Geneva College (www.semesterinscotland.org). Any student can transfer into the program.

Though his accent is slightly different from “Hoosier,” he always brings refreshment—this time the admonition to plod for the Lord, on behalf of a glorious vision for Christ’s kingdom.

—Russ Pulliam