So, I have a spare hour or so to write a post about my ongoing trip to the States. I write this in a big house in Jackson, Mississippi. So far, I have travelled to Omaha and Louisville, and the experience in all three places couldn’t have been more different. In Omaha, I stayed at the […]

Aubrey Malphurs, is his book, Planting Growing Churches says this: “Christian leaders are godly persons (character) who know where they are going (vision) and have followers (influence)” (p.126). Character People need to be trustworthy if they are to succeed in ministry. Certainly, there are lots of good actors out there but, sooner or later, the […]

If you want to start a fight in a church, start a debate on the Doctrine of God’s Election. If you are not sure what that means, then read how The Belgic Confession briefly summarises it: “We believe that all the posterity of Adam, being thus fallen into perdition and ruin by the sin of […]

When we look at the NT, and the book of Acts in particular, we see that the gospel spread and the church grew through the proclamation and teaching of the ‘Word of God’(Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20). That must be the basis for any and all ministry in our congregations—we must be ‘Word based’. That is […]

Sorry to break it you, folks, but there never were any ‘good old days’. These words were written by J. Gresham Machen in 1933 in response to growing concerns over the future of the church in the face of a worldwide depression and a growing liberal scepticism. “The responsibility of the church in the new […]

The more I (begin to) understand the American mindset when it comes to church planting, it becomes clear that many (not all) of our cousins differ to us on the notion of success. How do we know when we have made it? How do we gauge when we have been successful in planting? Some think […]

In my last post, we looked at the issue of stress and burnout. We looked at some of the ways in which over-tiredness can affect us and those around us. Today, I would like to offer some practical tips to help us. Rest is such a hard thing to achieve in our frenetic culture. Finding […]

We all know that feeling: when Monday morning feels like Friday evening, and the energy levels are at an all-time low. The question of how we recharge our batteries spiritually, physically, and mentally is important for church planters, pastors, and inner-city church workers. I have just spent some time with a dear friend of mine, […]

What do we do with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 10:39? “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” The context is sending out the 12 to proclaim the ‘kingdom of heaven’ (10:7). They were sent out as‘sheep amongst wolves’ (10:16) […]

What enters our minds (as local church leaders and/or gospel workers) when we think of inner-city housing schemes, council estates, and/or projects (or other socially deprived areas we know of)? What do you think that the residents need in order to alleviate the problems they face? It is easy to try to appease a guilty […]