“We may cut off our aid only if it is unmerciful to continue it. It is unmerciful to bail out a person who needs to feel the consequences of his own irresponsible behaviour. Sometimes we may have to say, ‘Friend, we are not withdrawing our mercy, just changing its form. We will continue to pray […]
How has 20schemes become so linked to 9Marks? That is probably one of the most popular questions I get on my travels. The answer, in short, is down to our shared convictions on the role of the local church within the world. Here is their mission statement: 9Marks exists to equip church leaders with a biblical […]
In the interests of full disclosure, this is a book written by a pal of mine. We’re not best mates or anything, but I have met the guy a few times and I like him a lot. He writes a blog here and he is also the new Director of the Council for Biblical Manhood […]
I love books. I whizz through them no bother at all. When a book grabs me, then I positively crunch through it. A couple of hundred pages doesn’t take me longer than a couple of hours. I have a few personal rules when it comes to reading. The title needs to be interesting, the concept […]
This is the second of 12 books I am studying and discussing with my Assistant Pastor and 20schemes Ministry Apprentices over the course of the next year. I have been waiting to read it with high expectations. I must admit to receiving vague threats concerning my review of this book, which I have tried not to […]
So, I am going to go through one book a month for the next year with my Assistant Pastor, one of our first 20schemes Ministry Apprentices, and some other men in the city (pastors and planters). The idea is to take one Tuesday off per month for a time of discussion, prayer, and reflection on […]
So, a friend of mine asked me if I could review his wife’s new book some time ago. He even gave me a free copy to sweeten the deal! I promptly lost the copy somewhere between the US and the UK, and so I sent an email and was graciously sent a pdf copy. I […]
About six months ago, a couple of American church planters visited our Sunday service at Niddrie. They claimed to have ‘provable methods’ to grow any church in any context. They’d heard about Niddrie through contacts in their network and wanted to come along and experience it for themselves. Warning them that our Sunday service did […]
In my 14 years of pastoral ministry, I have stumbled through cases of bestiality, incest, rape, complicated ‘family’ structures, multiple addictions, chronic mental illnesses, murder, and suicide. It has been a struggle trying to work through the mess of sinful humanity in a way that is biblically faithful—both to the injured party, their loved ones, […]
Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church can Become a Missionary in Your Community, is written by Ed Stetzer & David Putman, and is aimed at the North American market. This requires some hard thinking in order to extract principles that could apply to the UK. Despite the weird sounding title, I really enjoyed the book. […]