I’ve read and listened to some great blogs, wonderful books, and outstanding preaching this year. Here are a few of my more memorable ones as I look back at 2014. They are in no particular order. Books 1. The Pastor’s Justification by Jared C Wilson. Writing excellence and immensely challenging. This is a must have […]

A good planter and revitaliser will have to be a first-rate communicator. They must be able to explain their vision, excite and stimulate people, and incentivise them to join his team. A good leader will need to communicate the following in the early days: Explain the gospel Explain what healthy church should look like Explain […]

Although we have three main full-time positions we would like to fill for each scheme we engage in—church planter, female outreach worker, and ministry assistant—our fledgling ministries are always on the lookout for potential team members. A solid team of people committed to the gospel and the same vision have a far greater chance of […]

This is the first on a series of posts on how to approach church planting in the schemes. There isn’t one clear way to plant a church in a housing scheme. There are multiple ways to approach the ministry. Pioneer a church plant from scratch. Take a team of believers with you into an area […]

If we are committed to evangelism fuelled by the doctrine of God’s election, then the best place for this to take place has to be the local church. As Christians go into the world with the message of the gospel, we are called to baptise people into the church. It is within that local body […]

With the explosion of interest in mercy ministry in evangelical churches has come a lot of well-intentioned people with a lot of poorly-thought-out theology. So, it’s not uncommon to hear people refer to evangelism in the following terms: Preach the gospel and use words if necessary. Evangelism is as much about what we do as […]

50 years ago, in Scottish schemes, gospel halls were thriving as City Missions opened outreach posts on housing schemes. Many never quite made it to local church status as they were run more by committees than by elders. City centre churches saw them as nothing more than outreach centres they could send interested members to […]

“You can go into almost any city centre in Scotland and take your pick of evangelical churches. Granted, they are not as numerous as previous decades but there are still, by and large, some healthy ones to be found. Sadly, you cannot do that in many of the poorest communities of our country. If the […]

Scotland is changing. The spiritual landscape has undergone a seismic shift in the last few decades. Obviously, there is nothing new under the sun and society ebbs and changes throughout history. The problem is that many churches have not reacted well, or in some cases even at all, to some of these societal changes and […]