Several month ago Ryan Townsend, Executive Director of 9Marks,  spent some time visiting some of Scotland's schemes. Here are some of his final thoughts on his visit.

I got this book from a pal who handed it to me saying: “Not quite sure what this was all about. Have a look and let me know.” Let’s just say that it wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement! What I discovered was a book about leadership, influencing and“creating in a cultural storm” that opens with […]

This video is part 3 of a small series we are doing with Ryan Townsend, Executive Director of 9Marks. He recently spent some time with us and visited a number of schemes in Scotland to see first-hand the opportunities for service in our country. Here are some of his thoughts.

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: …enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy… and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19–21) I was talking to one of our trainees about the […]

This is the second of a four part interview with Ryan Townend, director of 9marks. He recently spent some time with us in Edinburg(h), so we took the chance to interview him on a number of topics.

20schemes was founded almost 2 years ago in Matt Schmucker’s house in Washington DC. The idea, of course, had been swirling around in my brain for about five years previous to that. At the beginning, I wanted to call it “Deep Impact” but, after two days of brainstorming and toing and froing, we landed on […]

There is a growing sense of unease when I visit many American churches. Call it something I can’t quite discern gnawing away at me. I noticed it a while back, and it has only really become more and more apparent as my experience of American Christianity has broadened. Here’s the thing. American Christians, by and […]

I get to travel and talk to a lot of churches about the work of 20schemes. Given the demographics of evangelical churches in the UK and the culture within which it (largely) operates, a lot of the young people that talk to me are well educated and middle class. Almost always, their first question is: […]

“I didn't really know what a Christian was until the knowledge I had in my head moved down to my heart.” That’s a popular phrase in modern Christianity. I hear it time and again from young people, invariably, brought up in Christian homes. I have no reason to disbelieve the genuineness of the expression, but […]

Almost everywhere I travel I get asked pretty much the same set of questions. By far the most popular is, “How do you ‘do’ discipleship in the schemes?” This is usually followed up by, “What material do you use?” I understand the motivation because it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that much of the work […]