Mez McConnell is the senior pastor of Niddrie Community Church and director of 20schemes. He is the author of numerous books, including The Creaking on the Stairs: Finding Faith in God Through Childhood Abuse (Christian Focus) and Is There Anybody Out There?: A Journey from Despair to Hope (Christian Focus). He's married to Miriam and has two daughters. You can follow him on Twitter.
We have just finished a 10-day trip to Canada sharing about the work of 20schemes and also partnering with 9Marks for a day conference on church planting among the poor. Some of the questions we were seeking to answer were: Why is the local church so important in the life of the Christian? Why does […]
We have just finished a 10-day trip to Canada sharing about the work of 20schemes and also partnering with 9Marks for a day conference on church planting among the poor. Some of the questions we were seeking to answer were: Why is the local church so important in the life of the Christian? Why does […]
Halloween is always a tricky time for Christians. I vaguely remember ‘trick or treating’ as a young boy, carrying a pocket full of eggs. Even if we got goodies, we would usually end up throwing eggs at some poor unsuspecting householder. If somebody was really mean, we came back later with stones. It was not […]
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 […]
Some people are so frustrating and annoying. That is a fact of life. It is unavoidable. Even the most sanctified and patient of us struggle with difficult people (just ask my wife). There is a danger though, and it is this: Sometimes we hear something about another Christian or a leader and we make up […]
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. […]
I first got introduced to the scariest moustache in the world about two years ago through the work of CCEF. So, I thought I would take the time to review one of Paul Tripp’s most popular books, seeing as it is standard reading for those working within Niddrie and for 20schemes. I have to say […]