This is an extremely provocative book and I absolutely loved it. Although written for a North American cultural mindset, it is certainly applicable across much of Europe. The byline is, ‘How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself’. We live in a culture where the concept of a ‘missions trip’ […]

This is quite a lengthy book (245 pages) given that it only contains 6 chapters. Is written by a lady who was born in a large housing estate in Birmingham, UK and latterly lived in the East End of London. She writes with a tangible sense of injustice at the way those of us who […]

Congratulations. You have been saved from a housing scheme background and you have taken the step to enter into cross-cultural ministry. Ministering to the middle class is fraught with many pitfalls and dangers, and is therefore not to be entered into lightly. Please take time to read the following. As a people group, they are […]

One of these partners has been with an American Pastor, Brian Croft, from Kentucky who is also the founder of Practical Shepherding Ministries. As regular readers and subscribers are aware, this is a blog largely aimed at men and women currently working in, or hoping to work in, areas of urban deprivation in the UK. I […]

I have been involved in Christian ministry for 14 years now in a variety of cross-cultural contexts. In that time, I have read dozens of books and hundreds of papers/essays on missions and church-planting theologies and methodologies. Buzzwords come and go, methodologies come and go, and fads come and go. Trendy ideas fall out of […]

There are lots of little articles flying around the ‘blogosphere’ on how to be more ‘missional’ etc. Some of them are helpful and some of them are breathtakingly hilarious. Here are some of my tips of how not to engage ‘evangelistically’ on a housing scheme. Remember, it’s just for fun! 1. Sit in the front […]

Although this is a website dedicated to housing scheme ministry in Scotland, I want to highlight a video from America today. Here is a short video from Dhati Lewis, from the Rebuild Network, interviewing some Christian brothers about urban church planting in their context. Obviously, our situation is completely different in Scotland, but there are […]

Any planter worth his salt will always have a book on the go. We must never stop thinking. We must never stop learning. We must never stop seeking to grow in our understanding of God’s Word and how to apply it to our specific cultural contexts. Tim keller calls it “agile learning”. It’s cheesy but […]

Paul Rees is the lead pastor of Charlotte Chapel, a large independent Baptist Church in the centre of Edinburgh. This was the church that invited me to take over the revitalisation of Niddrie Community Church in 2007, and they have played a large part in growing a thriving gospel ministry. We are also immensely thankful […]