Hint: They aren’t biblical.
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 […]
One a recent trip to Inverness, 20schemes interviewed several pastors from the Highlands about the necessity for church revitalisation and planting among the deprived in their part of the country. Inverness has a growing population of about 80,000 people, and some real pockets of serious poverty. Whilst there are hundreds of schemes in our major […]
Many of the single women interested in working with 20schemes have had ‘the marriage’ conversation with me at some point in the process. They often feel like saying yes to us and entering into the mission field of Scotland means giving up their chance of marriage. My response, as a single mother, is that it […]
Back in 2014, Matt Chandler kindly took some time to answer the question of how we can grow healthy churches in some of Scotland’s poorest areas. His answer? Growing indigenous leaders. This is the long-term aim of 20schemes as we work to realise our vision of 20 gospel-centred churches in 20 of Scotland’s deprived schemes […]
Former Free Church of Scotland Moderator, Rev. David Meredith now serves as the Mission Director for the Free Church of Scotland as well as serving as chairman of Affinity—a network of gospel-minded churches across the UK. Rev. David Meredith spent 30 years ministering at Smithton Free Church in Inverness (Scottish Highlands) and during his time […]
So, I have a spare hour or so to write a post about my ongoing trip to the States. I write this in a big house in Jackson, Mississippi. So far, I have travelled to Omaha and Louisville, and the experience in all three places couldn’t have been more different. In Omaha, I stayed at the […]
Aubrey Malphurs, is his book, Planting Growing Churches says this: “Christian leaders are godly persons (character) who know where they are going (vision) and have followers (influence)” (p.126). Character People need to be trustworthy if they are to succeed in ministry. Certainly, there are lots of good actors out there but, sooner or later, the […]
If you want to start a fight in a church, start a debate on the Doctrine of God’s Election. If you are not sure what that means, then read how The Belgic Confession briefly summarises it: “We believe that all the posterity of Adam, being thus fallen into perdition and ruin by the sin of […]
When we look at the NT, and the book of Acts in particular, we see that the gospel spread and the church grew through the proclamation and teaching of the ‘Word of God’(Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20). That must be the basis for any and all ministry in our congregations—we must be ‘Word based’. That is […]
Sorry to break it you, folks, but there never were any ‘good old days’. These words were written by J. Gresham Machen in 1933 in response to growing concerns over the future of the church in the face of a worldwide depression and a growing liberal scepticism. “The responsibility of the church in the new […]