Hint: They aren’t biblical.
I often get asked how and why we have so many contacts and have so many unchurched people attending our services throughout the week. The answer is quite simple: 1. We pray for people. Are you really praying for people in your area, consistently, specifically, and intelligently? When I first came to Niddrie, I started […]
So, I’ve discovered Jared C. Wilson quite late. Up until recently, he wasn’t a person who had entered my radar. I then saw his name on a Matt Chandler book (Explicit Gospel, I think) and then one day, completely out of the blue, he emailed me to write one of those thing-a-ma-jigs people write on […]
More booklet than book, this is a short, snappy, punchy, and irenic (I looked it up—it means peaceable) look at what Jeremy (Walker sounds so formal and JW has other connotations) has termed ‘New Calvinists’. To be fair to him, it’s not his term, but he does adopt it and apply it to various high […]
This is David Robertson's follow up book to his immensely (and more) enjoyable “Dawkins Letters”. His subtext is Why Jesus IS Great and, I have to say, it is a masterfully (and mercifully) simple (in the non-critical sense!) work of apologetics. This is how you make highfalutin philosophy and theology accessible to mere mortals like […]
Yesterday we looked at a series of questions I would consider to be fundamental when seeking to work in partnership with voluntary groups, mission teams, and individual donors. Today, I would like to reverse the questions. So, if you are an individual seeking to support a work like ours (or any work for that matter), […]
Here in Niddrie, we have found the following questions to be very helpful (from a local church perspective) when considering if and when we should receive outside ‘teams’ of young people who come to Niddrie Community Church for a 2 week ‘mission trip’. Obviously, they need to be contextualised to every situation, but they are more […]
This is a popular question when I speak in churches or with those who have an interest in mercy ministries or social justice issues. Here’s my own personal response to this: 1. Is the person saved? In other words, have they believed and understood the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and are now producing fruit […]
“We may cut off our aid only if it is unmerciful to continue it. It is unmerciful to bail out a person who needs to feel the consequences of his own irresponsible behaviour. Sometimes we may have to say, ‘Friend, we are not withdrawing our mercy, just changing its form. We will continue to pray […]
How has 20schemes become so linked to 9Marks? That is probably one of the most popular questions I get on my travels. The answer, in short, is down to our shared convictions on the role of the local church within the world. Here is their mission statement: 9Marks exists to equip church leaders with a biblical […]
There is lots of talk around at the moment about ‘cultural defeaters’ (a la Keller) and ‘common grace bridges’ when it comes to talk about the ‘Post-Christian’ West. Personally, I think we need to be more careful about what we mean by using the term ‘Post-Christian’, because we certainly wouldn’t want to confuse it with […]