Hint: They aren’t biblical.
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 […]
20schemes is a cross-denominational ministry. Our concern is to revitalise/plant gospel-centred churches. I have said elsewhere that our intention is to plant Baptist churches (if we have to). However, we are happy to partner with any and all who can agree to our statement of faith (see website). That is why we are seeking to […]
By proclaiming the full, transformative gospel, of course. Listen to Charlene’s story below.
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. […]