Hint: They aren’t biblical.
Since the mid-1990s, the demographic of the UK has shifted from the 1950s/60s pyramid, with the bottom layer being the working poor, to a diamond. The thickest middle layer includes the aspirant middle-class that has grown from the manual labouring working class; there is a narrower layer of labouring working class; and then a growing […]
I recently returned from a two-week trip to the U.S.A, in an effort to drum up support for the work of 20schemes. In a packed schedule, I visited Immanuel Baptist Church in Sacramento, pastored by Robert Briggs, one of the members of our advisory board. In partnership with 9Marks, we did a one-day conference on […]
An article on the BBC website caught my eye recently. “London’s New Housing Loses The “Dirty Word” Apparently new homes being built in London are now being renamed, ‘neighbourhoods’ instead of‘estates’, because the powers that be feel that the latter has a pejorative association. Indeed, according to the report, which you can read here, the […]
The first thing I would say about any book on marriage is that I feel a sense of conviction and belief about what is being written when I know the couple are mature and have been in “the fight” for many decades. It’s why I body swerved a certain Mark Driscoll’s book in favour of […]
This book was a New York Times best seller, and charts the ministry of Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and founder and director of ‘Homeboy Industries’. Their mission statement sums up what they do far more adequately than I could hope to: “Our Mission: Jobs not Jails: Homeboy Industries assists at-risk and formerly gang involved […]
“When all your favorite preachers are gone, and all their books forgotten, you will have your Bible. Master it. Master it.” — John Piper Bible study is an important topic for all of us trying to help people grow in the knowledge of God and for pointing unbelievers to Jesus Christ. There are very few […]
I am a (very convinced) Reformed Baptist, ministering and working in an independent Evangelical Church. I have even written a short book on preparing people (confessing believers) for baptism (see here for details). Since my move to Scotland six years ago, I became aware of ‘Presbyterians’ of all shapes and forms. Free Church, C of […]
1. Make sure that your personal walk with Jesus is firing on all cylinders. Take the time each day to be with God in his Word, meditate on what the Spirit is saying to you, and pray that he would fill you and keep you in step with his will for your life. 2. Remember […]
I picked up this book for two reasons: (1) the title intrigued me, and (2) because I was going through a phase in my life when I began wondering if I would be happier by having a change of scenery. It’s the curse of most pastors, I suppose (the honest ones anyway). If you stay […]
As regular readers of this blog know, this site is dedicated to issues largely relating to church planting within the housing schemes of Scotland. However, there are thousands of places similar to ours up and down the UK. Wales is an example of a country that was once swept up in gospel revival but is […]