I am being approached more and more by people (always middle class) who are not convinced by the issue of class within the UK. According to one recent conversation, 20schemes is“over egging the pudding” and, incredibly, “deliberately and provocatively stirring up dissension that doesn’t really exist”. Certainly, whenever I am invited to speak about the […]

Lewis Allen is the pastor of Hope Church, Huddersfield. He is also the director of Gospel Yorkshire, an organisation committed to the spread of gospel churches in the Yorkshire area. Lewis recently joined Niddrie Community Church on our annual weekend away, where he taught a series on the guarding the heart. We spent some time […]

About a month ago, we had a pastor from America visit us for a few days. Anthony Mathenia is a pastor from Radford, Virginia (Christchurch, Radford) and is also on the board of Heartcry Missionary Society, a worldwide organisation. We found the big fella to be very quiet and very respectful of what we are […]

If I was going to plant again. . . . I would be far more careful about who I encouraged to join the church. This is probably . . . definitely . . . the most controversial post in this mini-series! Basically, EVERY planter wants to see their church plant grow. This invariably involves people […]

If I was going to plant again . . . I would be far less bothered by what others are doing. I think it was Theodore Roosevelt who said that “Comparison is the thief of joy.”For what it’s worth, I agree with him! This is especially true when it comes to church planting. I’d like to […]

If I was going to plant again. . . . 1. I wouldn’t start with a vision for what the Sunday ‘event’ should look like. When I planted Hill City, it’s fair to say that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. The vision didn’t really go much further than “Love God and tell […]

We are here. Now what? Lauren and I left Niddrie and moved to Lochee at the end of September 2014. When we left we were two, now we are three as by God’s grace our first child—Talia—came along in November. We are very happy and grateful and have now discovered that all those people who […]

It’s almost seven years since my family and I moved to Trevethin to plant Hill City Church—and it’s been a roller coaster of a ride! In many ways, the church that I now lead looks very different to the church that I dreamed of as a young, inexperienced, arrogant, gospel ranter. That’s not a bad thing by the way! However, for various […]