These are two separate issues. A start-up team, also known as a launch team (avoid the term core group), is composed of those persons who initially partner with the planter to start a new church. This team will do the hard work, including community research, completing surveys, preparing materials, speaking with unbelievers, building relationships, initiating discussions, […]
Church planters and/or those involved in revitalisation must know who it is they are trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to consider our target community before we can proceed to establish/revitalise a church at any level. Here are some questions we ask our church planters to research in the initial […]
In order to secure the long-term viability of ministry on a scheme, we have to raise financial support. It is very rare for this to happen overnight, and so requires both faith and patience. Therefore, we need to be on the lookout for funding avenues at all times. This can come in the shape of […]
This was an exciting weekend at Niddrie Community Church as we inducted Andrew Mathieson into the ministry and sent him as a church planter to Lochee, Dundee in partnership with Central Baptist Church. We are excited about what the Lord is going to do in the years ahead as we begin the long process of […]
Do You Have 100 Prayer Partners? This is one of the targets we set for anybody wanting to plant or revitalise a church. A church planter needs lots of prayer support. When we enter the schemes, we are entering satanic territory. He has been quite happy for people to have been in spiritual bondage, without […]
September is an exciting month for 20schemes. We will have a church-planting project happening in Lochee, Dundee (more on this in later blogs) and we will begin the process of church planting in a neighbouring scheme to us in Niddrie called Gracemount. We will be filling you in on more of the details as things […]
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 […]
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 […]
The more I (begin to) understand the American mindset when it comes to church planting, it becomes clear that many (not all) of our cousins differ to us on the notion of success. How do we know when we have made it? How do we gauge when we have been successful in planting? Some think […]
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 […]