A question that I get asked a lot is, “How do you engage women?” Unless you are one of those rare women who works from home, does all her shopping and banking online, and only talks via text and email then, in some way, somehow, throughout our everyday life, we are engaging with people. Some […]
Listen to Paul speaking to a church dividing on ethnic and social lines in Ephesians 2:14–17: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was […]
“It doesn't look as bad as I thought.” “I’ve seen worse.” “I thought it would be rougher than this.” “I don’t know what I was expecting but this looks OK.” Just some of the comments I have been noticing more and more from overseas visitors to the schemes (specifically Niddrie). It’s fascinating, to me anyway, […]
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 […]
London is a cosmopolitan city. It is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. It’s a whole swirl of colours and people and nations. It’s almost the very definition of cultural diversity. We find this to be the case even in its housing estates too (although there are always exceptions!). Birmingham is similar, but with a higher Muslim population […]
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 […]
A ‘celebrity’ preacher, probably American, is preaching across the street from my house. This geezer is one of the top three ‘greats’ in the Christian world right now. But, on the same Sunday morning, one of my best mates is preaching hundreds of miles away from my house. Hardly anyone’s heard of him. He’s a […]
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 […]