April 22, 2013

Why We Must Support Church Planting Among the Poor in the Welsh Valleys

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 now a spiritual desert, particularly in the deprived areas.

The Welsh Valleys are an area home to 1.3 million people, with widespread social and spiritual deprivation. According to a recent BBC documentary, the valleys are“the most Godless and life hating place in the UK”.Very similar to Scottish schemes, they are seen as places to escape from rather than to move in to. To this end a friend of mine, Dai Hankey, has begun an initiative called Valley Commandos in an effort to plant gospel-centred churches across 20 Welsh Valleys. According to Dai:

The vision of Valley Commandos is to deploy gospel warriors in every valley in South Wales to plant churches that will detonate an explosion of grace and salvation in Jesus' name!

What a privilege it is to see gospel ministry taking off in the most desperate areas of our land. We should be taking every opportunity to support one another in prayer, as men with real vision dream big for the gospel and fight to mobilise a new generation of men and women willing to lay it all on the line to take the gospel back into these needy areas. At 20schemes, we are hoping that we will see initiatives like this rise up in England, Ireland and the rest of Europe in the coming years.

Please see the following video for more details.

 If you want to find out more information about this initiative or encourage a brother in the vision he has for gospel ministry, then please contact Dai: [email protected]. You can also follow his blog, ‘Sanctified Rant’ here.

Alongside this endeavour, let me recommend a book to you—written by Dai—with the express aim of encouraging young men toward living for gospel glory. To be honest, when I saw the title of this book, my heart sank as I thought, Oh no, not another one of these gung-ho let’s all be bare chested Christian, male, superheroes type of books that seem to be all the rage in certain circles these days. I am glad to say, however, that in this case I was happy to be very wrong.

This is a warm, witty and practical book that could be used significantly as a study guide with young male believers in our churches. Based on king David’s ‘Mighty Men’, each of the 7 chapters offers us some insight into how to live the Christian life boldly, confidently, and adventurously for the glory of Jesus. The language is decidedly quirky, simple, and yet warmly engaging as the author challenges men to stand up and be counted as disciples of Jesus Christ. Each chapter is followed by a set of questions to help us think through the issues discussed and to consider relevant scriptures to the topic at hand. As the author so eloquently puts it: “Let’s be men who leave behind us a legacy of grace-changed lives. And may Christ the King get all the glory for it.”

Buy on Amazon.co.uk

Buy on Amazon.com

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