Posts by Jason Nelson (Page 16)

Posts by Jason Nelson (Page 16)

Trained & Called or Training The Called?

At Niddrie we place a great premium on training and developing people for a life of Christian service, whether that is a secretary, a bike engineer or a pastor. Our recruitment process may be considered, by many, to be a bit haphazard. We have people on our Ministry Team who have degrees in theology and others who have no formal training. We have people who have been…

Walking With The Poor

I bought this book with no little excitement given the list of theological luminaries that have recently been recommending it as a must read. Ron Sider, for instance, calls it: “probably the best book on how to do holistic community development.” There is no doubt that it is certainly comprehensive in its treatment of the issues, certainly far more than any…

Church Planting Apprenticeship Programmes

More and more churches are now offering apprenticeships specifically for church planters rather than for preaching/pastoral ministry per se. I think that this can only be a good thing. At Niddrie we are starting off with our first planting trainee as of September and we are hoping to encourage more and more trainees over the years as we seek to address the need for more…

What If We based Our Decisions On Community Instead Of Self Interest?

When was the last time you met a person who took a decision in their life based on how it would affect their Christian community? As a pastor I am informed about decisions to move house, job etc and my immediate response is always, ‘What is the motivation behind your decision?’ For a…