8 Keys To Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry

8 Keys To Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry

8 Keys to Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry (8)

Avoid Paternalism & Dependency Many, great, Western missiological thinkers have battled with the issue of paternalism in cross cultural contexts for decades. What exactly is paternalism? The essence of paternalism is providing outside direction and resources by some “mature” party to someone considered “immature” and not yet capable to carry full leadership…

8 Keys to Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry (7)

A Wholistic Approach to Christian Discipleship We would be foolish to think that the many problems of housing schemes could be solved by any one approach, or if we just managed to solve one particular problem. We see the foolishness of this thinking in Niddrie as we observe the many tens of millions spent on building new homes and schools etc and yet many of the deep,…

8 Keys to Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry (6) Church Based Community Development (b)

Mark Dever notes on The Gospel Coalition blog, that: Since the Fall, the trajectory of unredeemed human history—the City of Man—is always in the Bible to judgment (the Flood, Babel, Canaan, Egypt, Jerusalem, Babylon, Rome & then Rev. 19). (Not quite as universal as gravity, but seemingly as…

8 Keys to Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry (6) Church Based Community Development

Part A: Church Based Community Development In his book, Generous Justice, Tim Keller states: “All I know is, if I don’t care about the poor, if my church doesn’t care about the poor, that’s evil.” Jesse Johnson, writing an article for The Cripplegate Blog, has a…

8 Keys to Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry (5)

Listening to Your Community It is noticeable in Niddrie that there are many housing association groups and various other social agencies, largely staffed by outsiders, who impose their ideas and ideals on to the community without much prior discussion. It is taken for granted that the ‘professionals’ know what we need. Often, many church plants can be guilty…

8 Keys to Housing Scheme Gospel Ministry (4) – Developing Indigenous Leaders

Leadership Development This is a key area of gospel ministry in housing schemes. Many local churches completely devolve their responsibility in this to Bible Colleges which I think is, sometimes, to the detriment of the church and the person being ‘trained’.  Certainly, in housing…

The 8 Keys to Ministry In Housing Schemes (3)

Part III: Developing Community Skills Robert Lupton would call this a ‘redistribution of resources’. His logic being (albeit from a community development perspective): 1. We live in the area we are trying to reach 2. We work toward a ministry of reconciliation at a Godward level and a community level Then (3) we are, hopefully, going to see a redistribution of…

The 8 Keys to Gospel Ministry in Housing Schemes (2)

Part II: The Ministry of Reconciliation All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of…

The 8 Keys To Gospel Ministry In Housing Schemes (1)

PART I: Live In If we really want to make an impact for Christ in the many housing schemes up and down our nations then we must be prepared to move into the area. This is the GOLDEN rule. There are no exceptions for our leaders. Ministry will fail dismally, particularly if the leader(s) is(are) not…