Church Planting (Page 13)
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…
Forget Jesus: I Just Want to be Famous!
We may not be as crass to say it like that and we may not even think of it as directly as that, but I bet for many pastors trying to establish ministries, this muddled motivation has crossed our minds. With even limited success come a proliferation of invites to conferences, speaking engagements, books, reviews and articles. Trust me, it is easy to tell yourself the lie…
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…
What Happens When Your Church has No Christian Youth?
by Mike Stark (Children’s, Youth & Community Worker) Historically, we haven’t had many ‘Christian’ young people in Niddrie Community Church. We have a vibrant and active work among children and youth in the community, yet this is almost exclusively evangelistic, rather than…
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…
Evangelising the Young on Housing Schemes
by Mike Stark (Youth & School’s Worker for NCC) I recently attended “Deep Impact”, Scotland’s National Christian Youth Work Conference in Aviemore. I came back refreshed, inspired and excited about all the work ahead. I’ve got a lot to reflect on over the next couple of weeks: the people I met, the things I learned, and truths I just…
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…
From Selling Heroin in the Car Park to Proclaiming Christ in the Community
When I came to Niddrie over 4 years ago there was a young woman involved in selling Heroin outside our doors in the car park. Most of the members were oblivious but I spotted it after about 2.1 seconds! Her name was Charlene and she had two young children. Before long she had heard the gospel of…