Evangelism (Page 14)
Why Should We Take The Gospel To Housing Schemes Anyway?
Christians need to be seriously considering this question as, thankfully, more and more Christians seem to be taking notice of the dire gospel needs of many of our cities housing schemes/council estates. Personal experience has shown me that many ‘outsiders’ will come and help out at…
Is There Anybody Out There? Mez’s Updated Autobiography Available Now!
by Mike Stark “This is a compelling, gripping, heart-wrenching, you-can’t-put-it-down story of sin and grace. Read this and thank God that, as Psalm 136 says, ‘His love endures forever.’” (Mark Dever) ~ Senior Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC The updated…
Why The Atonement Matters For Church Planters (4)
Atonement’ edited by Gabriel Fluhrer (P&R Publishing 2010) This is a series of lectures about ‘blood’ according to the book’s sleeve and is a compilation of 8 essays on the topic by 7 evangelical theologians and pastors. Such is the importance of this subject for every Christian, whoever they…
Understanding The Housing Scheme Mentality
There is lots of talk around at the moment about ‘cultural defeaters’ (a la Keller) and ‘common grace bridges’ when it comes to talk about the ‘Post-Christian‘ West. I recently spent the day with some ‘Crowded House’ Leaders in Sheffield and we were reflecting on what these terms mean in the context of a housing…
How Not To Engage your Community
There are lots of little articles flying around the ‘blogosphere’ on how to be more ‘missional’ etc. Some of them are helpful and some of them are breathtakingly hilarious. Here are some of my tips of how not to engage ‘missionally’ on a housing scheme. Remember, it’s just for fun! 1. Sit in the front garden and invite the…
Niddrie Pastor lifted by the police…
by Mike Stark True story!! OK, so this isn’t exactly new news, but it is very funny none the less and well worth a read – click on the photo to see an enlarged copy. This is from Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper on 3rd September 2007, describing a memorable incident that happened shortly after Mez took up his new post as pastor of Niddrie Community Church. He…
Why We Need To Commit Long Term To Housing Schemes
By Andy Constable As I have worked in some of the most deprived areas of our world I have become convinced that for any deep down spiritual change we need to commit to area’s long term. Recently my wife and I have decided to commit to Niddrie for the next 10 years unless God calls us on. This is a…
Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
I must confess to a great deal of ambivalence to Halloween. I vaguely remember doing ‘trick or treat’ as a little boy which usually involved me and my mates ‘egging‘ doors whether people gave us a treat or not. Early in my ministry I was involved in putting on an ‘alternative’ event for the children of the church I was serving as a…
On being a school chaplain
It’s been nearly 3 years since I first got into the local high school. Since those early days, my job as Niddrie Community Church’s youth worker has involved an increasing amount of time and energy spent there. Last month, I was invited to consider becoming the school’s chaplain, an official position within the school community that would give Ellis and…
The power of an invitation
by Mike Stark This past week we’ve had another team over from Champion Forest Baptist Church, Houston, Texas. This is the second team we’ve had over from the US this year. Its always a great encouragement to us as a church, as the Americans inject a bit of money, man-power, and enthusiasm to the work in Niddrie. On Saturday night we had an X-Factor style…