Missional Living (Page 2)

Missional Living (Page 2)

Why I’m Only Ever A Second Away From Sexual Sin

I was deeply saddened this week to hear of an extremely close pastor friend of mine who had succumbed to temptation and committed adultery. He has not been married for very long, he was pastoring a growing church and he was also the vice president of a Bible College. I have yet to ascertain all the…

How Too Much Discipleship Was Hurting Our New Christians

Our current church membership stands at about 55, with another 15 or so waiting in the wings to be baptised. We have a Sunday attendance of anywhere between 70 and 100 (I suspect that’s roughly the same number of urinals found at any Mars Hill Church). By any description we are a small…

What Do A Group of Violent Thieves, Liars, Drug Addicts, Alcohol Abusers & Ex Convicts Have In Common?

The answer is ‘nothing‘ until you throw Jesus Christ into the mix! Let me introduce you to the four new housemates at James Ramsay House. JRH is a Victorian house owned by Niddrie Community Church and is situated…

What Causes Poverty & Do I Even Care?

Some people can debate until the cows come home about the causes of poverty (and they do!): socially unjust systems, political bias, economic inequality, laziness etc. In Niddrie, that is not the issue. I have a church to pastor and a community to serve. I have to work every single day with what is. I will leave the debating to others with far greater intellectual…

The Church & The Surprising Offence of God’s Love

I’ve been laid up in bed for a week after an accident and I pulled this book off my bookshelf, largely because I’m due to preach on the theme of God’s love in the coming week. Let me start by saying that this is quite a chunky book, considering the strap line: ‘Reintroducing…

How Small Churches Can Help Missions

There is a great article here published on The Gospel Coalition website here. Missions, training and church planting, particularly, do not have to be the domain of large churches. We are one of the smallest churches in the city (60 members) and I would hazard a guess that we offer one of the largest training places in Scotland for our type of ministry (9 full time…

What Are We Really Teaching Our Children About God & The Church?

I saw this video ages ago and I may have even posted it before but I am still deeply challenged in many different ways every time I watch it. How little we really know about the people we sit next to in our churches each week. May God help each of us to live lives that are more transparent,…