Working With Addiction (Page 4)

Working With Addiction (Page 4)

Where Do Housing Schemes Come From? A Brief History (2)

1945 & Onwards: ‘Social Housing’ Despite all the policy changes and some great progress in the inter war years, slum housing still remained a problem throughout the UK at the outbreak of WWII. There is a clip from the BBC archives here on some of the Scottish housing built in the…

Where Do Housing Schemes Come From? A Brief History (1)

This is the first in a number of posts on the topic of housing schemes. In most of the UK they are known as ‘Council Estates’, in the US they are regarded as the ‘Projects’ and in Scotland they are called ‘Schemes’. They are unique, if I can use that word, to ‘Westernised, industrial’ nations. They…

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,…

Should Baptism Be Spontaneous?

I am still mulling this over in Niddrie. I am so slow to baptise here, largely because I fear doing it falsely and we end up with a community of people who ‘got baptised at the mission’ but are now nowhere with the Lord. we have seen so many profess faith over the years but 90% are nowhere. This is an ongoing battle. The attraction of baptising more people and…

The Church (The Gospel Made Visible)

So, I am just back from my summer holidays and I had a bit of a 9marks love fest when it came to holiday reading. I have just picked this one off the top of my pile and I shall be reviewing each book, in no particular order, over the coming weeks. For the uninitiated to this site, this is how I review books at Niddrie Pastor. 1. Content. Is it biblical? 2. Application. Is…

The Gospel is More Than a Story

“Christian faith is not primarily about arguing over right beliefs and doctrines, it is about letting the story of God’s grace become our story and shape our lives.” I am sure many of us (who read at least) have heard/read some version of that in recent years. “Storying” is very much in vogue in Evangelical circles right now. There is an…

Center (Centre) Church…Coming Soon

There’s a great new resource coming out from Tim Keller on doing and being church in the Twenty First Century. The book, entitled, “Center Church” will be out later in the year but, for now here is a little promo video (look out for Niddrie!). click on the link here.

Why Should We Bother With The Idle & The Ungrateful?

Shouldn’t we focus our attentions on those who ‘deserve’ our kindness in housing schemes? There are so many people in our world who are in a terrible condition through no fault of their own. Yet on our housing schemes there are 100’s who will not work. They choose to live…

Building Friendships in Ministry

Friendship is of fundamental importance in our type of ministry. Schemes can be a place where we glimpse light and life one day and unrelenting darkness and hardship the next. We can feel like we’re making progress and then, like lightning, we can be sucked into the slough of despond. There’s lots of talk about accountability and mentorship in Christian…