The following article was written by Gustav Pritchard. He is an elder at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa. Electricity is not always in constant, predictable supply here in South Africa. Even in the major cities, we face power failures for parts of the day, sometimes for
Why your short term mission trip probably isn’t alleviating poverty
Let me tell you a story about a pastor called John who lives in a small town in Scotland. You’ve never heard of him and you’ve never heard of his community. Where he lives unemployment is high, drug abuse is off the charts, and life is hard and short. John was saved about 10 years ago on a holiday
Understanding Britain’s Underclass: Part 1
I was looking forward to reading this book after hearing so much about it. I was hoping this was going to be the UK’s answer to the brilliant Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. Written by Darren McGarvey, a native of Pollock, Glasgow, this book was everything I hoped it would be, yet with a sad finale (at
Announcing 20schemes Weekender February 2018
[bctt tweet="Info about @20schemes #Weekender here! 16-18 February 2018 @NiddrieChurch. Places limited. #20we18"]We’re excited to announce that 20schemes will be running another Weekender mini-conference in February 2018 at Niddrie Community Church. The theme for this weekend is Family Issues in
Dumb Yet Dumber, or Smart Yet Wise 2/2
This is part 2 of a 2 part blog series on the issue of wisdom and counselling written by Sharon Dickens (20schemes director of women's ministry). In the first part of Dumb yet Dumber we were thinking about who is the source of our wisdom. If you missed it,
Dumb Yet Dumber, or Smart Yet Wise 1/2
I sat in a meeting talking about how we might be able to help women in hard places do women’s ministry. The thing is, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘This is crazy! What have we got to say? What can we do? We don’t have anything to offer. What if they ask questions we don’t know the answer to? I’m not
Stressed to the Max: How Does God Want Us to Deal With Stress?
This is part 2 of a 2 part blog series on the issue of stress written by Sharon Dickens (20schemes director of women's ministry). In the previous post, we looked at what stress is, how we know if we're too stressed and what impact does stress have on our relationship with God. If you missed it,
Stop Messing With Sin 1: Don’t Mess About
This is the first blog in a 3 part series on the subject of perseverance, written by Andy Mathieson, 20schemes church planter in Lochee, Dundee. A smart dead guy called Jonathan Edwards once said this: ‘Perseverance is a necessary consequence of salvation.’ What that means is that when someone is