Uk Folks

[John81]

Any of you folks from the UK know anything about 20schemes?

[Covenanter]

Any of you folks from the UK know anything about 20schemes?

NO.

[Alimantado]

Not heard of it.

[John81]

It's a ministry outreach to the poor in Scotland and I was given something to read which told just a bit of their approach. Their approach to ministering to the poor seems to be much more in line with Scripture than are most ministries to the poor.

 

Apparently, from what I read, they find those in the church willing to fully commit themselves to a specific poor area, to the point they are willing to sell everything and move there. In the poor area they establish a church. Rather than simply setting up a soup kitchen, or a shelter, they establish a church, spread the Gospel, help folks as they can in Jesus name.

 

After reading of this I was wondering if anyone had any first, or perhaps secondhand knowledge of their ministry.

[Alimantado]

Thanks for bringing this up, John. I don't know anyone involved with it but will now take the opportunity to google it and read up.

[John81]

Does this help any?

 

http://20schemes.com/

[Invicta]

Interesting!

My parent's, as children lived in a really poor part of London. In the 1911 census, my mother aged 2, het 3 year old sister lived with their parents and grandmother in one room. My mum was saved at a nearby Baptist Church. My fatger lived about half a mile away in Bermondsey, in an apartment block built by the Guinness trust, as living accommodation for the poor. My dad was saved at a nearby mission which somebody had started as an outreach to the poor.

[ThePilgrim]

This is a thing that the Lord has commanded his people to do: Matt 28:19-20

 

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

 

20 Teaching them to OBserve all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

KJV

 

I have found that many people going into the ministry think of this as meaning that they should pack up their gear and run off to some foreign land.  I think for a country such as ours which has fallen so far from where it once was before God that this is not the only mission field.  Going to ends of the earth to tell the good news of the gospel might mean that you may end up going just a few miles away from where you are right now.  The earth is round and the end of the earth, when looking out your front door is actually right behind you at your back door.

 

I look around the Portland, Or area (which Hillsboro is a suburb of) and I see a dearth of neighborhood churches.  I see large chuches around the cities in the more prosperous areas but very very few local neighborhood churches.  I see lots of church starts in the suburbs but few in the crowded areas of the cities.  Jesus did not teach that only the prosperous would get into His kingdom.  How often does He speak of the poor being blessed versus the rich being blessed?  

 

I guess you can't really blame young bible school and seminary graduates for wanting a comfortable life in the suburbs, nor can you blame them for wanting to spend some time in a foreign land, but who is going to preach to the poor just a few miles away in the inner city and the poorer areas of the Portland metro area.  Missionaries from all over the world are supported by the churches I have attended, but I can't remember a one that was a missionary to someplace in the Portland metro area.

 

Oh sure, big names like Billy Graham and Louis Palau come to the colosseum or the sports stadium and get some so-called decisions from the mostly middle class audience from the suburbs.  Even if some of the poor are there and "go forward" what then?  Where do they go?  They get lost in the shuffle!  The big churches including the Catholics and Episcopalians get the affluent and middle class but there no neighborhood church to invite poor Mr. Jones.

 

Just some thoughts . . . . no answers.

[DaveW]

The last church I was at supported a missionary to the other side of the river.

I hope to do the same here soon.

[John81]

For the most part, American churches are divided by a multitude of things, including economic status, race and ethnicity.

 

As we see in another thread, Scripture examples and calls us to follow, the practice of not only individuals, but churches also, helping not only individuals, but also other churches. In America it's far more common for churches to compete against one another, outright fight against one another, or ignore one another.

 

The mega church in the suburbs with literally more money than they know what to do with, aren't about to reach out to a poor church in a bad neighborhood and help them.

 

In the 90s the church I attended encouraged us to take the Gospel to the bad neighborhoods. There was also a modernistic church in the area which got caught up in the phase those churches were going through at the time which involved outreach to the bad neighborhoods.

 

The modernistic church followed the same pattern their sort of churches did at that time. They tried to dress, talk and act like the black ghetto youth of that time. They would drive into "the hood" with rap music playing in their cars. They would see someone or small group of black youth and park near them so they could hear they were listening to rap music. Then they would get out of the car in their hip-hop outfits, trying to walk like black rappers even as they tried to mimic their talks.

 

Believe me, that didn't go over well at all! They caused much harm in what they did and most of them found themselves run off.

 

I would dress as I always do, walk into their neighborhood with a small "boombox" and sit in a park or on a bench near a store. I would turn on the cassette player with Mahalia Jackson playing just loud enough for someone to hear well if they were close, but not so loud they could clearly make it out from a distance. To make an already long story shorter, a white guy sitting in that neighborhood drew attention and as they got closer they could finally recognize the music. It was amazing how many of those young street toughs faces would soften as they started talking about their auntie or grandma who used to listen to Mahalia Jackson. The door was opened and I was able to walk through with the Gospel.