This week the blog is sponsored by 20schemes and this post is written by Mez McConnell, 20schemes’ Executive Director. Mez reflects on the past, present and looks to the future of this ministry to reach Scotland’s poorest communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

PAST PROVISION
20schemes is the joint ministry of two local churches, Niddrie Community Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, & Redeemer Fellowship Church, Bardstown, USA. It is often mistaken as a para-church organisation when, in reality, it is the church planting and revitalisation ministry of both churches.
I first had the vision for what is now 20schemes in 2009 when I came across a newspaper article concerning the fifty poorest housing schemes in Scotland. I read the article and began thinking about the impact a gospel church would have in each of those communities.
20schemes was officially launched in November 2012 in the kitchen of the Niddrie Community Church manse by Sharon Dickens, Matthew Spandler-Davison & myself. We had less than £500 in the bank and a dream to reach Scotland’s poorest communities with the gospel of Jesus.
The early years were very tough because nobody had heard of us and those that did thought that we were a passing fad. Many churches across the UK were wary of supporting us and, although we gained some support from faithful Scottish & UK Christians, the majority of our giving came from the USA.
I began to travel around the UK speaking about the vision of the ministry. Many people were sympathetic to the work, but that emotion didn’t translate into hard cash or volunteers. This led us to turn to the USA and this is where Matthew Spandler-Davison stepped in to help us recruit and raise money. Mark Dever and 9marks were massively helpful to us during this time by promoting our ministry and giving me opportunities to speak at some major conferences. Slowly, but surely, we started to gain a little momentum as more Christians rallied to our cause and began to support us financially and prayerfully.
We have been through some lean and trying times and we have skirted the abyss of financial meltdown on more than one occasion. Yet, through it all God has used these times to deepen our faith and dependence upon Him. Here we are 10 years later, still skirting the abyss, but alive and functioning to the glory and praise of His name!
PRESENT SITUATION
Today, on our 10th anniversary, here’s where we stand:
To date, we have either planted or revitalised churches in eleven schemes across Scotland. We have theologically trained men and women who are now engaged in gospel work across Scotland. We have more than a dozen books available in seven languages that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. We have started dedicated Women’s, Music and back-to-work ministries, and it has been a great joy to inspire and support similar ministries in England, Canada, America, and Africa.
Even as I write these words, I find it incredible what God has done over the past decade. He has just been so good to us. There is no way on earth that 20schemes would exist today were it not for our kind and gracious God. Every one of these ministries aforementioned is subservient to the greater vision of planting and revitalising churches among Scotland’s poorest.
There is not a week goes by when we don’t hear of somebody, somewhere being saved in one of our schemes. Of course, we hear bad news in our communities too. Sometimes dark and evil stuff. But, the darkness can never extinguish the light of the world and each church plant is a testament to that great biblical truth.
10 years ago, three people sat in a room in the scheme of Niddrie and prayed. We could not have dreamt that the Lord would bring 20schemes to where it is now, and for that we praise Him.
FUTURE VISION
I am often asked what we will do if and when we hit 20 schemes. My answer is, ‘I will let you know when we get there!’ One thing is for certain, there will never not be a need for gospel churches in Scotland’s poorest communities. Glasgow and its greater area alone, have just short of 100 schemes, the vast majority without the settled Christian witness of a local church. The need for pastors, planters and gospel workers remains as critical as it did when we began this ministry.
We are still looking for men and women of all ages and skillsets to come to the schemes of Scotland and to give their lives to the work of the gospel in these dark and needy places. We need more money, more people, and more prayer. This mission field really is ripe for harvest. Therefore, we must keep pushing forward for the sake of the gospel and the holy name of our God.
One of the ways I encourage all of our planters is by reminding them to look up from their own schemes from time to time and rejoice in what God is doing in schemes across Scotland. People are being saved as the gospel is being preached.
It’s the way it’s always been and it’s the way it will always be. We have no grand strategies other than proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the least, the last and the lost, discipling the saved, and equipping them for future service.
Somebody asked me recently if I thought 20schemes will outlast me. I hope so, otherwise I’ve been doing it wrong. It will last just as long as God wants it to last. It will last as long as faithful men and women refuse to let the apathy of the wider church discourage them from our Scottish mission field.

Every generation of Christians faces the very same challenge: To learn the Bible for themselves and to teach it to those who follow in their footsteps. This task cannot be willed, it cannot be inherited, it cannot be passed down. Rather, each generation must accept afresh the challenge to honor, to know, and to obey the Word of God.

Gary Millar’s Read This First is, according to the subtitle, “A Simple Guide to Getting the Most from the Bible.” It is, in that way, a wonderful place to begin for those who wish to accept their God-given responsibility (or alternatively, a wonderful resource to distribute to help others with theirs).
Millar says, “This book aims to help people who would like to read the Bible but don’t really know where to start or how to go about it. You may be a Christian who enjoys being part of a church or a Bible-study group, but you end up feeling lost and confused whenever you attempt to read the Bible for yourself. You may have even tried to embark on a Bible-reading regime but … it didn’t take long before you gave up with a sense of defeat: you just don’t get it. That’s why I’ve written this book: to guide you through it. My hope is that you’ll read this first and go back to the Bible with the skills and confidence to truly enjoy it.”
There is a second audience in his mind: “You may be pretty new to Christianity. You have always thought that the Bible seems interesting enough for you to take a look, but you’ve been put off by the small print, strange ‘religious’ language, its distance from your culture, or even just its size. You may have been been encouraged to read the Bible by a friend, or heard a snippet of what it says at a wedding or funeral, or come across a quotation somewhere. It’s often said that the Bible is one of the best-selling books of all time. That alone seems like a good reason to dip into it.”
For either of those audiences, or even more experienced Bible-readers who are just looking for a bit of a refresh, Read This First offers a simple, helpful guide to reading the Bible well. It begins with an explanation of why everyone should consider reading the Bible, then begins to teach how to read it: to pay attention to the “vibe” of any passage, to discern meaning, to account for context, and to read it both as a book that was written in a different time and to a different audience and as a book that was written for we who live here and now.
Though Read This First is short and simple, that is exactly its purpose and its exactly its charm. It is just the kind of book each of us would have benefitted to read at the start of our journey to better understand God’s Word and just the kind of resource each of us loves to distribute to others. It will do exactly what it promises: help those who have a desire to read the Bible to actually read the Bible—and to read it right. I’m very glad to recommend it.

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What is it like to be a Christian? What is it like to submit your life to the Lord? What is it like to live for the glory of an unseen God?

There is a lot bound up in the questions. But an answer comes to mind as I scour the hall of heroes we find in Hebrews 11. To be a Christian is to follow God without knowing exactly where he is leading and to die without having received the reward he has promised. It is, in short, to live by faith.
We know this because of the example of Abraham, Abraham who, by faith, “obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” He followed God’s direction for as long as he lived, then “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.”
When we follow the Lord, we commit to a lifetime of living by faith rather than by sight. This contrasts those who set their hearts on the things of this world and who can see and experience their reward moment by moment and day by day.
Those who live for the pleasures money can buy can gaze at their grand homes and fine wardrobes and be as content as their hearts will allow. Those who live for power and fame can mount their accolades on their walls and enjoy all the success they symbolize. Those who live for physical pleasures can boast of their vast and diverse sexual conquests and count it as their full reward. They can sit back and survey it all and say to themselves, “Relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
Yet before long the time will come when God will say, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (Luke 12:20). And as they go off to judgment and the endless ages beyond, they will know that “you in your lifetime received your good things” (Luke 16:25). They will have lived in such a way that they have stored up plenty of treasures on earth, but none in heaven. All the pleasures they will ever experience will fall in the brief window between their birth and death. That was their goal. That was their purpose.
But as Christians, we live for a reward we cannot yet have and do not yet hold. We deny ourselves what would seem desirable and pleasurable in this life in favor of promised rewards that are much greater and much better—but that are withheld until the life to come. We set out by faith, not knowing where God will lead us and uncertain of all that he will require of us along the way. And when it comes time for us to die, we die trusting in God’s promises and seeing the promised reward with the eyes of faith. And then, we are certain, we receive from God blessings far greater than any we could know here.
It would be no surprise, then, if we enter heaven with an exclamation of “I knew it!”—with a cry of victory, a shout of triumph, a declaration of vindication. For then we will know that we really denied ourselves no true pleasure but only that which would have harmed us. We will know that we were not held back from any lasting treasure, but only that which would evaporate between heaven and earth. Our knowing will no longer be by faith—faith, that is sometimes prone to doubt and waver and wander. In that day, our knowing will be with eyes that behold, arms that receive, and hearts that rejoice. Having followed without seeing and died without receiving, we will rise gloriously and live eternally knowing that God’s every promise was true.