What Brings a Yank to Glasgow

On Gospel Work in Scotland and Mutual Encouragement Across Continents

“What are you doing in Baillieston?”

This was the question coming from a twenty-something worker outside a Morrisons grocery store in Glasgow, Scotland, a few weeks ago. She heard my accent, you see (which is of the American/New Jersey variety), and couldn’t quite put together what an American was doing in this section of Glasgow. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was actually visiting Barlarnark close by. Both Baillieston and Barlarnark are in Glasgow, Scotland. And neither is a place you’d expect an American to show up. Neither is known for tourism.

So why was I there? It’s a fair question.

I first visited Glasgow four years ago as part of a missions team from Del Ray Baptist Church working with a local partner church, Hope Community Church. Marion and I spent a week helping put on a holiday club for 50-ish kids from Barlarnark, many of them living in the schemes (think public housing). And we fell in love with the place. Or, more properly, the people. Glaswegians remind me of home, that is to say, New Jersey, or more broadly, the East Coast. They love making fun of everything: you, your friends, where you’re from, the entirety of America. And I loved reminding them that soccer is our sixth-best sport and we’re still better than they are at it. So when I got an opportunity to return from June 27–July 4, I jumped at it.

To give a little context, Barlarnark is a postwar housing scheme, or, in other words, public housing. This has changed somewhat with renovation, demolition, and private ownership, but the community faces issues of poverty and deprivation across the board. Hope Community Church is a part of 20 Schemes, which is a church planting and revitalization network aimed at reaching the least, the last, and the lost in places like Barlarnark. As they put it:

“The schemes are strong and vibrant Scottish communities with a rich history, but are often hit hard by complex social problems. They also happen to be the places least likely to have a gospel church or indigenous Christians.” – 20 Schemes Website

On this most recent trip, I helped with another holiday club. It was particularly rewarding to see some of the kids who were there four years ago still involved. Some had even aged out of the holiday club but came back as helpers and leaders. If ten to twenty of these kids become faithful Christians, it will make a huge difference for Barlarnark.

There is such a need for short-term missions teams because there simply aren’t many practicing Christians. One local pastor guessed that there might be fifty Christians in Barlarnark, where roughly 7,000 people live. According to a Harper’s Glasgow study, less than 2 percent of Glasgow’s population is evangelical.

And there’s a painful irony here.

The Reformation owes some of its development to Scotland, John Knox being the most obvious example. Scotland also produced one of the great missionaries of the modern era, John Paton. Paton went to the New Hebrides, and his autobiography still inspires Christians to leave home for the sake of the gospel. Scotland also gave the church Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a 19th-century Presbyterian minister whose Bible reading plan remains widely used today. This spiritual heritage has largely fallen by the wayside.

So there’s a need for more Christians, but there’s also a need for Christian fellowship and encouragement. Paul says in Romans 1 that he longs to see the Christians in Rome so that they may be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith. That kind of encouragement matters especially in small churches laboring in difficult places, but it matters for all of us. I’ve made lifelong friends in Pete Stewart and Pete Bell (no matter how much they deny it), and they’ve encouraged me massively. Pete and Pete, along with their families, fellow church members, and ministry partners, remain joyful in the midst of hard ministry ground. It’s a joy to watch. And it’s an honor to be any amount of encouragement to them, no matter how small.

I’ll leave you with the call that 20 Schemes gives to those who are interested in partnering with them.

Pray for 20 Schemes in Scotland. If you have the means, consider financially supporting them. And finally, if leaving home to be a part of a ministry abroad is something that interests you, come to Scotland. The need is great.