Why We Need The Church in Our Poorest Communities | Missions

How should we, as Christians, faithfully serve the poor in our communities without causing harm? How do we set healthy boundaries and ensure we’re truly helping? These critical questions guide our mission as Christ Covenant Church to be a gospel presence and loving neighbor in Atlanta.

In this insightful and challenging lecture, Mez McConnell, senior pastor of Niddrie Community Church in Scotland and founder of 20Schemes, shares his decades of experience in equipping the church to serve the poor in some of the most difficult neighborhoods across the UK and beyond. This full-length discussion, held at Christ Covenant on June 28th, features Mez and Doug Logan, President of Grimke Seminary. They explore key principles from Mez’s book, The Least, The Last, & The Lost, and provide biblical insight into promoting justice, serving the vulnerable, and the essential role of the church in this work.

Mez provides insights on navigating how to love the poor through gospel-centered mercy ministries while avoiding common pitfalls and encouraging healthy, sustainable community transformation.


00:00 Introduction and prayer
01:50 Mercy ministry and parachurch critique
02:40 Mez’s testimony: troubled childhood
04:50 Abandoned and institutionalized
06:50 Life in a crack house at 15
07:40 Robbing a bank for a gap year
09:10 Encountering Christians and the gospel
10:10 Stabbed and sent to prison
12:20 Conversion in prison
14:00 The impact of the gospel and transformation
15:20 Going to seminary and early ministry
16:40 Church planting and street gangs in Brazil
17:40 Founding 20schemes and church revitalization in Scotland
19:30 The problem with dependency in mercy ministry
21:30 Encouraging independence in mercy ministry
23:00 The UK church’s middle-class context and shrinking evangelicalism
25:10 The gap between the church and poor communities
27:00 Critique of current mercy ministry models
29:10 Introduction to "The Least, The Last, & The Lost"


More videos from this series:
How Are People Experiencing Poverty in America -    • How Are People Experiencing Poverty i...  
Rethinking Mercy Ministry in the Local Church - Link Coming Soon
Q&A with Mez, Doug & Jason Dees hosted by Billy Bean - Link Coming Soon

#PovertyInAmerica #UrbanMinistry #GospelCenteredOutreach