CRM Empowering Leaders

Many churches in Scotland are empty and aging. It's a tangible reminder of the dwindling relevance of Christianity. Ethne’s two ministries there—Re:Hope Next Generation Bible Church and Spiritual Formation—seek renewal in a land of dryness, from reaching out to young people for healthy churches to helping leaders in their discernment of God’s direction.

Re:Hope

One of Ethne’s teams in Scotland exists to intentionally identify and train young people for ministry as well as to cultivate and catalyze healthy, effective churches. Since its inception in 2003, this team has expanded and impacted local church communities and beyond—from discipling local church leaders and doing outreach among university students, to church planting and revitalization.

As the local church has been in decline beginning around the 1930s, Scotland has become a landscape of postmodernism and old, dying churches. In 2003, what started as weekly meetings to study Scripture expanded internationally: Bible Reading Groups, an organic discipleship program, now takes place in the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Wales, and Germany. In 2005, the team planted Re:Hope Next Generation Bible Church. Located in Glasgow, the church is committed to being both uncompromisingly biblical and unswervingly missional.

This Scotland team is currently engaging in various church revitalization projects and working with local established clergy, bringing them back to the bible, health, and effectiveness. They coach church planters in Scotland, developing church planters and leaders who have been a part of Re:Hope with a plan to see a more churches planted in the next few years by Britons and Scottish nationals.

Spiritual Formation

In another area of ministry in Scotland, Jenny Walley works with ministries and lay leaders, helping them to pay attention to what God is doing in their own lives as well as the ministries they are involved in. She offers individual and group retreats, as well as individual and group spiritual direction (which simply means listening together for how God is speaking to a person or a group).

For many, this process helps them to step forward in faith and into particular things that God has been inviting them, such as starting new ministries or using gifts that have been dormant due to fear or insecurity. For others, it is learning to act in obedience and know Christ with them in the dailiness of life. Still others find themselves "in the desert" and God's invitation is to remain with Him in this place.

The common theme is a hunger for God and a desire for deeper relationship with Him. This journey into greater intimacy with and daily obedience to God—the freedom that comes along with that—is one of Jenny's biggest passions for the church.

Use the links to the right to learn more about Ethne Scotland and various opportunities for getting involved.

Stories from Ethne Scotland

This is God's Church: The Re:Hope Story...Thus Far

Despite experiencing dramatic growth and many people committing their lives to follow Christ, Re:Hope Church in Glasgow faced the possibility of it all fading away. Forced to move out of their...

Reading the Bible in Glasgow

Nothing has been more essential to my honest pursuit of God than the Bible. But not long into ministry did I realize that staying in the word and following Jesus are not meant to be done alone. In...

Getting Acquainted With CRM Scotland

The UK, and in particular, Scotland, has been marching down the path of secularism for most of the 20th century. Scotland's church situation is not unlike that in many other western countries....