20schemes is a project committed to seeing healthy churches established in the schemes (housing estates) of Scotland. In 2021, they hope to launch something called 20schemes Retrain. Communications Manager, Ben Hansen, writes:
20schemes Retrain is an initiative to provide job-skills training, business platforms, and start-up loans for our indigenous converts, so that they can grow in their faith and also their careers. An indigenous convert is someone who was born and raised in the schemes, who then comes to faith in Christ. A crucial aspect of Retrain will be helping people understand that work is a good gift from God. It’s a pre-Fall reality – in other words, work is not part of the curse. Even this simple idea is revolutionary for people in the schemes. Work is a good gift from God, and we want to treat it as such.
What we hope to do with Retrain is make official something we’ve been doing all along. In the coming years, we hope to start a few small businesses to provide people with meaningful work, helping train them as they earn a living in a way that honours the Lord.
For years now, by God’s grace, we’ve seen local people brought from death to life as they hear and respond to the good news of the gospel. What follows is a lengthy, intense discipleship process wherein we seek to teach people what it means to live as a Christian in this broken world.
A key part of this is teaching indigenous converts the basic truths of the Christian faith. But it’s not only that. In other words, we’re convinced that healthy discipleship involves more than just teaching people theology. We also want to provide opportunities for them to live out their faith as they become men and women who work hard serving their communities.
But this is where we hit a bump in the road. One of the many issues plaguing Scotland’s schemes is unemployment. It’s rampant here. Consider these statistics: pre-Covid, the national unemployment rate in Scotland was about 4.5%. Compare that with the national average in Scotland’s most deprived communities – a staggering 23% – and the problem is clear.
So when it comes to discipling new believers in the schemes, we simply cannot ignore the issue of work. Most of the men and women we meet gave up on the idea of holding down a steady job long ago. Many people now either survive on benefits, ‘work’ on the black market, or bounce between jobs, never really establishing a healthy work ethic.
Local churches in the schemes have been helping indigenous converts think biblically about work for many years now. But there’s still so much that needs to be done. That’s why we’re launching 20schemes Retrain.
One believer who came to faith a few years ago now manages a café in one of our churches in Edinburgh. Here’s what he had to say: ‘One of the biggest challenges [of] being a new believer was [figuring out] how to work as a Christian.’ After being discipled in the local church over the last few years, he now enjoys a new outlook when it comes to his work: ‘Going from a world of being dissatisfied, to a place now where I’m satisfied, and I love to serve the local community. … I’m not chasing a promotion. Jesus has already given me something far more valuable.’
This year we are looking to raise £50,000 during our Christmas Challenge campaign to launch 20schemes Retrain. Pray with us and support us so we may see men and women from the schemes of Scotland trained and equipped to be godly and faithful members of our communities.
