More Information
Publication Date: 19 Oct 2012
Publisher: IVP
Page Count: 176
Author: Tim Chester
ISBN-13: 9781844746033, 9781844748464

Unreached

Growing Churches In Working-Class And Deprived Areas
By Tim Chester
A vision for thriving church planting in working-class areas
In stock
ISBN-13
9781844746033-grouped
Paperback
£10.99
eBook
£8.99
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Summary of Unreached

Think of the thriving evangelical churches in your area. Chances are they will be in the 'nice' areas of town and their leaders will be middle class.

Tim Chester once attended a lecture where the speaker showed a map of Sheffield. The council wards were coloured different shades, according to social indicators: educational achievement, household income, benefit recipients, social housing, criminal activity, and so on. Slide after slide showed that the east side of the city was the needy, socially deprived half, compared to the more prosperous west. Where are the churches? Counting all the various tribes of evangelicalism, the large churches are on the west side. The working-class and deprived areas of our cities are not being reached with the gospel. There are many exciting exceptions, but the pattern is clear.

According to Mez McConnell from Niddrie Community Church in Edinburgh, of the fifty worst housing schemes in Scotland, half have no church, and most of the others only have a dying church. Very few have an evangelical witness.

This book is about reaching deprived, urban, working-class areas, often estates or schemes. It offers us the combined experience of the Reaching the Unreached working group, an informal network of Christian leaders from different parts of the UK.

This book doesn't claim to be the final word. But it presents us with a vision of what can be done. We pray that it will capture imaginations and start a vital process in our hearts and minds.
Press Reviews

Thoughtful analysis at its best, supplemented by excellent practical suggestions and ideas.

- Steve Gaukroger

Offers flashes of penetrating insight and perception.

- Frog Orr-Ewing

Tim writes both from ministry experience and a passion for the gospel... Valuable practical insight and needed advice.

- Joel Virgo

Outspoken and provocative. Breaks new ground. Issues a straightforward challenge which the evangelical community in the UK desperately needs to hear.

- David Smith