I’ve been surprised and very pleased by the response to this blog and its accompanying book. As my first book – Atheism, Fundamentalism and the Protestant Reformation – cost a wallet-busting £75 – I had got rather used to literary obscurity, and so it’s wonderful to have real people to talk to about the ideas raised in the book.
I never intended the blog or book to be standalone items, however, but wanted them to foster wider debate and research into mission in a Scottish context. To that end, I am pleased to announce that the blog Mission in Contemporary Scotland will now be accepting submissions from other practitioners and mission-nerds on all things missional.
As the perceptive readers among you will have noted (pp196-7 of the book…) I am committed to free speech that doesn’t break any laws. For that reason, I will not be editing (or spell-checking!) any submissions, or censoring anything just because it is a little controversial (if you want to rile people and make enemies that’s up to you). The only guidelines are:
- The post must be about service, evangelism, new forms of Christian community, or public witness in a Scottish context
- Not have been printed or hosted elsewhere
- Be no more than circa 1500 words
- Be written in a spirit of Christian charity, and
- You supply an attractive picture to go with it (glossy headshots are acceptable)
In addition to these general guidelines, I would particularly welcome case studies. These are posts about a specific project you have undertaken in Scotland, and which might be of interest to the wider Scottish Church. For many years George Lings produced the Encounters on the Edge series in England, and I hope this can perform a similar function. If you choose to write a case study you get a heftier 2500 word limit, but have to use the following headings to ensure some consistency between case studies:
- What contextual issue was the project a response to?
- What form did the project take?
- What have you learned from it?
Send your submissions to liam.fraser@brendanresearch.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Happy blogging!
Mission in Contemporary Scotland 