Scotland | A Community of Prayer and Worship Among an Unreached People
In 550 AD on the site where Glasgow (Scotland, UK) now stands, St. Mungo founded a community of 24/7 prayer and worship, which became a well-known place to encounter the Living God and his healing. Glasgow was established in the name of Jesus as a place to worship and adore him, and a place for the holistic gospel to be spread to the rest of Scotland and beyond. Glasgow’s motto was originally, “Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of thy word, and the praising of thy name.” In the last decade it was changed to just "Let Glasgow Flourish."
In contrast to these origins of hope and blessing, modern-day Glasgow is a city on its knees, due to high drug use, suicide rates, obesity, cancer, and poverty. There is also a strange medically documented phenomenon called The Glasgow Effect, whereby the people in Glasgow live 10 years less than people from other parts of Scotland and the UK. This crosses all demographics and is unexplained. Despite their history of bringing the gospel to the rest of the UK, Scots are now considered pretty much an unreached people group. Only about 2% of Glaswegians have an active faith in Jesus.
Eight years ago, God invited Adam and Charlotte (a Glasgow native), along with a bunch of other faithful believers, to pioneer something new in Glasgow. With Novo’s support, they began to take on the ownership of Jesus's Great Commission, and to explore what it means to live as the Royal Priesthood in their areas of influence. They now have eight teams and microchurches spread out across Glasgow, who are all living out a missional call to bring the church and the message of Jesus to their networks, neighborhoods, and affinity groups. These microchurches have many connections with not-yet-believers, in over 70 missional spaces.
In their own missional patch in the north of the city, Adam and Charlotte, along with their microchurch, practice regular rhythms of prayer-walking and engaging with locals. They’ve found a deep loneliness in their area, so they’ve set out to create spaces for community, connection, and friendships to form. Their microchurch recently opened a physical space in a central location to attend to the needs of the local community with initiatives such as a compassionate space for those with anxiety, a DBS for walkers aged 60 years young, a hub for young people to discover Jesus, and an artist's microchurch for fellow creators to discover God through art. They host prayer, worship, and creativity in this new space. Adam and Charlotte envision Glasgow becoming a place that is saturated by the presence of God again—just as it was in the days of St. Mungo—a place that equips and sends out people to carry the good news to the rest of the UK and beyond into Europe.
