2 Timothy 4 Trust

The 2 Timothy 4 Trust aims to increase the number of churches with excellent preaching in Scotland.

The Trust was established in 2009 with the clear understanding that Biblical preaching is one of God's primary methods for both calling His people:

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Romans 10:14)

And also for sanctifying them:

"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Our aim is to encourage preachers to

"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction." (2 Timothy 4:2)

This may seem a bit of a bold aim, and indeed it is. We recognize that preaching is a spiritual activity so there's a limit to the earthly action we can productively take - but this doesn't meant there is nothing to be done, so we'll make the best investment of the talents we've been given that we can.

Having said we aim to increase the number of churches with excellent preaching, we really should define what we mean. We respect that others may have different views, but we define excellent preaching as:

• Biblical: Emanating from and relying on God's living and active word, the Bible

• Spiritual: A co-working with the Spirit and delivered with His power

• Impactful: Bringing God's holy word to bear on sinners, challenging and changing them towards God

• Evangelistic: Calling sinners (including Christians) to the cross

• Equipping: Teaching believers the ways of Jesus, equipping for ministry and leading into action

• Engaging: Presented well and with passion; captivating, not a dull, dry lecture

There are a lot of different ways of approaching the challenge of increasing excellent preaching. To better define our specific character the Trust has adopted the following list of principles for how we'll work - please let us know what you think:

• Tactical orientation - The Trust recognizes that many potential ways of addressing this issue will only be effective over the long term, but chooses to focus on methods with potential for the near term.

• Focussed Impact - The Trust knows that the need is broad; however we chose to focus our efforts on driving a greater impact to a smaller number of situations rather than trying to "raise all boats"

• With the grain - The Trust recognizes preaching is a gift of the Spirit as well as a skill that can be developed. We will focus our efforts where there's evidence of gifting, commitment to preaching and openness to our engagement, rather than trying to go against the grain.

• Reach Out - The Trust is specifically aimed at including and encouraging churches and denominations outside of those with a history of great preaching.

• Research-led - The Trust will try to ensure we address relevant problems through being led by research activities designed to identify root issues.

• Innovate - The Trust will be innovative in its approach to the issue, bringing ideas and approaches from other fields into this domain wherever useful.

• Prototype, Evaluate, Scale - The Trust will prototype solutions considered and evaluate the outcome, ideally measuring impact, before deciding to put our .weight. behind a method.

• Partner - The Trust will avoid duplicating relevant activities, programmes and materials where these already exist; we will be pleased to partner and invest in others.