- Missions
A co-worker surprised Leah Langstaff in the last half hour of her job in a health food store on Princes Street in Edinburgh’s center.
Leah had turned in her notice because she was going on maternity leave for her and her husband Jacob’s first child. As the minutes of Leah’s final shift passed, the co-worker in the least-reached country made a substantial request.
“Before you go,” the Scottish man said, “you have to share one more little bit of Christian wisdom,” Leah recalled. “It was really unexpected and making me laugh at how God works.”
Helping with a harvest among the UK’s least-reached people
Leah and Jacob Langstaff moved to Edinburgh in 2019 as Converge global workers. He was a worship arts intern at Hope City Church. Whether at the health food store or Hope City, the Langstaffs better understand how people in the United Kingdom engage with Christ and the gospel.
Serving the least-reached peoples of the U.K. is their ultimate goal. Now, after two years in Scotland, they partner with Converge through the Alliance for Transatlantic Theological Training. Jacob and Leah mobilize disciples to serve God and learn from believers in the United Kingdom.
Clint Harper, AT3’s Director of Mobilization, knows God has used Jacob many times. He said Jacob is a careful discipler who helped an apprentice find the best path to health while preparing to serve abroad.
“Jacob jumped at the opportunity to come alongside him,” Harper said.
What Jacob offered that apprentice could be multiplied among least-reached peoples in the U.K. Strong churches in Scotland invite workers from the body of Christ to pitch in with the harvest, they said.
“If you’re standing in a room, you’re very likely the only Christian,” Jacob said. “The church needs more workers.”
In 2017, the BBC reported that 7.2% of people in Scotland regularly worshiped in church. Now, the Langstaffs said, the number is likely much lower. Throughout the United Kingdom, many former church buildings have become bars, coffee shops and other spaces.
Related: Coffee shop find sparks ministry in the U.K. and Ireland
What are the Langstaffs striving for in their ministry?
In response to the Great Commission to go and make disciples, AT3 has a goal of launching 1000 U.S. leaders and 1000 U.K. leaders into ministry in a post-Christian context. Before Scotland, the Langstaffs worked and lived in Sacramento among people who had no reference point for the Christian faith or Scriptures.
“My heart goes out to places inhabited by doubters and skeptics,” Jacob said. “They need to encounter a Christian as a fellow human who has good news to share with them. There has to be a presence for that to happen.”
Now, working in mobilization for AT3, the Langstaffs are equipping and supporting others to be that presence in the United Kingdom.
“I really like the mission, and mobilization is what they needed,” he said. “So now I’m trying to launch people to be ministry leaders in the future.”
Future ministry leaders begin as apprentices who learn and grow
AT3 apprentices spend two years in a United Kingdom community building relationships and learning from U.K. church leaders. The apprentices work at a local church with support and direction from local staff. At the same time, AT3 servants receive formal training at a seminary or an organization that teaches biblical counseling.
“I like getting to do what I do because I get to walk with these interns and apprentices through their growth journey,” Jacob said.
Langstaff said this approach creates healthy church partnerships within the U.K. and across the Atlantic as God’s people work together.
“Most of the time our goal is for folks to come back to the U.S. and use what they learned here,” he added.
Jacob developed a training track for worship art apprenticeship and internship training while in Scotland, Harper said. He called Langstaff’s training “fantastic,” noting “his work has sparked a desire for specific training tracks across our training programs in the U.K.”
Supporting fellow disciples motivates the Langstaffs
The Langstaffs served in Romania on short-term trips before going to Scotland for two years. Jacob also served in Switzerland and Los Angeles.
Leah explained how all those travels create a need for support from other Christians. She and Jacob draw motivation to support AT3’s apprentices from their cross-cultural experiences. That’s true as well because they are California natives now living in rural Tennessee.
“The difficulty of it makes us excited to be where we are doing the equipping and sending,” she said. “We know how important it is to have support when you’re overseas and doing ministry, especially for the first time. That also inspires us to give a little bit more of that support to other people.”
Related: Converge member care leaders building a different kind of shelter
As Jacob learned and served at Hope City Church, God developed his faith and his competence in building others up to use their spiritual gifts and serve with more confidence.
He said his proudest moment in Scotland was seeing local worship leaders blossom in creating environments for publicly praising God. He said that growth came from God as these servants formed a good, biblical perspective on worship and activated their knowledge in the local church.
“My eyes have been opened to a bigger God,” Langstaff said. “My eyes have been opened to how much I needed to learn.”
Related: Converge has short-term service opportunities that can open your eyes.
He said many people come on short-term trips, hoping with good intentions to ignite a major revival. However, as they serve, quite a few grow and mature as Christian leaders regardless of the measurable results through their activities, Langstaff explained.
Converge partnerships benefit UK churches that simultaneously shape believers
The Langstaffs believe those moments of discipleship that transform people are precisely what AT3 and Converge can do on both sides of the Atlantic. They’re motivated to keep mobilizing partnerships and apprentices, so the churches of the U.K. help Americans learn ministry in a post-Christian context.
“We’re able to help light that spark for people,” Leah said.
Then, because God’s people are working together in the U.K., the Langstaffs are confident more and more people will have an opportunity to meet a Christian at their job or in their neighborhood in the United Kingdom. While she may have been the only Christian her health store co-workers ever met, the Langstaffs know that doesn’t have to be the future.
“I learned so much about just every day coming to work and praying that God would give me words and have me open to what he wanted to do that day in order to bless my co-workers,” she said. “Little instances are what people need.”
Converge is asking God for a gospel movement among every least-reached people group – in our generation. Learn how we are playing a role in accomplishing the Great Commission and how you can be involved.
