Then I began to realize that actually disciple making was not really on the agenda of the UK church.

When Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples in Matthew 28, he does not say, go therefore and make church members.

He doesn't say go and make converts. He says go and make disciples.

Welcome everybody. This is Simon Gilbeau with Inspired. It's great to you back for another week of encouraging stories,

inspired amidst all the rubbish news outside that we've been bombarded with. We want to hear

stories of overcoming faith, inspiration of God at work. And this week, particularly in the marketplace,

we've got with us, Mark Green, who is a former Adman himself. I've quoted him over the years,

umpteen times in different talks. So I'm really a fan of his and his books. He's a former lecturer

in a theological college. He's now mission champion at London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Welcome, Mark.

Well, thanks very much. Great to be with you. Great to be with you.

Yes, Mark is a pioneer and champion for everyday mission ministry in general. It's done up the last

several decades, three decades plus, seeking to envision and equip Christians, basically

all of us to see the significance of not just Sunday Christianity, but Monday to Saturday,

our respective contexts and seeking to empower us to make an impact for Christ right where we are.

So whoever you are listening right now, this is for you. And I'm really excited about where

this is going. So Mark, I don't know much about your background. In fact, basically, most of the

people we've had on so far have been my mates. but we've never met. But Adam, who edits these podcasts, he listened to you a couple of weeks ago. He said, you're brilliant. So I'm taking his recommendation. I'm trusting that. And so let's take it away. Give us your backstory. Well, this could be the end of your beautiful relationship with Adam, your editor,

couldn't it? But there you go. So, yes, I grew up in North London, the son of a Ukrainian Jewish man, my father, and a Celtic-picked, Glasgowian socialist mother who used to go to Socialist

Sunday School. Her father was fought in the Spanish

Civil War. So I grew up Jewish, but ish in the sense that my mother actually wasn't Jewish

by birth, but she agreed to bring us up that way and did so very faithfully. And then I suppose,

you know, you go to school and when you go to school in England, you hear lots of stuff, lots of stuff about Jesus and I did, and was always sort of interested

...