Welcome to Episode 3 of the Olasky interview.

I'm Jill Nelson.

Today, Marvin Olasky's 2018 interview with Mez McConnell.

McConnell is the senior pastor of Nidri Community Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the author of three books.

He's passionate about planting churches in poor communities and keeping the gospel

central in compassion or mercy ministries. McConnell grew up in a rough neighborhood and became

involved in violent crime at a young age. His life was on a downward spiral until some Christians

came to visit him in prison, and he eventually wanted to know more about God.

Marvin Olasky is here to share some of his thoughts about this interview. Hi, Marvin. Hi, Jill.

Well, looking back on the list of people you've interviewed through the years, not many are from overseas.

And Mez McConnell, of course, as we mentioned, is a pastor from Scotland. How did someone from across the pond attract your interest?

One of my students interned with him in Glasgow, in Scotland, and she turned me on to his memoir

about growing up abandoned and abused.

It's pretty brutal in parts.

And he responded. He was convicted of assault at age 12.

And then he came to Christ by plowing through Matthew Henry's Bible commentary from the 18th century.

Not a whole lot of conversion stories like that over the past couple of

centuries. Yeah, you don't hear that very often. Well, I quickly picked up that McConnell has a

sense of humor and it's just this down-to-earth kind of guy. He calls you doc throughout the interview,

not Dr. Olasky, just doc. And he's refreshingly straightforward when it comes to sharing the gospel.

Tell us how his approach might differ from that of other pastors.

Yeah, I liked being called Doc kind of like one of the dwarfs, right?

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