Spiritual gifts: A nuanced position worth learning from?
Adam Ramsey
Date posted: 6 Apr 2026
This is the third in a series of articles written by Adam Ramsey of Liberti Church, Gold Coast, Australia, exploring what we can learn from Martyn Lloyd-Jones today in relation to the Reformed faith and a Scriptural understanding of spiritual experience. The essays, of which there are five in total, need to be taken together. They are taken from original, yet-to-be published research undertaken by Ramsey for his Doctor of Philosophy thesis. They also, we hope, represent something of the generous-hearted, thoughtful, Biblical approach that en was founded 40 years ago in 1986 to embody. Read Ramsey's first article here and his second article here. Next month: “Why Martyn Lloyd-Jones was not a charismatic.”
pastoral care
Why do people leave?
Helen Thorne-Allenson
Date posted: 5 Apr 2026
In recent months, there seems to have been an exciting increase in the number of people coming through the front doors of our churches.
It’s so encouraging to see new faces, hear new questions, and see new people becoming regular members of the congregation. But, at the same time, I am hearing an increasing number of stories of people leaving by the back door. Not storming out – not moving away – not finding themselves unable to get to church – but people quietly slipping off to “do church alone”.
‘Tender mercy and rich love’ – surprising encounters with the risen Lord Jesus
Daniel Johnson
Date posted: 5 Apr 2026
Tucked away in Paul’s glorious description of the saving grace of Christ in Ephesians 2 is a phrase that appears only this once in all of his letters: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”
The “great love” of God for us. Polys Agape. That word “great” is used four times in John’s Gospel to describe the vast crowds that Jesus encountered. At Easter, we often associate the love of God with the death of Christ (rightly so), but rarely speak of the resurrection – and our resurrection with Christ – as being evidence of God’s love. But the risen Jesus, resplendent in power, majesty and authority, is the radiant glory of the great love of God.
The blessedness of 'inefficiency'
Matt Waldock
Date posted: 4 Apr 2026
In secular leadership circles, the holy grail of self-development is the attainment of a "highly productive life".
In this world, productivity is typically measured in terms of how many plates one can keep spinning without everything crashing down.
faith and life
What is good, anyway?
Jonnie Green
Date posted: 4 Apr 2026
Recently I was going through the new Uncover resource with a Hindu friend. During the conversation he stated that ultimately all religions are the same, because all religions are trying to create good.
There was a sense in which I agreed with him. Yes, there is something about us as humanity which loves to try and distinguish between good/bad, clean/unclean, honourable/shameful. Often these become formalised into religious philosophies. There is something wonderfully uniting about humanity and its quest for the “good”: we set boundaries, create laws, promote some behaviours, outlaw others.
What did Jesus accomplish on the cross?
Wallace Benn
Date posted: 3 Apr 2026
As Christians mark Good Friday, Wallace Benn reflects from John 19v16-42 on what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
1 - HE CREATED A COMMUNITY OF LOVE: "WOMAN BEHOLD YOUR SON! / BEHOLD YOUR MOTHER!" (JOHN 12v27)
There is a very moving scene at the foot of the cross, described for us by John who was himself present (19v25-27). Jesus' selfless care for others is on full display. Despite his own intense suffering, he is concerned for those standing faithfully by him. Mary especially must have felt devastated. There is nothing worse for a parent than to see their child die in front of their eyes, and before their own death. Jesus, whom she had carried and cared for as a child, her very special and unique son, whose birth and life had been so full of hope and joy, now crucified and dying a horrible death. Aware of her pain, and knowing now how much she would need care, Jesus says to her, "Woman behold your son!" and to his "beloved disciple" (John), "Behold your mother".
Communion from the hands of the tailored and the track-suited
Jason Roach
Date posted: 2 Apr 2026
There was a glint in his eye. I couldn’t quite tell if it was a tear or a smile. He grinned, put his coffee down on the table and said: “As a teenager, it was the most special thing about church every Sunday.”
We’d been talking about life on estate churches.
AI’s assault on the press
Jenny Taylor
Date posted: 2 Apr 2026
My father had a saying, an old Suffolk “saw”: “While fools go prating far and wide, we stops at ’ome, my dog and I.”
There is a certain truth in that. The world seems to be getting more “foolish”, and I am less convinced that prating far and wide – a public life of activism for its own sake, be it political or journalistic – makes much difference to the betterment of the human condition. And anything with “global” in its name makes me run for the hills.
Artemis astronaut's Christian faith
en staff
Date posted: 1 Apr 2026
The pilot of the pioneering space mission Artemis II is a committed Christian.
Victor J Glover is a member of the Church of Christ, a grouping of conservative Protestant congregations mostly found in the USA.
everyday evangelism
Do you lack confidence in evangelism?
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 1 Apr 2026
We prayed, read Scripture, gathered leaflets, and were sent off in twos. It was my first experience of evangelism and I was terrified! Ken, the mission leader, paired me with Sue – whose enormous confidence and relish at the thought of the task ahead compensated for my distinct lack of both.
We stepped out into the rainy Cardiff streets, with a list of doors to knock and people to invite to the church film night, youth event, and guest service. At the third door we knocked, a lovely Muslim lady invited us in to discuss questions of faith and how the Bible answered them differently than the Qur’an. It was hard.
history
Martyrdom and schism
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Apr 2026
Tertullian (c.160/170–c.220) had a genuine knack for pithy sayings that stick in the mind. For instance, there is his well-known take on the antithesis between ancient philosophy and Christianity: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Or the equally famous quip: “The blood of the martyrs is seed.”
Later generations expanded this to “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”, which may well bring out what the North African theologian originally had in mind. Tertullian, who was an advocate for never fleeing from persecution or seeking to evade arrest for one’s faith, here pictures the church flourishing through her martyrs.
Explainer: Is Päivi's conviction misunderstood?
en staff
Date posted: 31 Mar 2026
Remind me what the Päivi case is all about...
It's about Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish Christian politician who has just been convicted by the country's Supreme Court after expressing traditional, Biblical views on sexuality.
That sounds pretty terrible, and a real blow to the freedom to express Christian views on these matters...
That's certainly how many have interpreted it. No less an august institution than The Washington Post described it as "a free speech farce" in an editorial. "Finland is often ranked as the happiest country on Earth, but that's only if you like cold winters and harsh limitations on freedom of expression," it thundered. "If Finland is able to do this to a sitting member of its legislature and a clergyman [Päivi's co-defendant, Lutheran bishop Juhana Pohjola] who chairs an international organisation with millions of members, no less notable person can feel comfortable expressing similar views in public."
everyday theology
Where is your hope today?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 31 Mar 2026
At the very end of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian looks back from the Celestial City and sees a man called Ignorance approaching the gate.
Ignorance began to knock, supposing that entrance should have been quickly administered to him; but he was asked by the men that looked over the top of the gate: “Whence came you, and what would you have?” He answered: “I have eat and drank in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our streets.” Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go in and show it to the King; so he fumbled in his bosom for one, and found none.
en's 40th: Thanking God
en staff
Date posted: 30 Mar 2026
Evangelicals Now was first published in July 1986 and so, from Easter for the rest of this year, we will be celebrating the paper’s 40th anniversary with a series of events to mark the occasion.
It’s an excellent opportunity for regular readers to thank God for sustaining the publication for so long, to take stock of en’s current situation and assess future plans. You might say that this article is about Evangelicals Then, Evangelicals Now and Evangelicals to Come.
YouGov - you what? The 'quiet revival' apology explained
en staff
Date posted: 26 Mar 2026
What just happened?
YouGov’s Chief Executive Officer Stephan Shakespeare has personally apologised to the Bible Society after it emerged that the 2024 survey sample on which its report The Quiet Revival was based was, in fact, faulty.
Remind me what this was all about...
The Church Times summarises it succinctly: "When it was published last April, the report suggested that churchgoing among young people, particularly men, in England and Wales was growing, but not in the Church of England (News, 8 April, 2025)."
The link between 'right living' and joy in the Spirit
James Burnett
Date posted: 26 Mar 2026
It’s marathon season. Could long-distance running get your life back on track with God? The Apostle Paul writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4v7).
Let’s start by exploring a link between method acting and Christians who run.
AI: A new front in the spiritual battle?
John Wyatt
Date posted: 25 Mar 2026
“Social media with no humans allowed”. “AI just created its own religion”. “The world’s first AI-only social media platform is seriously weird”.
The headlines were striking – are we entering a dystopian future in which autonomous AI systems are taking over the internet? The click-bait headlines are pointers to the rapidly growing capabilities of "AI agents" – software apps built on the power of large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. But AI agents are capable of taking autonomous actions – sending emails and blog posts, booking reservations, engaging in online shopping, even creating their own software and AI sub-agents.
What the mysteries of the universe teach us about God
Seth Lewis
Date posted: 24 Mar 2026
Every so often I run across a news article about new discoveries that could reshape our understanding of the universe or how some scientists are proposing new ways of thinking about the questions that continue to confound our best efforts of explanation.
As our knowledge grows and our scientific theories continually shift in response, it’s obvious that our experts are still out of their depth in the mysteries of creation. It often seems that the more we find out about the universe, the more questions we end up having about it.
