Blackpool: FIEC leaders meet
John Woods
More than 1,100 church leaders, missionaries, and gospel workers gathered in Blackpool for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches' (FIEC) Leaders’ Conference to consider mission in the UK and to the ends of the earth.
While the church can sometimes pay only lip service to mission, this conference provided a substantial rather than perfunctory engagement with the theme. The main plenary sessions were rooted in a proclamation of the first two chapters of Acts. There was a welcome emphasis on the fact that the mission is God’s mission, that it has the gospel at its core, has the local church at its heart, and flows out of our weakness, enabled by the power of the Spirit.
‘The last two years have been the most encouraging... of the past 30 years’
John Woods
en Reviews Editor John Woods speaks to John Stevens about his time thus far serving with the FIEC.
en: You have been serving as National Director of the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches (FIEC) for 15 years. What was you first experience of the FIEC?
'Boys and young men are in crisis'
When delivering the 2025 Dimbleby Lecture this week, Former England Football manager Sir Gareth Southgate highlighted the dearth of male role models in contemporary society.
“We need leaders to set the right tone. To be the role models we want for our young men. We have to show young men that character is more important than status. That how you treat others is more important than how much money you make.”