In Depth:  Lydia Houghton

Lydia Houghton

Lots of young people are responding positively to the question “What would you say if a friend asked you to read the Bible with them?”

In an Instagram reel posted by @uncoverJesus, seven out of nine young people said that yes, they would read the Bible if a friend asked.

Lydia Houghton

With billionaires racing to colonise Mars and build orbital resorts, one theologian is asking: “Who will bring the gospel to outer space?”

Stephen Stallard is author of “The Final Frontier of Mission: Space Tourism, Lunar Colonies, and the Future of Interplanetary Mission” – a chapter in the book New Frontiers in Missiology (2025).

Lydia Houghton

The leader of a former FIEC-affiliated church which became Eastern Orthodox in September has been explaining why they made the move.

Hope Church Halifax, which was part of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, has become St Hilda’s Orthodox Church, part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland. It now uses a Roman Catholic building, St Malachy’s, for its services.

Lydia Houghton

This summer saw more than 1,000 students descend on The Quinta Christian Centre in Oswestry, Shropshire, for the annual Forum conference, hosted by the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF).

Attending the gathering for the first time in his role as CEO was Matt Lillicrap, who took over leadership last autumn. en had an exclusive opportunity to chat with him about all things student ministry, just as UCCF is launching its brand-new Uncover Luke publication.

Lydia Houghton

The Director of Bible translation organisation The Word for the World UK (TWFTW) is doing a sponsored climb of Mount Catherine (the highest mountain in Egypt) and Mount Sinai.

Steve Lancaster is raising funds to buy 10,000 Sena Bibles for the people of Malawi; he needs £48,000 and has already raised over £24,000. Lancaster said: “The Sena Bible was published in 2006… Twenty years on and the Sena church is growing, but they’ve run out of their stock of Bibles and are pleading for more!”

Lydia Houghton

Street evangelism will be hindered, it is feared, after Birmingham City Council imposed a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO).

The order prohibits the use of amplification equipment, musical instruments, or “other items used as musical instruments” within the stated “restricted area” – a designated part of Birmingham city centre highlighted by the local authority in the order.

Lydia Houghton

A “jaw-dropping” financial situation, and a perceived loss of doctrinal sharpness, have variously been blamed for the abrupt closure of Spurgeon’s College, London.

The Bible college – founded by celebrated preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) – announced its closure earlier this year, after 169 years of service.

Lydia Houghton

Several recordings, currently not available anywhere in the world, have been obtained by the organisation committed to preserving and distributing the sermons of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust (MLJ Trust) wrote on X: “One recording in particular is of special interest, and as far as we know, this ‘might be’ one of the last surviving copies of that sermon from [the evening of Friday] 1st November 1974!”

Lydia Houghton

The case of abducted Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu has been raised in the UK Parliament.

Sharibu has been held captive since 19 February 2018 when Islamic militants attacked the Government Girls’ Science and Technical School in Dapchi, Yobe State, Nigeria, and abducted 110 schoolgirls.

Lydia Houghton

Biblical Counselling UK (BCUK) has raised over a quarter of a million pounds towards its endeavour to 'Get Church Talking.'

The campaign has been described as BCUK’s “most ambitious” to date – with the goal to fuel the next five years of growth by raising £500,000 in one-off gifts, and doubling its number of regular donors.

Lydia Houghton

In the heart of a busy village in Buckinghamshire, a group of book-loving believers gathered to celebrate all things Christian literature.

2025 saw The St Andrews Literature Festival – organised by the local bookshop of the same name – mark its second year. Hosted in Great Missenden, the home of Roald Dahl, the two-day event saw Christian authors come together to share insights about their faith, books, and writing processes.

Lydia Houghton

Smuggling Bibles to believers in communist countries – that’s how Open Doors UK & Ireland began. 70 years on, the organisation has become an international ministry working for the good of the persecuted church.

In 1955, Dutch missionary Brother Andrew set off for Poland with a suitcase containing his Bible and hundreds of tracts entitled “The Way of Salvation”. Behind the Iron Curtain (the divide between Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe and the West during the Cold War) he discovered churches desperately in need of Bibles, support, and prayer.

Lydia Houghton

A growing number of Christians are signing up to a programme committed to helping its students learn more about the Jewish roots of their faith.

The Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ) has launched “Torah Plus” – a programme focused on teaching how what is written in the first five books of the Bible (the Torah, or Pentateuch) is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus (or Yeshua), and exploring the Hebraic roots of Christianity.

Lydia Houghton

A Christian association is seeking to fill a reported gospel need in farming communities.

Tony Baskerville, Cheshire-based tenant farmer on the Rode Estate, Scholar Green, and elder at Grace Church, Sandbach, says that farmers are feeling increasingly marginalised. “There is a tremendous opportunity to reach out to them in genuine Christian love,” said Baskerville.

Lydia Houghton

In response to the increasingly prevalent liberal and progressive ideologies appearing in universities, a “new and unique” Christian college has been launched.

Selden College will be based in Oxford and has a twofold vision: to recover the heritage of Christian higher education, and to glorify God in this arena.

Lydia Houghton

A non-verbal teenager who uses his eyes to write is sharing his Christian faith through poetry, seven years on from the publication of his memoir.

Jonathan Bryan, 19, has cerebral palsy, and uses an alphabet board to communicate. His book Eye Can Write came out in 2018 – when he was only 12 years old – and details the silence, loneliness and pain of not being able to speak, and the experience of becoming literate and being able to communicate with his own words.

Lydia Houghton

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is launching a new Eastertime gathering, after popular Christian festival Word Alive shut down last year.

Rising Lights will take place from 6–10 April 2026 in the Devon town of Torquay, and is described as a chance to “hear God’s word, to praise our risen Saviour, and to rest.”