In depth | Evangelicals Now

After #KesCon25: some reflections

Lydia Houghton

“Hear God’s Word, become like God’s Son, and serve God’s mission.” That’s what Keswick Ministries is hoping to have achieved with its three-week 2025 convention.

This year, the event celebrated 150 years since its first gathering. An estimated 14,000 people, including 3,500 children and teenagers, took part in a programme spread across three weeks (14 July to 1 August).

Transformed in, through and for Christ

Tim Chester

Hands up who wants to live for Christ? I see a lot of raised hands.

The natural instinct of a Christian is to want to be transformed so we become like Christ and serve Him. It’s as if a new destination has been punched into our inner Satnav. Instead of plotting a course towards wealth or comfort or career, we’re now heading towards Christ and His kingdom. We want to be transformed. But how?

How can the gospel transform our society?

Elizabeth McQuoid

Here, Clare Williams-Sarpong chats with Elizabeth McQuoid about how the gospel can transform our society. Clare Williams is an associate speaker with The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and runs her own apologetics ministry ‘Real Questions’.

EM: How can we make sense of culture today?

When we want to change – but find it difficult

Steve Midgley

“You always do that!” Their argument, and his response, was discouragingly familiar. The same critique, the same sulking withdrawal.

“Why do I always do that?” It had been a few months this time – she was beginning to think she had cracked it. But a couple of clicks and she was back in the mire. Her resolutions, once again, proved no match for the strength of her habit.

Keswick: England's Galilee

Charles Gardner

My wife, Linda, and I are still basking in the warm glow of the Keswick Convention, which we attended last week. And as one for whom Israel and the Jewish people are always close to my heart, I couldn’t help comparing it to Yeshua’s teaching around the Sea of Galilee.

Keswick has been held annually for 150 years in the heart of the town, set amidst the magnificent English Lake District. It is surrounded by lofty mountains and overlooks the serene Derwent Water, just three miles long and a mile at its widest point. One of the lakeside views was regarded by noted writer and art critic, John Ruskin, as among the three most beautiful sights in all Europe. The lake is even dotted with a few islands which have been the focus of ancient pilgrimages.

‘Gen Z’ is unique – here’s how to engage them

Peter Dray

Have you noticed how people see the world similarly to those born at a similar time to them? It’s evident even in trivial ways. Virtually everyone, for example, feels that the best music was created in their mid-teens (me included!).

The conditions in which we grew up shape our view of the world into adulthood. They set the presets against which we measure everything we encounter later in life. The Bible itself recognises this generational difference, with Judges 2v10 highlighting the distinct perspectives between those who entered the Promised Land and their children.

The Keswick Convention’s repeated transformation

Philip Sowerbutts

Keswick has always been about transformation.

The Convention’s founder Thomas Dundas Harford-Battersby, Vicar of St John’s Keswick, was a man troubled by a lack of holiness in his own walk with God. It was while on holiday on the Cumbrian coast at Silloth that he was first introduced to a new teaching that would lead to a personal transformation by a work of God’s Holy Spirit. In just three weeks, he and his friend Robert Wilson organised their own “Holiness Convention” in June 1875 using a tent in the garden of Harford-Battersby’s Keswick vicarage (see photo of the 150th anniversary book cover*). Hundreds attended, and such was the success it was decided to hold another the following year, and so it has continued for 150 years.

editorial

Keswick at 150 years old

Editorial

It would be possible these days, it seems to us, to attend a Reformed and Bible-based conference virtually every month – possibly even more often.

Anyone who attempted to do so might well end up extremely well-taught and godly – or mad. Either way, they would almost certainly be quite a lot poorer, given the costs involved.

Keswick draws delegates from 90 conventions

Jonathan Lamb

Delegates from 16 countries representing 90 different Bible-teaching events and almost 50,000 believers are attending the 150th celebrations at the Keswick Convention.

They are participating in a special track – the Keswick Fellowship International Consultation.

Keswick Convention's international dimension

Attila Kapocs

During its long history, the work of Keswick has rippled around the world, and there are now established ministries in some 16 countries, with nearly 90 individual Conventions, large and small.

The Hungarian work, known as BalatonNET, is an example of a nation catching the vision and making it its own, shaping a programme that is attracting young and old, and which is uniting believers across different denominations. Attila Kapocs tells the story…

'Record numbers' at Keswick Convention announced

en staff; Keswick Ministries

Keswick Convention organisers are sharing their thanksgiving after the close of a successful event this summer saw what they describe as 'record numbers of visitors in recent years'.

This year’s Convention - which focused on the theme of Resurrection - welcomed an estimated 13,000 people to the site across three weeks to hear Bible expositions, and to worship together and spend time in the Lake District. Thousands more worldwide joined sessions online through livestream.

Keswick 24: In victory and defeat, what does sport teach us?

Graham Daniels and Jonny Reid

This summer, thousands of athletes will compete in Paris with seemingly a united goal, to win gold for their country. 100 years ago in Paris, two world-class sprinters lined up with two very different perspectives on why achieving that gold medal was important.

Englishman Harold Abrahams ran the 100m, winning the gold medal after his great rival Eric Liddell withdrew due to the heats being scheduled on a Sunday. Liddell would go on to run his less-favoured event, the 400m, win and redefine the event forever.

Keswick 24: Feeling spiritually dry?

Mark Ellis

I know what it’s like to feel dry. To feel Jesus is distant. To know in my head I couldn’t be closer; that my life is now hid in Christ. But not to sense that in my heart. To feel my eyesight is clouded and my heart is stale.

And the Keswick Convention is not the answer to my problem. But it can help. Because our good God gives us many ways to bring our hearts closer to the sunshine of the gospel; many ways that will melt our hearts as we look to Jesus. And what I love about the Convention is that it’s like an oasis. It’s an opportunity to be refreshed. And then sent back out again.

Keswick 24: Imagining our resurrections

Mark Meynell

Since the Church’s earliest years, believers have rejoiced in a sublimely simple statement: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

That is no mere objective truth. This ancient truth has now become our truth. The gospel makes it personal. Paul insisted in his letter to the Roman Christians that ‘if we have been united with [Christ] in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His’ (Rom. 6:5). In other words, where He goes, we go.

Keswick 24: Hope-filled conversations with our children

Amy Smith

We were off to the zoo! My four young children were in the car, we’d waved Dad off to work, the buggy and picnic were packed. As we reached the motorway, a little voice, full of worry, asked: ‘Where are we going and how long for?’ In all my preparation I’d missed a key moment – I hadn’t talked to the children! Four little people had no idea what was happening.

For one little boy, for whom all the events of moving from foster care to his new adoptive home was a conscious memory, this was a problem. He was understandably worried that he was leaving home and might not see Dad again. Without his question, I might have missed what was going on. Instead, my awareness of my son’s heart meant I could wrap him in a hug and say: ‘You are our little boy, God has given you to us and us to you, you are home with us.’

Keswick 24: God is at work today in the least expected places

Femi Adeleye

Two years ago, I was invited by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, to speak at the Joshua Generation International Youth Conference (JGIYC). It was to take place at the National Stadium in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.

When I was told 30,000 young people were expected at the five-day event, I had some reservations. To my pleasant surprise, there were about 33,000 young people in attendance, and they were all irrepressible in their response. At least one third committed their lives to serving God’s purpose in their generation.

In Depth: Keswick