Go boldly: From world mission to out-of-this-world mission...
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Dec 2025
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).
King Charles honours Christian mission organisation MAF
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 25 Apr 2025
The humanitarian work of Christian mission organisation Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has been honoured by King Charles.
Representing MAF, CEO Donovan Palmer (pictured left), Trustee Max Gove, Deputy Country Director in Uganda Sam Baguma, and Becky Waterman attended a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by the King, Queen Camilla and Princess Anne, where the “exceptional” work of approximately 100 humanitarian charities was recognised.
The Church Mission Society's new CEO
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Oct 2025
Andy Roberts has been appointed as the new CEO of the Church Mission Society (CMS).
Roberts – a former mission partner and CMS director of mission – is originally from York and has lived much of his life in Brazil. There, he spent several years serving vulnerable children and young people, alongside his wife, Rose. The couple launched ReVive – a charity providing shelter and holistic support for girls affected by abuse, exploitation and neglect. In 2021, Roberts was awarded an MBE for his work with vulnerable children in Brazil.
Franklin Graham groups quit accountability body
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 Oct 2025
Franklin Graham – the son of late American evangelist Billy Graham – has withdrawn his two ministries from an evangelical accountability group which was co-founded by his father.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan’s Purse have formally resigned from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), ending more than four decades of membership.
Young people are ‘open to reading the Bible’
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 6 Dec 2025
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.
New Equipping Pastors Worldwide role
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 25 Oct 2025
Equipping Pastors Worldwide has welcomed David Bhadreshwar as its new Head of Resourcing and Partnerships.
Bhadreshwar and his wife, Naomi, spent almost 20 years in Peru as missionaries – serving indigenous churches through preaching, teaching, discipleship, and pastoral ministry in villages and cities across the jungles, highlands, and coast. Registered with Global Training Network (GTN), Bhadreshwar has remained actively involved in overseas missions training since returning to the UK in 2023.
Birmingham ban raises street preaching fears
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 28 Sep 2025
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.
‘Mother of modern Bible translation’ dies
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 29 Oct 2025
Wycliffe Bible Translators has paid tribute to one of its long-serving missionaries who has died at 87.
Dr Katharine “Katy” Barnwell served with Wycliffe for over 60 years. Barnwell pioneered locally-led Bible translation: after helping to see the New Testament published in the Mbembe language in 1985, she found that the Mbembe people wanted more translation – the Old Testament as well as translation into other Mbembe dialects – and so concluded that the best way to do this was to get some Mbembe speakers trained. “And so began the revolution in training local Bible translators that has led to the huge growth in Bible translation today,” says Wycliffe Bible Translators. Barnwell’s textbook Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles – first published in 1975 and now in its fourth edition – is the primary training resource for Bible translators worldwide.
An interview with new UCCF head Matt Lillicrap
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 14 Oct 2025
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.
Pop star Mike Posner is a 'new man'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 30 Aug 2025
In a recent Facebook post, musician Mike Posner expressed his desire to serve God.
The 37-year-old pop star wrote: “I’m a professional recording artist and my mission is to serve God and my fellow man.”
‘Lost’ Martyn Lloyd-Jones tapes recovered
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 22 Aug 2025
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!”
Brother Andrew’s Open Doors at 70: Smuggling Bibles and seeing miracles
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 18 Jul 2025
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.
Keswick Convention's McQuoids moving to Canada
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 16 Jul 2025
Jeremy and Elizabeth McQuoid, who have been heavily involved with the Keswick Convention for many years, are set to move to Canada.
Jeremy has served as Teaching Pastor at Deeside Christian Fellowship Church in Aberdeen, Scotland for the past 21 years. He also serves as Chair of Trustees, Keswick Ministries. Elizabeth is Commissioning Editor at Keswick Ministries, and is behind the widely-acclaimed Food for the Journey daily Bible devotions.
Ivory Coast drillers bring water of life
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 22 Jun 2025
Combining social action and gospel proclamation: that’s what an evangelical missionary organisation is seeking to do in Sub-Saharan West Africa.
In Golikoro, Ivory Coast, a group of Christians set to work drilling wells for those without water. But it wasn’t just drinking water they were seeking to bring, it was living water, too, through the sharing of the gospel.
Ministry to farmers: sowing and growing
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 May 2025
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.
New college with Christian aims and ethos launches
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 May 2025
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.