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Chris Howles

Date posted: 6 Mar 2025

There can be few topics more likely to canvass votes, generate clicks, or provoke vigorous and sometimes heated discussions than that of international migration in the world today.

And perhaps for good reason, for not many people or places are unaffected by this issue. Indeed some already speculate that the 21st century will in time be known as ‘The Century of Migration’.

This summer, seven students and one staff member from Oak Hill College travelled to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The trip aimed to help students reflect missiologically about how Jesus may be served in these contexts as part of Oak Hill’s desire to see the church, in the UK and around the world, flourish. Tim, a student on the trip reflects on their time and some lessons for us all:

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are strange and beautiful places seemingly in between worlds. They feel strikingly modern in their shopping malls and glitzy districts, yet also raw and traditional in bazaars and potholed roads. Islam is a strong cultural marker, though less evident in daily practice. Soviet influence lingers – especially in Kazakhstan – while young people are increasingly drawn toward Western ideas.

Jonny Pollock

Date posted: 30 Mar 2025

In Western Europe, the refrain is common: mission and evangelism are hard.

It’s an oft-heard lament, one that sparks endless discussion, strategy sessions, and even discouragement among Christians. But what do we really mean when we say it’s “hard”? Beneath the surface, it often seems we’re using “hard” as a catch-all term for something deeper – uncomfortable, difficult, and complicated. These realities, while challenging, are not legitimate reasons to abandon the Great Commission, or to throw in the towel in despair. Instead, they demand that we reframe our approach, recalibrate our expectations, and reaffirm our commitment to the task at hand.

Almost 40 years ago, I entered the workplace as a new Christian and soon formed a friendship with Richard, who had joined the company as part of the same intake of school-leavers.

I began to share my faith and witness as best I could. A few months later, my local church held a mission weekend. I invited Richard to one or more of the special events that were taking place. To my delight, he said yes and came along. To my far greater joy, Richard gave his life to the Lord that weekend. This was a wonderful introduction to God using a local church mission to bring someone to faith.

John Woods

Date posted: 13 Nov 2025

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?

engaging with culture today

Debbie D.

Date posted: 16 Nov 2025

The articles in this series are about “engaging with culture”. Recently I have been pondering “just which culture should I engage with, or try to understand more?”

In my neighbourhood I meet people from many countries, shopping, working in the supermarket, waiting for the bus. In church too the percentage of people who were born outside the UK has increased greatly. I wonder what they make of us locals!

everyday evangelism

Gavin Matthews

Date posted: 14 Oct 2025

God’s judgement is a central Biblical theme, and for vast numbers of evangelical Christians, it was the experience of conviction of sin which led them to trust Christ as Saviour.

It certainly did for me. Knowing that I had sinned against God, and seeing the sombre truth about the rotten state of my soul before His righteous judgement, made the realisation that Christ had borne my punishment total liberation and joy!

en invited Dr Krish Kandiah and Tim Dieppe to consider the question: "How can UK Christians respond in a Christlike way to issues of immigration and integration?"

Tim is Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern, the campaigning evangelical organisation and author of The Challenge of Islam: Understanding and Responding to Islam’s Increasing Influence in the UK (Wilberforce Publications 2025). Krish is the Director of the Sanctuary Foundation, which supports vulnerable individuals, families and children including refugees and those seeking asylum. He is a regular advisor to government on refugee resettlement and child welfare reform.

Michael Reeves

Date posted: 16 Oct 2025

The difference between an evangelical and a non-evangelical understanding of holiness can be seen well in a difference between the 17th-century Puritans and their contemporaries, the high-church Caroline Divines. Perhaps the most influential of the Carolines was William Laud (1573–1645), Charles I’s Archbishop of Canterbury.

Laud loved what he called “the beauty of holiness”, by which he meant liturgical orderliness. He strictly insisted that the clergy must follow all the rubrics of the Church of England’s prayer book, and was deeply concerned with clergy attire and the maintenance of church buildings and their physical beauty. And it was a particular sort of building he preferred: despising the Reformation – or “Deformation,” as he called it – he preferred new churches to be built in the pre-Reformation, Gothic style, with an architectural emphasis on an altar instead of a Communion table. For, he said, “the altar is the greatest place of God’s residence upon earth, greater than the pulpit; for there ’tis Hoc est corpus meum, This is my body; but in the other it is at most but Hoc est verbum meum, This is my word.”