What do you think of when ‘mission’ is mentioned?
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 6 Feb 2026
Growing up in the UK church, when the word “mission” was mentioned, I’d instinctively picture overseas work. The phrase “mission field” conjured up images of far-away countries with people I perceived as different from myself. Was I correct in my definition?
David Baldwin, CEO of 2:19 Teach to Reach – which exists to help local churches share the gospel cross-culturally – maintains that there is a difference between evangelism and mission: “Whereas evangelism means sharing the gospel with those in our usual circles, mission always involves movement across some kind of boundary; geographical, cultural, ethnic or other.”
updates from the mission field
Why caring for mission partners matters
Kerstin Prill
Date posted: 14 Mar 2026
Caring well for mission partners can make the difference between silent struggle that leads to early departure and the reassurance needed to continue faithfully in ministry.
But what support is needed and who is best placed to provide it? How can agencies, sending churches and personal supporters offer meaningful care? And what would help mission partners communicate their needs with honesty and confidence?
the Bible in action
Remember the unreached - 1 in 5 still waiting for the Bible in their language
Martin Horton
Date posted: 8 May 2026
For over two years, I have shared with you updates from the frontiers of mission. It has felt like watching a sunrise – each new Bible translation a ray of light reaching the one in five still waiting for God’s Word in their language.
This year, we are inviting people like you to help reach the “unreached” – those 3.4 billion people worldwide who live in communities without a local church capable of sharing the gospel with them. As we prayed for the unreached through our daily prayer diary last year, we remembered people like the Rofca* and the Ceren*. The reality for these people is often one of profound spiritual darkness.
updates from the mission field
The power of 'welcome'
WEC International
Date posted: 14 Apr 2026
Baptisms are always a special time in any church but on this occasion my wife and I had special reason to rejoice. As Min shared her testimony before the congregation we found out that we had been a very small part of her journey to Christ.
Min (not her real name) came to the UK as a student with her young family and moved into some apartments near our inner city church. She comes from a country where there is no religious freedom and had never encountered Christianity before.
a Jewish Christian perspective
‘Give them less Jesus?’
Joseph Steinberg
Date posted: 8 May 2026
Give them less Jesus. That is the message that can quietly creep into the church when tensions rise around Israel and the Jewish people. We might never say it out loud, but our actions can begin to whisper it.
We stop praying for Jewish salvation. We neglect the mission. In practice we begin to treat the Jewish people as if they are the one group somehow outside the reach of Jesus. As if the arm of the Lord was suddenly too short to save. But is that really the Christian answer? Over many months I have watched a familiar and ugly ghost re-emerge with renewed strength: Jew-hate. It is a stain that has troubled the world for millennia and, heartbreakingly, one that has sometimes found a foothold even within the walls of the church. I see it on Christian social media. I even sometimes hear it in the prayers of Sunday services.
Leadership and the danger of unrepentant sin...
Andy Mason
Date posted: 20 May 2026
Spiritual leaders face many tricky circumstances, setbacks and tragedies, but the biggest threat that we leaders ever face is the failings of our own character.
The rather disconcerting thing about spiritual leadership is that every leader contains within themselves the seeds of their own destruction: "...sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you…" (Gen. 4v7).
You need deep, gospel-centred relationships
Alistair Chalmers
Date posted: 15 May 2026
We live in the most connected generation in history, yet many people have never felt more alone.
We can message hundreds of people instantly, follow thousands online, and remain constantly updated on each other’s lives, but still lack genuine friendship.
Sometimes evangelism begins with roast chicken
Alistair Chalmers
Date posted: 18 Mar 2026
There is a front door in almost every Christian’s life that is far more strategic than we realise.
We pray for revival in our nation. We long for gospel advance in our towns. We want deeper discipleship in our churches. And all the while, God has given many of us a dining table.
Artemis astronaut's Christian faith
en staff
Date posted: 1 Apr 2026
The pilot of the pioneering space mission Artemis II is a committed Christian.
Victor J Glover is a member of the Church of Christ, a grouping of conservative Protestant congregations mostly found in the USA.
Digital discipleship: Following Christ in an age of screens
Alistair Chalmers
Date posted: 13 Apr 2026
We are the first generation in history to carry a portal to the world in our pockets at all times.
With a swipe, we can access news, entertainment, theological debate, and the curated lives of thousands. The digital age has not merely changed how we communicate – it has reshaped how we think, desire, worship, and relate.
To save humanity, we must return to humility!
James Burnett
Date posted: 13 May 2026
Jesus says: "The meek shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5). But how realistic is this Sermon on the Mount prediction for the contemporary scene?
The stage-boards of world power creak under the hefty tread of “strong men” (Donald Trump AI-imaged himself as Jesus on Truth Social and later eschewed messianic similarities as fake news); the tech industry is supine to Elon Musk who is the richest person on earth with possibly a genius IQ and certainly a hedonistic outlook; while primary school children in the UK are taught the three “s's” of western success: self-interest, self-reliance, and self-promotion.
The pain of loss and heartbreak
Mike Wakely
Date posted: 4 May 2026
I have been married for 53 years, a happy and fulfilling life in partnership with a wonderful lady from Sweden. I met her on a summer Christian mission in France in 1967. We were going door to door selling Christian books and sharing the gospel. We were married in Sweden in April 1972, our name and the date of our marriage engraved on our simple gold wedding rings.
My wife fell ill in 2022 and commenced a slow decline in health both in body and mind. I became her full-time carer. We had made our vows “in sickness and in health” and it was my privilege to look after her, learning new skills in shopping, cooking, gardening, cleaning and many other household chores. The specialists and nurses of the NHS were superb. We installed a stair lift and I bought a bath lift, but she became weaker until one day (on my birthday) she fell and broke her leg. It led to five weeks in hospital and she finally died on 7 October 2025.
everyday theology
Deceptive appearances?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 3 May 2026
According to the Gospels, the Pharisees had a remarkable ability to look like what they were not.
The crowds around them might have feared them, but they seemed convinced of their orthodoxy and piety. And yet, while the Pharisees looked like pre-eminent people of Scripture, in reality they trampled on it and ignored its truth. While they appeared devout, they did not believe in their own need for redemption. They trusted in themselves more than God. To these faults they added a third, which was both crucial and almost imperceptible: they did not believe in their own need for a new birth.
everyday evangelism
It’s almost Life ’26!
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 7 Feb 2026
With the countdown in full swing to this nationwide gospel outreach (see more via en article here), Gavin Matthews spoke to Nick McQuaker from A Passion for Life about what to expect and how to get involved.
faith and life
The challenge of diversity
Debbie Dickson
Date posted: 15 Apr 2026
One of the joys of arriving for our Sunday morning service is seeing who is on the welcome team. It is, I think, a feeling which reflects the growing cultural and ethnic diversity in our churches; for sure, there will be a mix, but where might the welcomers be from? Hong Kong? The UK? Nigeria? Iran? India?
Firstly, this growing diversity means we have the potential to reach a wider variety of people unfamiliar with the church or the Christian faith. This is reflected in my own experience when, a few years back, some Hong Kong Christians invited a neighbour – who was not a Christian – to a Chinese New Year party organised by my church. Though not a believer, he was an excellent calligrapher and kindly made decorations for the party – red banners of Bible verses in Chinese characters. Many others have found a warm welcome which has been instrumental in their wanting to know about Christ.
Reflections on life, possessions and eternal significance
Andrew Drury
Date posted: 14 Apr 2026
There is a somewhat apocryphal tale of two men talking at a reception after a funeral. One man asks the other, “What did our friend leave?” The reply was: “Everything”.
We can be so eager to acquire transitory things – money, possessions, reputation, status and the list is endless – that we forget that this planet is only temporary in the light of eternity. It is easy to fall into the mentality once expressed in a bumper sticker: “The person with all the toys wins”.
a Jewish Christian perspective
'Jewish evangelism is crucial to world evangelisation'
Joseph Steinberg
Date posted: 8 Feb 2026
Romans 11 confronts us with one of Scripture’s great paradoxes: God brings life out of death. Israel’s stumbling became salvation for the nations, and one day Israel’s restoration will mean “life from the dead” for the whole world. This mystery is not a theological puzzle – it is a mission challenge to the church.
Paul writes that God allowed Israel to experience a “spirit of stupor”, and many ask why. Why would the people chosen to be a light to the nations be blinded to the Messiah? Paul gives the answer: “Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles – to make Israel envious.” Israel’s loss became our gain. Out of their rejection came reconciliation. Out of death came life. It is the pattern of the cross itself.
Communion from the hands of the tailored and the track-suited
Jason Roach
Date posted: 2 Apr 2026
There was a glint in his eye. I couldn’t quite tell if it was a tear or a smile. He grinned, put his coffee down on the table and said: “As a teenager, it was the most special thing about church every Sunday.”
We’d been talking about life on estate churches.
AI’s assault on the press
Jenny Taylor
Date posted: 2 Apr 2026
My father had a saying, an old Suffolk “saw”: “While fools go prating far and wide, we stops at ’ome, my dog and I.”
There is a certain truth in that. The world seems to be getting more “foolish”, and I am less convinced that prating far and wide – a public life of activism for its own sake, be it political or journalistic – makes much difference to the betterment of the human condition. And anything with “global” in its name makes me run for the hills.
everyday evangelism
Do you lack confidence in evangelism?
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 1 Apr 2026
We prayed, read Scripture, gathered leaflets, and were sent off in twos. It was my first experience of evangelism and I was terrified! Ken, the mission leader, paired me with Sue – whose enormous confidence and relish at the thought of the task ahead compensated for my distinct lack of both.
We stepped out into the rainy Cardiff streets, with a list of doors to knock and people to invite to the church film night, youth event, and guest service. At the third door we knocked, a lovely Muslim lady invited us in to discuss questions of faith and how the Bible answered them differently than the Qur’an. It was hard.
everyday theology
Where is your hope today?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 31 Mar 2026
At the very end of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian looks back from the Celestial City and sees a man called Ignorance approaching the gate.
Ignorance began to knock, supposing that entrance should have been quickly administered to him; but he was asked by the men that looked over the top of the gate: “Whence came you, and what would you have?” He answered: “I have eat and drank in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our streets.” Then they asked him for his certificate, that they might go in and show it to the King; so he fumbled in his bosom for one, and found none.
en's 40th: Thanking God
en staff
Date posted: 30 Mar 2026
Evangelicals Now was first published in July 1986 and so, from Easter for the rest of this year, we will be celebrating the paper’s 40th anniversary with a series of events to mark the occasion.
It’s an excellent opportunity for regular readers to thank God for sustaining the publication for so long, to take stock of en’s current situation and assess future plans. You might say that this article is about Evangelicals Then, Evangelicals Now and Evangelicals to Come.
The link between 'right living' and joy in the Spirit
James Burnett
Date posted: 26 Mar 2026
It’s marathon season. Could long-distance running get your life back on track with God? The Apostle Paul writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4v7).
Let’s start by exploring a link between method acting and Christians who run.
The missionary mouse: How God used a pest for His purposes
Josh Williamson
Date posted: 23 Mar 2026
It was the end of a long day. As the night deepened, all members of the family were tucked up in bed. Then my wife decided to go and get a drink of water from the kitchen. As I lay in bed, drifting off, I heard a scream – a scream that spoke of an intruder in the house: an intruder with a long tail, little ears, whiskers, and a small nose… a mouse!
At the time, I didn’t know this late-night visitor would set off an evangelistic encounter. All I could think about was, "How do I get rid of this mouse?"