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Didcot is England’s most normal town. Statisticians reached that conclusion after crunching the numbers in 2017.

With a working-class population connected with the railway and power station, a sizable benefits class in social housing, alongside large numbers of nuclear scientists and biotech research labs, and huge new housing developments that are more affordable than Reading and Oxford, Didcot is an interesting microcosm of English life. It is set to double in size by 2035 as a ‘Garden Town’ with 10,000 homes being built. It is also home to the Baptist Union headquarters, but, given its rapid growth, not overwhelmed with churches, particularly on the new estates.

Frances Whitehead brought unusual energy and passion to her role as John Stott’s secretary – ‘a most understated job title’, as Hugh Palmer made clear in his opening remarks at her thanksgiving service in All Souls, Langham Place.

It is widely agreed that the reach and extent of John Stott’s ministry was doubled by Frances. Days were long and full. She handled an enormous correspondence, typed Stott’s books from longhand, and oversaw the infrastructure of each of his endeavours until it could be handed on. Their partnership was unequalled; and they would become known around the world as ‘Uncle John’ and ‘Auntie Frances’.

Despite the anger and vitriol that fills the front pages of our tabloids, there is good news on the streets of London…

Let me tell you about my friend Ilyas Ayoub, who works in one of the most diverse parts of our capital – Forest Gate in East London. Ilyas works at a mission centre, sandwiched between a temple and a mosque, where he partners with local churches to love the community and by sharing the gospel message.

In January, Co-Mission, a network of local churches in London, launched a film We Plant Churches to Reach the Lost.

Through a series of testimonies the film explains why the network does what it does. Co-mission seeks to follow Christ’s command in Matthew 28:19: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’

The 30th meeting of the Scottish Reformed Conference took place on 11 May at Hamilton College.

The Revd Professor Sinclair B Ferguson (4th from left) and Dr Robert Murdock (3rd from left), Principal of the Faith Mission College in Edinburgh, spoke to about 450 people from different Reformed churches and denominations.

Every year, FIEC provides two retreats exclusively for women. Thrive is for women in ministry and the Ministry Wives’ Retreat is for those who are married to men in full-time pastoral ministry.

It’s an opportunity for women to spend time away from the busyness of church life and be encouraged in their service to Christ.

A vicar and Oxford biology graduate resigned from the Church of England and from his role as a school governor in May. This occurred after transgender ideology, endorsed by his diocese and taught in the CofE school where he was a governor, silenced him as a scientist and a Christian.

During a training session on transgender issues run by Mermaids, John Parker was told by the headteacher: ‘This is training, John, it’s not your time to share your view-point.’ This followed his request to raise some different perspectives. The training session was recorded, and the audio clearly demonstrates that his request was shut down by the headteacher.

Every Easter, hundreds of CU students descend upon Prestatyn as an integral part of the Word Alive conference, run in partner-ship with UCCF. Word Alive has furthered the discipleship of thousands of CU leaders, who return to their campuses nurtured by the teaching and by growing in their faith together.

In recent years we have been encour-aged to hear of CU students bringing their unbelieving friends to Word Alive. There is a growing trend for students who have attended CU events, but not yet made a pro-fession of faith, attending as a next step to exploring Jesus. But why is this happening?

With a mission to Jewish people taking place in London in the summer, en interviewed Richard Gibson, Director of Ministry for Christian Witness to Israel (CWI), about the need for Christians to share Jesus with Jewish people.

en: Evangelism to Jewish people can be controversial for some Christians, so tell us a little bit about that, and why we shouldn’t shy away from doing it.

‘How do we plant healthy churches that grow young disciples of Jesus?’ This is one of our questions within 2020birmingham.

2020birmingham is a collaborative church-planting movement in Birmingham. We began in 2010 with a vision to see 20 churches planted by 2020 and have grown to prayerfully seek another 30 by 2030. We exist because we believe that the spiritual need and opportunities for mission in our city are too big for us to meet on our own. We are evangelical churches seeking to be together for the city.

A church, situated opposite the Byker Wall in Newcastle, celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Meeting in a corrugated-iron hall, Welbeck Road Evangelical Church started under Newcastle City Mission. Over 50 attended the Sunday School, many coming from the surrounding estates which were to be made famous by the BBC children’s television programme Byker Grove.

Christ Church Balham, in South West London, joined the Free Church of England denomination in January.

It is hoped that this move will help secure gospel ministry for generations to come and send many more people into full-time paid gospel ministry.

The Grace Baptist Mission (GBM)’s Annual Mission Day took place on 21 October and proved to be an encouraging time.

It contained the usual mix of missionary updates, the chance to pick up high-quality resources to help us to pray, give and think more effectively, and treasured fellowship with hundreds of other globally-minded Christians from across the UK.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to meet in secret as an underground church? Have you ever felt that it is almost impossible to imagine what it’s like to meet under persecution? How do you meet? How does it feel? How do you worship when you can’t make any noise? What are the issues? When challenged, what do you say and how do you react?

A mission organisation in a Central Asian region has begun to challenge Christians in more comfortable surroundings to consider what it would be like to meet in secret.

If a holiday cottage could write, it would fill many a book.

Visitors come and go and the cottage is woven into the tapestry of life. More often than not, the cottage forms the centrepiece of the annual holiday highlight. It offers four walls of protection from the hustle and bustle of the daily slog, a much-needed haven. Depending on its setting, it will also serve as a door into another world, a world of beauty and escape.

South Park Chapel in Ilford appointed Shenazzer Ephraim as evangelist and disciple maker at a service on 26 January.

The chapel was founded in 1906 and has been seeking to make Jesus known ever since. Times have changed and the demographic has changed but the gospel is still the same and is still the power of God to save people.

At the first London Gospel Partnership Conference, on 2 February, leaders gathered from a diverse range of churches to be encouraged in biblical ministry across the capital.

Kevin De Young gave two outstanding talks at East London Tabernacle on the theme of God’s Message by God’s Means for London. His first address on 1 Thessalonians 2 highlighted the centrality and importance of God’s word for God’s work in gospel churches. His second talk (The Big God of Small Things and Small People, Zechariah 4) was a magnificent encouragement to trust in God’s power even as we are so conscious of our own great weaknesses.

The only evidence of a church in the central Bounds Green area is a plaque commemorating a Church of England building torn down in the 1990s which was replaced with flats.

An area just over a mile up the road from Wood Green, Bounds Green has its own local culture, a Piccadilly Line underground rail station, a national rail station, shops, cafés, barbers, a small but popular monthly street market, and thousands of residents.