First City Mission marks 200 years
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 21 Feb 2026
The world’s first official City Mission, Glasgow City Mission, is celebrating 200 years of service in Scotland’s largest city.
Established in 1826, Glasgow City Mission was founded by young Glaswegian David Naismith at just 26 years old. Moved by the poverty he witnessed in Glasgow, Naismith put the gospel into action by caring for people’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
Churches gear up for Life ’26 nationwide mission
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Jan 2026
Churches across the country are preparing for a focused period of evangelism. Life ’26 is a nationwide gospel mission, starting in March, where church fellowships will share the gospel with their communities. A Passion for Life (APFL) oversees the mission. This year, the theme is a question: “Ever feel like something’s missing?”
Alex Hillman, APFL’s Communications and Operations Lead, told en: “Over 250 churches, from Thurso in the North of Scotland to St Helier in Jersey, will be joining together to share the gospel with friends, family, neighbours and people in their communities, under a common banner [and] with a shared mission campaign identity.”
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Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention
Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention has launched its 90th conference with launch events in Bangor and Belfast, sharing its 2026 theme of “Pressing on”. Conrad Mbewe will be leading this year’s Bible studies at the Convention.
The organisation shared that its usual main venue isn’t available this year, so many events will be held in different locations – and has asked for prayer as “these necessary changes create the potential for confusion and frustration”. Its 90th Convention will be held from 14-23 August 2026.
New £2.5m church building opens
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 4 May 2026
A Baptist church in Christchurch, Dorset has opened the doors of its new £2.5 million building, with total project costs reported to be over £3 million.
Christchurch Baptist Church, Bargates, has been planning and fundraising for the move since 2015. The church’s minister, Chris Brockway, told en why the move is significant: “Our previous buildings, though deeply valued and faithful to us for around 150 years, had become too small and no longer fit for the needs of our mission and ministry. In contrast, this new space provides both the capacity and a contemporary environment to support what God is continuing to do among us.” The church’s new site has 250 seats and is 60% larger than its previous location – a hall opposite.
Caffeine and Kingdom?
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 25 Mar 2026
Can coffee fuel evangelism? If it’s Tommy’s Coffee, then “yes!” say directors Luke Porter and Joel Barwick, who founded the kingdom-building coffee ministry last year.
The coffee cart, based in St Thomas’ Church, Newcastle, first started serving customers in May with a mission to simultaneously caffeinate and connect with the city’s residents.
A Passion for Life ignites church outreach
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 Mar 2026
More than 340 churches are taking part in a nationwide evangelistic mission around the Easter period.
Churches as far north as Thurso, Scotland and as far south as Jersey (plus a church in France, en has been told!) are participating in Life’26 – facilitated by outreach organisation A Passion for Life (APFL) and covered in detail in both the January and February print editions of en.
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AI misquotes Bible
Church leaders who use AI to help with sermon preparation and Bible studies have been warned that AI often misquotes the Bible.
Bobby Gruenewald, CEO of leading Bible app YouVersion, said “The best [AI] model with the best performance, with the most popular versions of the Bible that are most indexed, misquotes Scripture at least 15% of the time. Some of them as much as 60% of the time.” He said YouVersion would only introduce AI features if it had the confidence it could do so “safely” and “with a level of accuracy and integrity”.
Reflecting on the 'Hand in Hand' conference
Matt Wan
Date posted: 16 Apr 2026
With over 700 children’s workers gathering at the recent Hand in Hand conference 2026, there was a clear buzz and excitement about what God is doing in the lives of young people across the UK, as conference delegates came together to explore the theme of “Kingdom Builders”.
Hand in Hand describes itself as "the national children and family ministry conference." Its website says: "For over 25 years the Hand in Hand conference has been strengthening children’s and family ministry in this nation working in the areas of children’s and family ministry in church, whether a professional or volunteer. It aims to provide Biblical insight, basic training, deeper insight into new thinking and practical ideas for the ministry as well as times for prayer, worship and personal refreshment. Over 50 organisations, ministries and denominations come together with some of the leading practitioners in our nation to offer sessions and exhibit their resources at each conference."
Prayer for 100,000 Scots
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 4 Mar 2026
The Free Church of Scotland is encouraging Christians to each pray for ten people in their lives, throughout this year and beyond, as part of a new nationwide prayer initiative.
Engage 2026 plans to see believers across Scotland praying daily for friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and others God has placed in their lives - including those they may find it difficult to connect with.
10,000 mile journey to proclaim gospel in Glasgow
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 27 Mar 2026
Scottish band The Proclaimers famously sang that they would “walk 500 miles” and indeed “walk 500 more”.
But Tim Scoular and his family have moved their lives more than 10,000 miles from Sydney to Scotland – all for the sake of sharing the gospel in Glasgow.
Evangelical alarm over Baptist vote
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 19 Mar 2026
Evangelicals in the Baptist Union say voting “none of the above” in this year’s presidential elections for the denomination may be the best option.
They say the choice of candidates on offer does not reflect the Biblical truth they wish to stand for.
CEEC says 2026 will be a 'critical year' for the CofE
Helen Catt
Date posted: 10 Mar 2026
This year will be a critical one for the Church of England (CofE), says the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC).
"The Living in Love and Faith trajectory is going to continue (confirmed by the recent General Synod); deanery and General Synod elections will be taking place; and the pressure on finances, stipendiary ministry and ordinand numbers is ongoing," CEEC says.
FIEC and Wycliffe partner for vital African initiative
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 28 Jan 2026
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is partnering with Wycliffe Bible Translators to support an Africa Bible translation project.
The country in question can’t be named, to protect the Bible translators and church leaders involved, but it’s a war-torn country in Africa where new church leaders don’t have a Bible in their language. FIEC got involved at its November leaders’ conference, where £7,000 was raised for the project; Wycliffe speakers got invited to 120 churches to share about the need for Bible translation. The goal is to raise £70,000 – with matched funding – to help unlock the Scriptures in 11 languages spoken by 850,000 people.
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‘Turn the Battle’
A number of Christian organisations in the UK have been seeking to mobilise people to pray and fast for three days.
The “Turn the Battle” campaign has been aiming to see “the whole body humbling itself under God’s mighty hand and a committing to three days of contending prayer and fasting” from 21 to 23 January.