Keswick Convention's international dimension
Attila Kapocs
Date posted: 16 Jul 2025
During its long history, the work of Keswick has rippled around the world, and there are now established ministries in some 16 countries, with nearly 90 individual Conventions, large and small.
The Hungarian work, known as BalatonNET, is an example of a nation catching the vision and making it its own, shaping a programme that is attracting young and old, and which is uniting believers across different denominations. Attila Kapocs tells the story…
After #KesCon25: Some reflections
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 14 Aug 2025
“Hear God’s Word, become like God’s Son, and serve God’s mission.” That’s what Keswick Ministries is hoping to have achieved with its three-week 2025 convention.
This year, the event celebrated 150 years since its first gathering. An estimated 14,000 people, including 3,500 children and teenagers, took part in a programme spread across three weeks (14 July to 1 August).
Students re-envisioned for evangelism through The Send
Thomas McBride
Date posted: 14 Jun 2025
UCCF recently partnered with The Send, a campaign that seeks to "activate believers to live a missional lifestyle by adopting and reaching real mission fields at home and abroad".
Through evenings of worship, prayer and praise, The Send encourages young people to pray for revival in our nation, something that is also deeply rooted within the ethos of UCCF.
Five images to help us share the gospel
Robin Ham
Date posted: 8 Aug 2025
Communicating the good news of Jesus in the West in 2025 is challenging. Christianity is often portrayed as irrelevant, out-of-touch, even unjust and toxic. And like it or not, that’s got to shape how we communicate the Christian faith.
In light of this, I’ve been exploring some different imagery for "connecting and confronting" with the good news of Jesus in our cultural moment. In part, it flows from the "rubber hitting the road" in everyday conversations. In part, it flows from working on a Mission & Apologetics module I've taught.
A 'church plant mentality' can be problematic
John Newton Webb
Date posted: 8 Aug 2025
"The reason that we’re so active in evangelism is because we’re a church plant.” “I suppose we do Sunday services this way because we’re a church plant.” I heard many of these sorts of sentiments expressed when I came to pastor Izumi Church, Japan (which started in 2009) in 2016.
Talking to the believers who thought like this, I discovered a mistaken ecclesiology and a large set of unbiblical assumptions about the difference between having a missionary leader and local pastor. Working through these issues led me to reassess the church and church plant distinction.
Global dismay at Welsh Archbishop's election
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 8 Aug 2025
Orthodox Anglicans around the world are reacting with dismay after the election of the new Archbishop of Wales, Cherry Vann, who is openly in a same-sex relationship.
The Biblically orthodox Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) called Vann’s election “another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy.”
The false religion of climate alarmism
Paul Mills
Date posted: 4 Aug 2025
“Watch out for false prophets... By their fruit you will recognise them…every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-17, NIV)
Climate alarmism [1] is often spoken of in religious terms. [2] The connection naturally springs to mind when considering the priestesses of Gaia at "climate" demonstrations, or the cult-like statements of protestors justifying their latest acts of cultural iconoclasm or infrastructure sabotage. Claire Coutinho, the former UK Energy Secretary, noted that the achievement of net zero carbon emissions has become “a religion” for such protest groups. [3] This way of thinking would appear to have become a sub-sect of full-blown Nature worship, or is certainly adjacent to it. Commentators often note that alarmist thinking has filled the religious vacuum in Western societies as adherence to Christianity has waned.
letter from Liberia
‘We knew the aircraft was going to come!’
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 29 Jun 2025
The people of Grand Cess in south-eastern Liberia say they’re happy to see Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) planes again.
According to acting MAF Country Director, Leon Prinsloo: “We’re not just landing planes, we’re opening doors. MAF is committed to serving the most isolated, and Grand Cess is a clear example of how aviation can break barriers to healthcare, education and hope.”
the ENd word
Lead on Good Shepherd
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 3 Aug 2025
As a kid growing up in a Christian family I was always familiar with the 23rd Psalm, although for some while my young mind was confused about who “Shirley Goodness” was, or why she’d want to follow me all the days of my life.
I had a bit of a gift as a youngster for mishearing things, also spending time pondering what a “foggle” was after first hearing the song Bright Eyes – it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I realised Art Garfunkle actually sang “there’s a fog along the horizon!”
Myanmar: In the footsteps of Judson
Paul Lintott
Date posted: 2 Aug 2025
Paul Lintott, pastor of Hall Green Baptist Chapel, West Yorkshire, has been in Myanmar to teach young pastors under the auspices of mission organisation Asialink’s ‘Shepherd Project’. He writes:
Before stepping into the classrooms and churches of Myanmar, I could not help but reflect on the legacy of Adoniram Judson.
Thousands attend 'biggest gathering of evangelicals in France'
Luke Randall
Date posted: 2 Jun 2025
Thousands in France gathered for the inaugural La Place conference, described by charity France Mission as the country’s biggest gathering of evangelicals.
The event, held at a conference centre in the Bois de Vincennes, to the south-east of Paris, provided an opportunity for French evangelical churches to connect and worship together. Around 3,000 people were reported to have attended.
Leading theologian Samuel Escobar dies
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jun 2025
Samuel Escobar, an influential theologian and missiologist from Peru, has died aged 90.
Escobar was a leading figure in evangelical theology in the second half of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st century, website Evangelical Focus reports.
everyday theology
Why a band of brothers is better than a ‘great man’
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 30 Jul 2025
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow... And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecc. 4v9-10, 12).
One of the greatest practical problems I see across the church is the isolation of so many church leaders. There are many contributing factors, but surely one of them is the idea that spiritual growth occurs only or mainly through the purposeful, influential actions of elevated individuals. We might call this the “great man” theory.
letter from Kyrgyzstan
A Kyrgyz Bible for Kyrgyz people
Slavic Gospel Association
Date posted: 29 Jul 2025
Exciting developments are taking place in relation to the Slavic Gospel Association’s (SGA) support of the production and distribution of the Scriptures in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. We have a day of opportunity to advance the cause of the gospel in this predominantly Muslim country through the provision of God’s word in the Kyrgyz language. A Kyrgyz Bible for Kyrgyz people!
Bible ‘sets’ have been prepared and distributed – a specially designed Bible story book along with a full copy of the Scriptures. The Bible story book will appeal to children and also to Kyrgyz parents who love storytelling – it is an ingrained feature of Central Asian culture. By God’s grace, it will also provide an introduction to the reading and study of the Scriptures themselves. We know that the entrance of God’s word brings spiritual light and life.
'Bold' vision for new churches in Ireland
Mark Smith
Date posted: 28 Jul 2025
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) is planning at least ten new congregations and ten new church-planting projects over the next decade. The “bold vision” for mission was approved at this year’s General Assembly in Belfast.
Referencing a major PCI report, Church Planting – The Next Decade (or ‘10+10 in 10’), Council secretary Rick Hill, pointed to the growth and positive developments of projects and congregations in Balbriggan, Belfast, Wexford, Carrigart, and Kilkenny. Ben Walker, minister at Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church, said the PCI is “seeking to enable and encourage the creation of Christ-centred, worshipping communities throughout Ireland”.
Gaza: ‘Unique witness’ as believers make a difference
Luke Randall
Date posted: 20 Jun 2025
The contribution of Gaza’s shrinking Christian community to the relief effort in Gaza is acting as a unique witness to its locals, according to a mission worker.
In an exclusive interview with en, Hanna Massad, head of Christian Mission to Gaza (CMG), spoke of how Gaza’s believers are working to make a difference as the war between Hamas and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) rages on.
Considering singleness
Date posted: 16 Jun 2025
Dear Editor,
Thank you to Ann Culley (May en) for her moving letter on singleness and life after mission work. Her words resonated deeply with me. As a child, I felt called to mission, believing it meant overseas service. Instead, I’ve served in the NHS since 2011.
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.
The realities of ministry burnout
In a recent article in Evangelicals Now, John Funnell describes an understanding of burnout and a way of doing ministry that seems to work for him and his family in their context, and that's great. God has most certainly used them! But, I want to offer a response.
John has done so much good for the gospel. We've never met, but we move in similar circles and so over the years I've been kept up to date with the amazing work God has been doing through him in Abersychan. God has gifted John uniquely for this work, while many others look to his ministry as an example and a pattern for their own.