letter from Liberia
Building the church in West Africa
James Stileman
Date posted: 29 Aug 2025
In an episode of Come Fly with Me, the BBC’s 2010 satirical fly-on-the-wall documentary set in a fictional UK airport, Ian Foot, the Chief Immigration Officer, challenges a passenger from Liberia for travelling under a forged passport. “The slight giveaway,” says Foot smugly, “is there is no such country as Liberia.”
The affronted passenger, appalled by the officer’s racism, points to Liberia on a map of West Africa and the humiliated Foot lets the visitor through.
New Archbishop poses challenge for evangelicals
en staff
Date posted: 3 Oct 2025
Evangelicals in the Church of England are facing fresh challenges following the announcement that Sarah Mullally is to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
The appointment of a woman with liberal views on a number of issues will prove difficult not only for reformed evangelicals in the CofE but for the wider Anglican Communion, which is more conservative than the Church of England.
Evangelicals condemn synagogue attack
en staff
Date posted: 3 Oct 2025
Evangelicals are among those expressing their horror after an antisemitic terrorist attack at a synagogue in Manchester.
Two people were killed and four others left in a serious condition following the incident, which took place at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, a large Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue founded in 1935.
letter from America
Christian Nationalism, OK?
Josh Moody
Date posted: 29 Sep 2025
One of the hot topics of the moment is regarding so-called “Christian Nationalism”.
The very phrase strikes terror in some – the word nationalism sounds to them perilously close to nationalist if not fascist. For others, looking at the growing demographic trend of Islamic populations in the West, or the rise of the “Nones” with no religious commitment at all, reconstituting a specifically Christian approach to national government is a needed realpolitik response to what will otherwise be increasing persecution of Christians in time to come. All this has become even more heated with the recent tragic and appalling assassination of the Christian leader and political advocate for contemporary Republicanism, Charlie Kirk. What are we to think of it all?
EEA has a new president
en staff
Date posted: 27 Sep 2025
Andreas Wenzel is the new president of the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA). He succeeds Frank Hinkelmann, who held the post for 12 years.
Wenzel was elected at a “hybrid Members Meeting Bar” in Montenegro, which gathered some EEA leaders in person and others online. The event also included a meeting with local pastors in Montenegro to discuss unity and mission, and support for the growing evangelical community in the country. The EEA seeks to represent 23 million evangelicals in Europe.
Four decades of faith and fellowship: The Quinta celebrates 40 years
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 Sep 2025
In the heart of a “sleepy” corner of Shropshire sits The Quinta Christian Centre – a country house on 50 acres of estate, offering meeting spaces, accommodation and camping for Christians. But 2025 isn’t just any year for The Quinta – it’s its 40th, and you’d best believe celebrations have been taking place.
On a Saturday afternoon, as a long, sunny summer drew to a close, around 150 people from local churches gathered at The Quinta for coffee, cake, and an opportunity to reflect on the Centre’s heritage – giving thanks for all that has happened over the last four decades and praying for what lies ahead. But what has happened in the past 40 years? Well, Centre Manager Alistair Nurden spoke with en from the depths of Quinta Hall: “Thomas Barnes [a Christian MP] is the man who built this building that we’re in. He built it partly as a country retreat for him, his wife, and children. But he also wanted it to be somewhere where pastors could come on retreat. For [over 150 years], Christians have been coming to this very spot, on retreat, to rest, relax, and meet with God.”
The Keswick Convention’s repeated transformation
Philip Sowerbutts
Date posted: 23 Jul 2025
Keswick has always been about transformation.
The Convention’s founder Thomas Dundas Harford-Battersby, Vicar of St John’s Keswick, was a man troubled by a lack of holiness in his own walk with God. It was while on holiday on the Cumbrian coast at Silloth that he was first introduced to a new teaching that would lead to a personal transformation by a work of God’s Holy Spirit. In just three weeks, he and his friend Robert Wilson organised their own “Holiness Convention” in June 1875 using a tent in the garden of Harford-Battersby’s Keswick vicarage (see photo of the 150th anniversary book cover*). Hundreds attended, and such was the success it was decided to hold another the following year, and so it has continued for 150 years.
Northumberland: Lessons from Psalms and Revelation
George Curry
Date posted: 17 Sep 2025
Earlier this year, the 75th Bible-teaching weekend in Northumberland - sponsored by Longhorsley Mission Free Church (celebrating its 150th year) - took place.
It was marked by preaching of a kind some said they had not heard for many years.
the Bible in action
If you could travel in time...
Martin Horton
Date posted: 28 Jul 2025
If you could travel back in time, where would you go? The parting of the Red Sea? Jesus feeding the 5,000? How about the day of Pentecost?
You arrive in Jerusalem – and you can’t understand a word! You reach the upper room just before it happens. The violent rush of wind, the tongues of fire and, in a moment of astonishing lucidity you realise you can hear someone speaking your language.
Evangelism & discipleship
Date posted: 16 Sep 2025
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article “Islam growing faster than Christianity worldwide” posted on the en website on 11 July, about the recent Pew Centre report on the current and future comparative (competing) growth of worldwide faiths. The immediately urgent question for all Christian leaders is: “When are we all going to respond to this very serious situation worldwide and stop doing traditional evangelism and discipling “our way” (just like Frank Sinatra’s song!), and start doing it God’s way? (As in Hudson Taylor’s sentiment: God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack resources!)
a Jewish Christian perspective
Encouragements in Jewish evangelism
Joseph Steinberg
Date posted: 27 Jul 2025
I am encouraged by so many good news stories coming from the world of Jewish evangelism.
In my role as the International Coordinator of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, I have the privilege of interacting with evangelistic organisations and missionaries to Jewish people from all over the world and hearing all the good that the Lord is doing right now among Jewish people.
everyday theology
Finding true friendship
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 15 Sep 2025
I wonder if you’ve read C. S. Lewis’ The Four Loves? If you haven’t, you’ve got a treat to enjoy sometime. His chapter on friendship is a favourite of mine. It’s an insight-packed paean to friendship. And friendship is a vital part of our life together in Christ, a foretaste of what is to come.
A friendship is not the same thing as an exclusive coterie or cabal. “True Friendship,” says Lewis, “is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend.” The foundation for friendship, Lewis says, is companionship, which is what we often mean by the term “fellowship”. Companionship entails a basic willingness to get on and work well with others.
earth watch
Tending to our recycling gnat and carbon camel
Paul Kunert
Date posted: 9 Sep 2025
The lights flicker briefly. Then complete darkness. A few seconds later, the drone of back-up generators all across the neighbourhood, the part-muffled roar of our own, and with bleeping electronics, everything’s back on.
Living in Dar es Salaam 20 years ago, we soon got used to the blackouts. It happened so often, it barely made the news. Here in the UK though, even a short interruption is big news and a few days, especially in winter, a state of emergency. That’s perhaps as it should be.
earth watch
Is real change possible in stewarding God’s earth?
Paul Kunert
Date posted: 2 Aug 2025
Is real change possible? That, for those who watch closely our heating world, is the crucial question. If we’re to avoid the worst effects of climate breakdown, we need actual real change.
Or to bring it into the Biblical narrative, if we’re to fulfil our first calling to rule and care for all creation as God’s agents, we’ll need actual real change. It sounds obvious but it’s not always easy to see.
Shock as Spurgeon's College closes
en staff
Date posted: 31 Jul 2025
Spurgeon's College, London, is to close with immediate effect.
The evangelical Baptist College was set up in 1856 by famous Victorian preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Savings protection rise could help churches
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Sep 2025
Kingdom Bank - a UK Christian bank whose mission is to help churches grow - has welcomed a proposal to raise savings protection, saying it'll help churches.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) exists to protect people's money if a financial firm fails. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has proposed an increase to the FSCS standard deposit protection limit, from £85,000 to £110,000 per eligible depositor, per authorised firm.
Pop star Mike Posner is a 'new man'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 30 Aug 2025
In a recent Facebook post, musician Mike Posner expressed his desire to serve God.
The 37-year-old pop star wrote: “I’m a professional recording artist and my mission is to serve God and my fellow man.”
Italy: Thousands march for Jesus
Luke Randall
Date posted: 24 Jul 2025
Thousands of Christians have marched through Milan’s city centre carrying banners exclaiming that “Jesus is the light”, and “Jesus gives you freedom”.
The “March for Jesus” event, attended by about 5,000 people, proceeded through some of the city’s most famous streets and ended outside Milan Cathedral, where groups performed dances and songs. The event, dubbed by many as a “Joy March”, was organised by the Evangelistic Network in Mission (REM) in collaboration with churches and mission organisations, according to Evangelical Focus.
Cambodia 50 years on: Stories from the killing fields
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 21 Jul 2025
It is 50 years since the brutal Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia. Their genocide resulted in the deaths of 1.5-2 million people in the four years that followed. Here, the testimony of Christians from that time echoes down the years.
You are about to read some remarkable stories, writes Julia Cameron in the foreword to the book from which these accounts are drawn. They will stay with you. I’m sure of that.
The quiet revival: 'I remain cautiously optimistic'
In recent months, much has been written about the so-called “quiet revival.” In essence, what is being reported is that we are seeing an increase in people, especially younger people, attending church, with a growing interest in the Bible.
In my work with The Open-Air Mission, I have certainly seen a far greater number of young people showing interest in the good news than I have previously observed. People are open to talking about the gospel and reading God’s Word. These are all good things, though I remain cautiously optimistic.