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.”
Mission minded
Stephen Bowers
Date posted: 4 Mar 2025
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Go boldly: From world mission to out-of-this-world mission...
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Dec 2025
With billionaires racing to colonise Mars and build orbital resorts, one theologian is asking: “Who will bring the gospel to outer space?”
Stephen Stallard is author of “The Final Frontier of Mission: Space Tourism, Lunar Colonies, and the Future of Interplanetary Mission” – a chapter in the book New Frontiers in Missiology (2025).
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?
updates from the mission field
Mission: Across the street and across the world
OMF International UK
Date posted: 11 Feb 2026
In this piece, mission organisation OMF International UK provides en readers with an update on its work.
The worker bee has represented Manchester’s hardworking spirit since the Industrial Revolution. In keeping with that spirit, OMF UK has been a hive of activity as we moved our office from Kent to Manchester in 2025.
updates from the mission field
Mission in Naples: 'Italian gospel workers are heroes'
Mark Oden
Date posted: 20 Jan 2026
In the heat of the summer of 2013, Jane and I, and our four kids (Sofia, Inez, Luisa, and Archie), moved from leafy Sevenoaks to noisy, crowded Naples, Italy, to work alongside a Brethren church we’d built links with previously.
We spent two years serving in Pozzuoli, then moved into the centre of the city to plant the Chiesa Evangelica Neapolis (the Greek name for the city, meaning "new community"). In March 2026, we intend to leave Naples, having been called to serve Chalmers Church, Edinburgh.
The local church at the heart of God’s global mission
Oak Hill College
Date posted: 28 Oct 2025
Oak Hill College and UFM Worldwide joined forces with The Upstream Collective to help people explore the vital place of the local church in mission.
Kentucky-based Upstream Collective’s mission is to help churches send well - doing this through equipping the church with tools and relational support and by sending the church as a missions agency that prioritises relationships.
Sporting boost for uni missions
Brian Glynn
Date posted: 27 Apr 2025
Christian students are sharing encouragements following on from university missions which were supported by the organisation Christians in Sport (CiS).
Grace, a student leader at Exeter, reflected on the joy of seeing her peers engage with the message of Jesus. “We’ve loved having Graham Daniels [General Director of CiS] opening up the book of Luke during our evening events,” she said. “It’s been a real encouragement seeing many students come along to hear the gospel for the first time, through an invite from Christian friends or just by picking up a flyer.”
Gospel makes waves by the sea: United Beach Missions
en staff
Date posted: 28 Sep 2025
Beach missions are alive and well – at least if these photos are anything to go by!
Some of the UBM (United Beach Missions) team can be seen getting ready for outreach as the summer season hit its peak.
140th anniversary of the Cambridge Seven's mission to China
OMF
Date posted: 4 Jul 2025
This year marks the 140th anniversary of the Cambridge Seven sailing for China in February 1885.
The OMF website explains: “This group of seven Christians from Britain caught the imagination of the church and the nation as they gave up riches, fame and comfortable lives to go and share the good news of Jesus in China through the China Inland Mission (CIM), now OMF International.
Four books to enthuse your family in worldwide mission
Catherine MacKenzie
Date posted: 8 Jun 2025
I am writing this article from a hotel room in Krakow, Poland where I am meeting international Christian publishers and missionaries from around the world.
We are a stone’s throw away from the Schindler factory made famous by the book Schindler’s Ark and the subsequent film Schindler’s List.
Brighton beach 1865: When evangelical global mission changed forever
OMF UK
Date posted: 27 Jun 2025
It is now 160 years since Hudson Taylor launched his famous and transformative missionary movement.
It was on 25 June 1865 that he prayed on Brighton beach for 24 “willing, skillful workers” to take the gospel to those with the fewest opportunities to hear it in the inland provinces of China.
Children’s ministry in Moldova: ‘My daddy fixes children’s hearts’
Abbie Watts
Date posted: 18 Feb 2026
“The love of Christ compels us.” Taken from 2 Corinthians 5v14, this verse is the strapline of Christian Mission International Aid (CMIAID) and underpins everything the Christian charity does.
I recently arrived back in the UK after spending two weeks with CMIAID in Moldova. Started by Matthew and Ruth Hillier and Dan Marianciuc, the multi-faceted organisation does whatever it takes to share the light and truth of the gospel to those of all ages and stages of life in Moldova and other Eastern European countries.
God is using migration to fulfil His mission
Chris Howles
Date posted: 6 Mar 2025
There can be few topics more likely to canvass votes, generate clicks, or provoke vigorous and sometimes heated discussions than that of international migration in the world today.
And perhaps for good reason, for not many people or places are unaffected by this issue. Indeed some already speculate that the 21st century will in time be known as ‘The Century of Migration’.
Jellyfish sting girl given urgent MAF flight
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 3 Jan 2026
A teenager who received an excruciatingly painful sting from the poisonous, transparent tentacles of a box jellyfish, was flown to hospital from a remote part of Arnhem Land, Australia in just 25 minutes – thanks to the Mission Aviation Fellowship.
By road, the tortuous journey from Nyinykay homeland to Gove would have taken about three hours – assuming that the rough bush tracks could be traversed without trouble or, during the rainy season, flooding.
Blackpool: FIEC leaders meet
John Woods
Date posted: 20 Nov 2025
More than 1,100 church leaders, missionaries, and gospel workers gathered in Blackpool for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches' (FIEC) Leaders’ Conference to consider mission in the UK and to the ends of the earth.
While the church can sometimes pay only lip service to mission, this conference provided a substantial rather than perfunctory engagement with the theme. The main plenary sessions were rooted in a proclamation of the first two chapters of Acts. There was a welcome emphasis on the fact that the mission is God’s mission, that it has the gospel at its core, has the local church at its heart, and flows out of our weakness, enabled by the power of the Spirit.
‘Tell people at home that there are Kazakh Christians’
Tim*
Date posted: 12 Nov 2025
This summer, seven students and one staff member from Oak Hill College travelled to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The trip aimed to help students reflect missiologically about how Jesus may be served in these contexts as part of Oak Hill’s desire to see the church, in the UK and around the world, flourish. Tim, a student on the trip reflects on their time and some lessons for us all:
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are strange and beautiful places seemingly in between worlds. They feel strikingly modern in their shopping malls and glitzy districts, yet also raw and traditional in bazaars and potholed roads. Islam is a strong cultural marker, though less evident in daily practice. Soviet influence lingers – especially in Kazakhstan – while young people are increasingly drawn toward Western ideas.
New life in Christ for Sally, one of London’s many homeless
London City Mission
Date posted: 11 Dec 2025
New data from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) shows a sharp rise in street homelessness in London.
There were 3,028 people living on the streets between April 2024 and March 2025 – a 27% increase from the previous year and a 90% rise over the past decade.
King Charles honours Christian mission organisation MAF
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 25 Apr 2025
The humanitarian work of Christian mission organisation Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has been honoured by King Charles.
Representing MAF, CEO Donovan Palmer (pictured left), Trustee Max Gove, Deputy Country Director in Uganda Sam Baguma, and Becky Waterman attended a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by the King, Queen Camilla and Princess Anne, where the “exceptional” work of approximately 100 humanitarian charities was recognised.
How do you relate to your church's mission partners?
Don’t get me wrong, every missionary is grateful for the financial support they receive from churches.
They’re also blessed by knowing that churches are praying for them from the moment they leave these shores until they return at some future point. In fact, I was just sharing with a church yesterday that when a missionary says they’re travelling from one place to another and would like people to pray, they really mean it. It isn’t a filler item in a list of prayer points; the journey probably involves dangerous, ice-covered or corrugated desert roads, or even the risk of hijacking.