YouGov - you what? The 'quiet revival' apology explained
en staff
Date posted: 26 Mar 2026
What just happened?
YouGov’s Chief Executive Officer Stephan Shakespeare has personally apologised to the Bible Society after it emerged that the 2024 survey sample on which its report The Quiet Revival was based was, in fact, faulty.
Remind me what this was all about...
The Church Times summarises it succinctly: "When it was published last April, the report suggested that churchgoing among young people, particularly men, in England and Wales was growing, but not in the Church of England (News, 8 April, 2025)."
So, Gavin Calver, how will the EA and a UK Gospel Coalition co-operate?
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 16 Mar 2026
As the Evangelical Alliance (EA) marks 180 years since it was established, en journalist Lydia Houghton interviews its CEO, Gavin Calver, about the "quiet revival", The Gospel Coalition UK, and his hopes for the future of the EA.
LH: I’m glad we’re chatting today, because I saw an article yesterday and I thought, “I’ll ask Gavin what he thinks about this…” Lots of us have seen articles about the “quiet revival” or the “quiet awakening,” and the one I saw last night was written with a lot of scepticism; so I just wanted to ask you, are you sceptical, or are you embracing the reports we’re hearing? Do you have any particular thoughts on the “quiet revival”?
everyday evangelism
Deliver us from statistics...
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 3 May 2026
“What’s your take on the ‘quiet revival’?” I am asked repeatedly in person and online. The Quiet Revival Report itself has been withdrawn; so are there really more young people becoming Christians and joining churches, and if so in what numbers? What will the revised survey later this year reveal? I am no statistician, so instead of number-crunching, here are my observations of four unhelpful – then four helpful – responses to the debate and the contested data.
1. Over-reliance on statistics. Statistics are very interesting and can be encouraging or discouraging, but our faith is not in them. The gospel isn’t more true if millions believe it, or if we think we are the only one left. Likewise, the gospel of Christ isn’t validated by numbers, but by His resurrection from the dead. Our faith is only ever in Jesus – not in results.
A quiet UK revival? How can we respond?
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 9 Apr 2025
As we look forward to Easter, some of us may reflect on how many people attended Christmas services, and be recalling the joy of overflowing churches.
There has been talk of a Christian revival in the UK for at least a year – and speculation about it everywhere from the press to podcasts. But where is the data showing us how the Spirit is moving? Instead, we are often presented with disappointing data from various denominations about decreasing numbers of people attending church.
Will the ‘Quiet Revival’ change our civic life?
Paul Blackham
Date posted: 29 Dec 2025
Jesus said to a government official of His day: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19v11)
Power does not flow up from below, from the people, but rather, true power flows down from the Divine Empire, from the throne room of heaven. True earthly authority can only be given by King Jesus, not the ballot box nor the barrel of a gun.
Andrew Ollerton: 'Let the Word move in power'
John Woods
Date posted: 6 Oct 2025
Dr Andrew Ollerton is a theologian, pastor, author and presenter who likes to “make complex ideas simple and relevant”. He lives in Wales and regularly speaks at conferences, festivals and churches, and films video content on locations around the world. He recently developed a new edition of The Bible Course with Bible Society. Here, he is interviewed by en reviews editor John Woods.
en: When was the first time that you began to find Christianity compelling?
AO: I was brought up by parents who made it compelling. In my family life, faith was not just a Sunday experience or a creed but was lived out. I credit my parents for that. I did have moments in my teenage and adult years when I had a crisis of faith. When I went to university to study geography I bumped into issues around the reconciling of science and faith which troubled me. What made Christianity compelling at that time included books I read, but also people I met. One professor had a PhD in science and in theology. The fact that he brought those two horizons together and embodied them was compelling.
Reunited at Bible by the Beach (after 61 years!)
James Stileman
Date posted: 23 May 2026
Hazel Gordon and Linnet Smith left their Cheshire girls' school in 1965. They hadn’t seen each other for over 60 years until this year’s Bible by the Beach (BBTB) conference in Eastbourne over the Early May Bank Holiday.
They sat in a seafront hotel and talked for four hours without stopping. “It was a fitting conclusion to our first meeting,” said Hazel, “to attend the Sunday evening celebration service in the Congress Theatre. What a profound moment to stand together as we sang ‘From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny’. We felt so blessed to have had this remarkable opportunity – and to discover that the adventure of life has not yet stopped.”
‘A sense of His presence’ - ten questions with James Burnett
en staff
Date posted: 15 May 2026
James Burnett is the Principal and CEO of Belfast School of Theology (BST). Married to Hazel, James is also an amateur sailor, triathlete (see photo) and open-water swimmer.
1. How did you become a Christian?
The UK's spiritual condition: Crisis and opportunity
Gavin Calver
Date posted: 2 May 2026
What season are we living in?
Like so many others, I felt disappointed when the findings of the “Quiet Revival” research (commissioned by the Bible Society) were declared as unreliable due to errors made by YouGov who were carrying out the research. The report has been taken down, and many are now understandably questioning what is going on spiritually in the UK? Have we been misunderstanding the moment we are living in?
Geopolitics or the gospel? What is our priority?
Paul Blackham
Date posted: 28 Apr 2026
"What do we fear enough to talk to strangers about? Our spiritual mandate is to Seek FIRST God’s Kingdom. We must be obsessed with the business of heaven – because only then will the business of earth fall into the right perspective.
Jeremiah 29v13 – “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Our passion and obsession must be for lost human beings to find and be found by this Living God – because without that they will perish.
What is faithful church ministry?
James Burnett
Date posted: 7 Dec 2025
Would you make a good "Traitor"? Have you got the mojo of a chameleon to hoodwink fellow contestants, like the comedian Alan Carr - this year’s winner of BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors?
Game show The Traitors was inspired by the sinking of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629. When the Batavia sank off Australia, 250 survivors scrambled ashore an island archipelago. Mutinous traitors fought against a small band of faithful soldiers, culminating in a live-or-die boat race towards an oncoming rescue ship. Who would get there first - the "Traitors" or the "Faithful"? A true story!
news in brief
Conversion therapy ban
Equalities Minister Olivia Bailey has reasserted her determination to introduce a conversion therapy ban.
She told a Stonewall event in February that Labour will bring forward a conversion practices bill this parliamentary session, which ends in May. It is more than eight years since the then Conservative UK government said it would outlaw conversion practices.
Sharing Jesus in the barracks and over a brew
SASRA
Date posted: 17 Aug 2025
The UK’s “quiet revival” is a God-given opportunity for Christian evangelism.
For the Soldiers’ and Aviators’ Scripture Readers Association (SASRA), this means sharing the gospel in the military with more troops and their families, in barracks and stations that are inaccessible to churches.
From bird migration to Biblical mission
Karen Soole
Date posted: 28 Feb 2026
March is the month when flocks of overwintering birds begin to leave the UK. Bird migration is an incredible natural phenomenon that occurs around us, yet many of us do not notice it.
But each year, as many birds leave our relatively mild winters behind to breed further north, birders and conservationists wonder how many will return. Those who dedicate their lives to this work are acutely aware that all is not well. The decline in numbers of once-common garden birds, such as sparrows and starlings, is drastic. It is easy to miss until someone tells you: “House sparrow populations in the UK have declined by approximately 60 –70% since the 1970s, with nearly 30 million vanishing from the countryside and cities.” The biggest problems most declining species face are habitat destruction, food availability, and disease.
scattering seeds of hope
Colleges: 'I've never been as encouraged as I am now'
Claire Povey
Date posted: 5 Feb 2026
I have had the tremendous privilege of seeing God at work in colleges and sixth forms up and down the UK for the last 17 years.
The organisation I work for, Festive, supports 16-18 year olds in further education as they seek to live for Jesus and share Him where they study. In all my time with Festive, I have never been as encouraged as I am now.
‘Civilizational erasure’ and Evangelicalism’s future
Paul Yeulett
Date posted: 3 Feb 2026
Some of us will remember the old Orange mobile phone advert from the turn of the millennium: “The future’s bright, the future’s Orange.” The future did not, as it turned out, belong to Orange. But can it still be bright?
There is no doubt that Britain, like many of its neighbours, is afflicted by several overlapping crises. Pause for a moment and consider the state of our hospitals, our schools, our prisons, our armed forces, our borders, our economy, our collective mental health, and our social cohesion, and the picture becomes clear enough. And all this before we turn to the present condition of the Church of England. The skies all around us seem to be darkening. Recent remarks from the White House about “civilisational erasure” in Europe prompted the predictable response: what manner of incendiary rhetoric is this? Yet one cannot help wondering whether the proverbial frog in the water is quite as comfortable as it imagines, unaware that the temperature is still rising.
'Revivals are not quiet'
The Quiet Revival is no more; YouGov has retracted its conclusions, and the data has been debunked [see en explainer here]. A full apology was sent to the Bible Society.
Owing to the blessing we have received in recent years at Noddfa Church in the Welsh valleys, I have had the opportunity to speak and comment on several podcasts, media outlets and at many conferences about this alleged phenomenon.