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”?
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.
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.
What is an Evangelical?
John Woods
Date posted: 2 Feb 2026
Book Review
As I was reading Good News People the news broke, with a mixed reception, concerning the setting up of the UK version of The Gospel Coalition. This review also appears at the start of en’s 40th anniversary year.
Read review
At a distance: Are we only willing to follow Jesus up to a point?
Wallace Benn
Date posted: 27 Jan 2026
“And Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest” (Mark 14v54).
This describes the worst moment in dear Peter’s life, of which he was later so ashamed, and about which he needed the Lord’s forgiveness and reinstatement, which he graciously received (John 21). It was not that Peter had given up following Jesus, it was that at a crucial moment when he was under pressure he denied his master and Lord. Peter wanted to follow Jesus, but he did not at this time want the hassle and danger of doing so – it was all too much for him to cope with. Later Peter thankfully showed that he was more than willing to take up his cross and follow Jesus wherever that led.
Bible sales are up & ESV is best-selling
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 24 Jan 2026
Crossway’s ESV was the best-selling translation of the Bible in the UK last year, according to Christian publisher SPCK Group.
And Bible sales are up overall, reaching the highest level recorded, research shows.
Sometimes evangelism begins with roast chicken
Alistair Chalmers
Date posted: 18 Mar 2026
There is a front door in almost every Christian’s life that is far more strategic than we realise.
We pray for revival in our nation. We long for gospel advance in our towns. We want deeper discipleship in our churches. And all the while, God has given many of us a dining table.
Ten questions with Ken Brownell
en staff
Date posted: 1 Feb 2026
Ken Brownell is the retired Senior Pastor of East London Tabernacle Baptist Church in Mile End, London.
- How did you become a Christian?
I was brought up in a Christian home in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. I very clearly remember a conversation when I was seven with my parents about the gospel that led to me later that evening asking Christ to forgive me my sins. Ever since then I have known that I was a Christian. I was baptised at 13 in the Brethren assembly my family attended.
From bird migration to Biblical mission
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.