What Crystal Palace taught me about revival

I’m a massive football fan and I hail from South London. I personally support AFC Wimbledon, but it was a real joy to see another team from my side of the river, Crystal Palace, lift the FA Cup and in the process win the first major trophy in their 100+ years of existence.

Their fans had waited so long for a moment like this, had believed it might never come and when it did, what a moment it was. On a beautiful May afternoon, at a sun-kissed Wembley Stadium, they beat the overwhelming favourites Manchester City 1-0 through a goal by one of their star players, Eberechi Eze.

This football match got me thinking about the whole area of waiting. It’s interesting that when you really wait for something, you can start to believe that it may never happen and your reservoirs of hope run increasingly low. You just have to look elsewhere in the world of football to the English national team to see the reality of this and the impact it can have on a set of fans.

We in the church can also be in danger of running out of hope, of thinking things may never be different as we’ve waited so long for the spiritual temperature of the United Kingdom to change. However, like Crystal Palace, it feels that we too are in a different day, times are changing, hope is being restored, perhaps the season of winter may finally be over, and spring is upon us.

Renewed interest

A recent piece of research, “The Quiet Revival”, commissioned by the Bible Society and conducted by YouGov, was full of encouragement. The results showed, amongst other things, that over 2 million more people go to church than six years ago in the UK, that 16% of 18- to 24-year-olds are attending church, and that more men go to church than women. These findings are remarkable, and would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Additionally, we at the Evangelical Alliance recently released the latest version of our own “Changing Church” survey. Encouragingly, churches are seeing twice as many people finding faith in Jesus than they were back in 2021. It’s not just pieces of research by Christian organisations that are fuelling a new sense of optimism. A recent article in The Times newspaper reported that Bible sales in the UK have increased by 87% between 2019 and 2024. The Bible was already quite comfortably the bestselling book in the UK and to see such a marked increase feels like a very clear indicator that things are changing and interest in faith is stirring.

Returning to that Wembley afternoon – the scenes as the final whistle blew were those of utter unbridled joy after so many near misses and previous opportunities that had evaded them. Finally, the Crystal Palace fans had something to cheer about and they had won a major trophy.

From all I’m seeing all over the UK, I really believe we’re living in a moment where the church has something far more significant to cheer about after also waiting for quite some time. I’m personally ministering in all kinds of settings and seeing fruit that I never thought I’d see. I’m hearing stories from all over the nation that are utterly wonderful as the Lord is moving so powerfully. It really does feel like the spiritual temperature of the United Kingdom is changing and the opportunities in front of us are greater than they have been in an awfully long time.

Having been in ministry for the last 25 years, faithfully serving Jesus, desperate for a fresh move of God in this land, I, like many, wonder if our season of waiting is also over and we are actually living in the moment of spiritual openness that we’ve prayed and longed for.