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”?
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?
What if aliens are real? A thought experiment
Russell Moore
Date posted: 13 Mar 2026
This is how strange our times are: recently, two United States presidents engaged the question of whether aliens are real, and it wasn’t even in the top 15 stories of the week. The debate was over not "aliens" as in migrants to a country but "aliens" as in extra-terrestrial, nonhuman beings.
Former president Barack Obama sparked the controversy by responding to a question about aliens in a podcast interview and saying that "they’re real" before assuring listeners that there are no underground bunkers studying aliens at Area 51. President Donald Trump then accused Obama of giving out "classified information" and then pledged to declassify government documents on what used to be called unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and are now referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
Approaching ageing by asking, 'Where does my value rest?'
Fran Kirby
Date posted: 12 Mar 2026
A couple of weeks ago, a supermarket assistant ID’d me when I tried to buy a box of matches.
I thought it was hilarious. She, having discovered that I’m in my mid-30s, was mortified. But in her defence, perhaps my hat was to blame (or thank).
loving your digital neighbour
Christians, cybersecurity is important
Tristram Ridley-Jones
Date posted: 12 Mar 2026
In our previous article, Cybersecurity: Loving your (digital) neighbour, we established that protecting the personal data of our congregation is a modern act of stewardship, integrity, and pastoral care. Just as Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, we are called to post a guard at our digital gates.
However, a wall is only as strong as the watchman who stands upon it. The greatest risk to a church's security is often not a sophisticated external hacker, but a simple human error - a click on a malicious link. This is not a judgment on a lack of faith, but a call to practical wisdom and equipping our ministry teams with a "sound mind" (2 Timothy 1v7) to spot digital deception.
The Brontës and evangelicalism
Charles Gardner
Date posted: 11 Mar 2026
There’s been much fanfare over the screening of a new film based on Wuthering Heights, the Emily Brontë novel that has sent romantic hearts racing over nearly two centuries.
One result has been a fresh boost for tourism to Brontë country, focused on the village of Haworth in West Yorkshire. But for some, visits to these windswept moors are more akin to a pilgrimage celebrating their rich spiritual heritage.
How good is your listening?
Phil Moon
Date posted: 11 Mar 2026
As a leader, do you listen? I hope so, as I think you really need to. But sadly, it’s a bit too easy not to listen and far too easy to get into the habit of not listening.
There’s lots of listening we should be doing. Listening to the Lord through his Word. Listening to the world in which we live. Listening to those in authority over us. Listening to our spouses and children when they tell us they’ve forgotten who we are… I’d like to look at three other areas of listening where we may just be getting slightly deaf.
everyday evangelism
Practise hospitality!
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 10 Mar 2026
“Please bear in mind that there are quite a few non-Christians here this morning” is something I hear increasingly as I preach around the country in my work for Solas. Pastors wisely want the visiting preacher not just to know the Bible text to preach on, but to make sure that the sermon is suitable for people who are not there to be discipled in the faith, but who are still exploring what the gospel actually is.
Being “seeker-friendly” is a phrase which has fallen into disrepute, conjuring up unhelpful images of stage lights, and reverent worship being displaced by entertainment. What might be a better phrase for seeking to welcome and share Christ with the curious who are turning up at churches, and what might it involve? Perhaps the Biblical phrase “practise hospitality” is closer to what we need.
everyday theology
Intellectualist faith?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 10 Mar 2026
Normally, those who think of themselves as people of the gospel do not openly deny the necessity of the new birth. But what if we did? We do not have to imagine, for that is effectively what happened in the 18th and 19th centuries with the Sandemanian sect. As Andrew Fuller (1754–1815) put it, the Sandemanians believed that saving faith is nothing but “bare belief of the bare truth”.
This was an intellectualist view of faith that sat especially well with the rationalistic times of the Enlightenment, though Robert Sandeman himself had an apparently evangelical logic for his view. Seeking to uphold a salvation that is all of grace, he argued that faith is really a human work if it involves any active leaning of the heart upon God. Faith must, he concluded, be nothing more than the mind’s assent that the gospel is true. It is an acknowledgment, not trust.
The little boy who prays in colours - and more stories
Kay Morgan-Gurr
Date posted: 9 Mar 2026
I’m often asked if the children and young people I work alongside have the capacity for faith. Others question why my colleagues and I continue to teach because, quote: “Why bother if they will never understand?"
Many times, these questions come from evangelical circles.
How is your spiritual appetite at the moment?
John Brand
Date posted: 8 Mar 2026
How’s your appetite? It’s a question a doctor will often ask to try and work out if something is wrong with your health, because there is a direct correlation between a healthy appetite and a healthy body.
Generally speaking, a healthy appetite accompanies a healthy body, and sick people tend to have a diminished hunger. But that is not only true with physical appetites but with spiritual appetites as well.
Two ways to quench the Spirit, according to Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Adam Ramsey
Date posted: 8 Mar 2026
This is the second in a series of articles written by Adam Ramsey of Liberti Church, Gold Coast, Australia, exploring what we can learn from Martyn Lloyd-Jones today in relation to the Reformed faith and a Scriptural understanding of spiritual experience.
The essays, of which there are five in total, need to be taken together. They are taken from original, yet- to-be published research undertaken by Ramsey for his Doctor of Philosophy thesis. Read the first article here.
earth watch
Losing Nemo
Paul Kunert
Date posted: 7 Mar 2026
There’s really no good way to say this, but, the thing is: we’re losing Nemo.
Some of you – many, probably – will know Pixar/Disney’s (mostly) wonderful animated films. Bringing up our kids in the noughties, 2003’s Finding Nemo was one of our favourites. With 40 million copies sold, it’s the most popular DVD of all time, so we obviously weren’t alone! The adventures of Nemo the reef-dwelling clownfish, it’s a heartwarming tale of family, friendship and letting go that brings vividly to life the underwater world of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
pastoral care
The darkest of all sins?
Steve Midgley
Date posted: 6 Mar 2026
What would you identify as the most damaging and disturbing of all sins? Of all our failings and missteps, what has the deepest, darkest and most long-lasting negative impact?
There are, sadly, many contenders. Personally, I think a strong case can be made for the sin of lying – those times when we deliberately mislead others by communicating something false. It’s probably not the most obvious choice. It’s also a sin we trivialise – referring to “little white lies” and being “economical with the truth” – phrases which suggest there are lies that are necessary, perhaps even loving.
culture watch
A comeback for good
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 6 Mar 2026
If you’re reeling from the shocking finale of The Night Manager, you might find some solace like I did in the Take That three-part documentary on Netflix.
In the first episode, we spend some time watching the five boys form their band and find themselves thrust into the limelight.
defending our faith
Ancient map decoded?
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 5 Mar 2026
I often use this column to write about references to the Biblical world from outside of the Bible. It helps to confirm the accuracy of the Bible to read a reference to a person, place or event from external contemporary sources. But there is no doubt that it is even more exciting to see pictures of Bible people or Bible places. One scholar believes he has identified an overlooked portrayal of Jerusalem from 2,700 years ago. First, let’s review a few well-known examples.
Considered the earliest map of the world, a Babylonian clay tablet held at the British Museum dates to 600 BC and shows the world as a disk with Babylon at the centre. The map includes the Euphrates River, distant regions and outer oceans. It also shows the locations of Assyria and Urartu (Ararat). The map indicates where the Babylonians thought that the ark had landed after the great flood of ancient history.
helping children find faith
What does Easter mean?
Ed Drew
Date posted: 4 Mar 2026
The cinema was quiet. Families were coming to terms with the death of the hero. But the story was not yet over. With a crash, the stone table, where the hero had been murdered, lay cracked in two. Never again could anyone be punished on it, for their own or anyone else’s betrayal. In the silence, the little voice at the back of the cinema whispered: “Dad, what does that mean?”
This is still the question we can keep answering as we show our children and young people their slain hero in the Easter story.
Church leaders: How are you, really?
Phil Sweeting
Date posted: 2 Mar 2026
A friend once told me about the great tree that used to dominate his back garden in Oxford. It was a magnificent thing - tall, full, the sort of tree children point out from a mile away. It had stood through summers of blistering heat and winters that lashed at it without mercy. Anyone looking on would have called it healthy. Solid. Unshakeable.
But one night the wind rose.
