At Bible By The Beach, we had the pleasure of welcoming 1,700 people to Eastbourne at our annual May conference!
Our overall theme of the year was “In all things, God at work”, exploring together what it means to live in light of the reality of a sovereign God involved in the world He made. Through a combination of main meetings, seminars with various speakers and leaders, and sung worship lead by Emu music, many were able to grow in their understanding and love for God, which was most encouraging. Our prayer is that all who attended this conference will go back to their front lines and boldly live out their faith in Jesus, knowing that He is sovereign over all things.
Unprecedented engagement from youth
One specific area to praise God for as an organisation is that of the children and youth work. Never before have we sold out tickets for children and youth tickets, and yet this was the reality for us in 2025, which (wonderfully) means we need to think more about how we can develop our children and youth ministry into 2026.
With 90% of all UK Christians coming to faith under the age of 18, ministry among children and youth has never been more important. Through a combination of main gatherings, games, discussions, worship and prayer, not only have we have seen many young people make significant strides in their faith (which in itself is something to praise God for), but we have also seen many grow in their friendships with one another. This is essential for us as a ministry, as it is often so easy to feel alone as a Christian in school, but for young people to know that there are others just like them who can be a mutual encouragement all-year-round, this is definitely something to celebrate.
Youth and children's work at the conference
Another focus for us this year has been that of exploring partnerships with other organisations. In 2025, this translated into welcoming more partnering exhibitors than ever before. At Bible By The Beach, we love to champion other Kingdom-building Gospel-centred ministries, and we have been delighting in the privilege of giving our partner organisations an opportunity to showcase what God is doing through them and encouraging others to get involved in some way. In addition, an accidental by-product of having so many exhibitors this year is that they started to network with one another too and to explore how they can champion one another, for which we also praise God for!
Looking to the future
Going forward into 2026, we will be exploring the theme of “Commending Christ in a Changing World”, specifically looking at what the different cultural drivers are in the different circumstances and front lines we find ourselves on, and what does living and speaking for Christ look like in these different contexts. We look forward to welcoming keynote speakers Vaughan Roberts and Rebecca McLaughlin to the main stage who will be leading us through this topic.
We will also be welcoming a number of other organisations and seminar leaders to help us practically think through what living for Christ in different contexts looks like through our seminar programme. And as alluded to earlier, we’ll be exploring further what developing our children & youth work looks like (especially in relation to families), as well as continuing to build partnerships with others with whom we can work together and build God’s Kingdom. Do save the date: 1-4 May 2026. You don’t want to miss out!
