Exclusive: Gospel Coalition UK set to go ahead

A UK Gospel Coalition is set to launch in 2026, Evangelicals Now can exclusively reveal today.

Speaking to en, some of the organisers outlined their vision, passion and plans for the organisation, which will aim to bring together Reformed, complementarian evangelicals from the four home-nations and from across denominational groupings.

There are already Gospel Coalitions in various forms in many other parts of the world including the USA, Africa and Australia.

A council for the UK Gospel Coalition (TGC UK) has already been formed, consisting of around 40 members, following a series of open invitations.

Andy Mason, Mission Director of London-based church-planting movement Co-Mission, told en: "There were a number of preliminary meetings with a bit of an open invite, so it was a bit of a self-selecting thing, but if people wanted to come they could, of course, under the banner of the TGC and that theological framework of the discussion.”

The new grouping will follow the same basis of faith as TGC in the USA which Don Carson and the late Tim Keller were heavily involved in drawing up.

Mason said: "It is not a narrow clique of mates who have all met at one conference, and it is people who I don’t think you would see in any other one room talking together. I have never seen that any time before."

Lizzie Harewood, of the Association of Christian Teachers (ACT), who is also involved, told en: "The US Gospel Coalition already has quite a platform in the UK. British Christians are accessing TGC US material in their thousands. Why would we not want – despite all the potential mistakes that could be made – to create unity and get resources and quality teaching out to an even wider audience. It’s coming, and people can disengage or alternatively think: let’s engage constructively.”

Asked about accountability, given past scandals in many different church circles, including among conservative evangelicals, Graham Nicholls, Director of evangelical umbrella group Affinity, said: "We would obviously want to put in place all the best practice that charities in general and Christian organisations in particular would have in terms of clear lines of accountability, policies in place for safeguarding in general, anti-bullying, whistleblowing policies and so on. In the end, these things are a matter of culture as much as anything else.

"We want to foster a culture of openness and accountability. The council of 40 is quite a big accountability group, and any individual is accountable to them.”

Nicholls also said that through his general ongoing conversations with Gavin Calver, CEO of the Evangelical Alliance (EA), the latter would be well aware of the plans for the TGC UK. He added that the EA seeks to serve "a wider evangelical constituency".

Harewood said: "I would like to pay credit to Graham [Nicholls] and others who have been trying to get this process enacted. There’s been a lot of caution, a lot of seeking wisdom and taking time. Although it is a very British thing to say, ‘let us be cautious,’ I don’t think we want to lean too much into scepticism. There is a genuine earnest desire to put the gospel central."

She said that although TGC would be complementarian, "that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to offer the wider church.”

The announcement of a TGC UK follows approval from the TGC in the US to go ahead with the plans. The next steps will be building the organisation and putting together funding models. Although a launch is scheduled for 2026, no precise date and venue has yet been set.

There will be more from the interview with Lizzie Harewood, Andy Mason and Graham Nicholls in the next print edition of en which can be ordered online here. (In fact, the further extracts from that interview are now in this news piece here. Ed.)