How do we lead without manipulating?
Phil Moon
Date posted: 7 Jan 2026
Note: This article contains content that may be triggering for some readers.
I recently had a really helpful call from someone, and it made me think more about manipulation in Christian ministry.
A life faithfully given: The funeral of Richard Turnbull
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 5 Jan 2026
A packed and full-throated congregation of family, colleagues and friends of Rev Dr Richard Turnbull (who died on 26 November 2025) gathered at his funeral service at St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock on a very wet Friday 18 December.
Richard had known for some weeks that the recurrence of his breast cancer was terminal. His mother had died from the same condition when he was 18. He had carefully planned the details of the service.
Be an encourager
Tom Brewster
Date posted: 5 Jan 2026
Recently a member of our congregation approached me after the service. She had come to offer a word of encouragement. I wasn’t feeling especially discouraged – in fact, the service had run smoothly, and the music and tech had worked well. But this gentle word of encouragement from a sister in Christ brought me joy and filled my heart with thanksgiving to our generous Father. It was an application of Proverbs 12v25 "Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up."
Many of your musicians and technicians will feel anxiety on Sunday mornings – their minds are probably filled with the “what-ifs” of a church service. Amidst those anxieties your voice, dear reader, can cheer their hearts. How? By offering encouragement that follows two simple rules:
A new movement to multiply gospel workers
Robin Sydserff
Date posted: 4 Jan 2026
In May 2024, an important event was held at Yarnton Manor in Oxford. Organised and hosted by 9:38 (which exists to resource and train up church leaders), it brought together training stakeholders – networks, churches, training providers – to reflect on the crisis in ministry recruitment. This was reported in en (July 24) under the headline “Major consultation event addresses ‘recruitment crisis’.”
As training stakeholders, we left convinced that ministry is a noble task, convicted to pray to the Lord for workers, and committed to working together. Lydia Houghton’s en feature article “Is there really a ministry recruitment crisis?” – is an encouraging read. There are hopeful signs.
everyday evangelism
Keeping evangelism on the front-burner
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 1 Jan 2026
“In my church you’d think the Great Commission instructed us to go into all the world and form committees”, joked one of my friends. His frustration may have been delivered with a grin and a healthy dose of satire, but the point stung.
He is not alone in thinking that there is often a priority gap between our marching orders from the risen Christ (Matt. 28v16-20) and the everyday priorities of our churches – and us as individual Christians.
everyday theology
'Lord, help me...'
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 30 Dec 2025
In the gospel accounts of both Matthew and Mark, Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees for their neglect of their hearts (Matt.15v10-20; Mark7v14-23) is immediately followed by His encounter with the Canaanite/ Syrophoenician woman (Matt.15v21-28; Mark 7v24-30). The juxtaposition of the woman next to the Pharisees is telling, for she lacks the qualities they value – yet she has the qualities that Jesus values and they lack.
Not only is she a Gentile; she is a Canaanite, of the traditional enemies of Israel. “Cursed be Canaan,” declared Noah in Genesis 9v25. The book of Zechariah ends with the thundering denouncement that on the day of the Lord there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty (Zech.14v21). Yet, having heard of Jesus, she seeks Him out for help, showing a startlingly perceptive appreciation of Jesus’s identity. “Lord, Son of David,” she calls Him (Matt.15v22).
faith and life
What counts as prayer?
Michael Williams
Date posted: 30 Dec 2025
Like me, you may be more intimidated than inspired by stories of figures like Martin Luther rising before dawn to get in three hours of prayer before the day began. These examples seem utterly unattainable for the ‘normal’ believer. Yet even Luther’s early morning vigil falls a long way short of the call to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5v17). If we can’t even manage three hours a day, what hope do we have for prayer that never ends?
This is not a new question for believers. Roughly 1,600 years ago the North African pastor, Augustine, was wrestling with just that. His reflections, especially on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6, give us cause to rethink what ‘counts’ as prayer.
Care home residents - a crisis of invisibility?
Lynn Shelley
Date posted: 29 Dec 2025
Matthew 9v37-38: “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”
Your church: what an amazing selection of activities to be involved in!
The little-known women who changed hundreds of army lives in Aldershot
Adrian Russell
Date posted: 29 Dec 2025
Amongst the tens of thousands of service personnel buried in the Aldershot military cemetery are the graves of the soldiers from the First and Second World Wars, the Boer War, the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War, and the Falklands War. Amongst the dead are recipients of the Victoria Cross and World War One flying aces. Alongside these brave service personnel is a civilian, an orphaned widow, a woman who suffered with sickness for most of her life, and yet she was given the honour of being the first civilian to be buried there. Her name is Louisa Daniell.
The name Louisa Daniell might be unfamiliar to you, but to many of the soldiers and officers of the British army her work was as important as the weapons they carried. Her care and compassion for individual soldiers was renowned throughout the land. Her Christian witness and love was enjoyed by all who visited the Miss Daniell’s Soldiers’ Home in Aldershot – a place visited by two British Queens.
An interview with author Karen Swallow Prior
John Woods & Andrew Roycroft
Date posted: 29 Dec 2025
Writer and academic Professor Karen Swallow Prior has written and contributed to numerous books. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic magazine, The Washington Post, and on the Gospel Coalition website, among other places. Her latest book, You Have a Calling was reviewed in last month's print edition of en (see review here).
Here, en Reviews Editor John Woods and Andrew Roycroft of Grace Publications speak to her about it and some of the issues raised. Quotes in blue type are from the new book.
helping children find faith
Parents need the church
Ed Drew
Date posted: 28 Dec 2025
Our first child was born at about 6am. It had been a long night. I am clear that my wife had more reason to be tired than me. Giving us some early respite, our child slept through that first day. Parenting seemed easier than childbirth. It came to chucking out time, when I was being sent home for the night. I looked forward to a good night’s sleep. I was smart enough not to say that out loud. Just as my hand was on the door to leave, my wife asked a question that sent a thunderbolt through my body: “What do I do if she wakes up?”
That was the moment when I realised we were in big trouble. I knew that I had no idea what I was doing, but how could she not know? I had quietly assumed that I would be in my wife’s parenting wake. How could it be possible for us to have a child when neither of us knew what to do next?
Ten questions with Tom Allen
en staff
Date posted: 27 Dec 2025
Tom Allen has served as pastor of Eastbourne Grace Baptist Church since October 2021. Prior to this he was pastor of a church in South London for five years. Married to Catherine, they have four children, Reuben, Jesse, Clara and Caleb.
1. How did you become a Christian?
'A joyful Christmas is not a consumerist Christmas'
James Burnett
Date posted: 26 Dec 2025
My best Christmas Day celebration was a present-less gathering in Malawi.
The worship was full of percussion, al fresco, around a log fire, and everyone shared in the gift of Jesus.
'The gospel is Jesus Christ'
Dave Burke
Date posted: 25 Dec 2025
A friend of mine is the youngest chaplain in the British Army, so they have sent him to train with the Parachute Regiment because he’s young and fit enough to keep up with them.
The unit he supports call themselves "the tip of the spear" because if there is conflict, they will be going in first.
'A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!'
Tim Farron
Date posted: 25 Dec 2025
There is a spine-tingling line in the Christmas hymn, O Holy Night: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!”
A weary world
Our world is unmistakably weary. More than three-quarters of Brits say the UK is headed in the wrong direction. For the first time, the UK has dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries in the World Happiness Report.
Do you feel like darkness is your 'closest friend'?
Mitch Chase
Date posted: 25 Dec 2025
Near the end of Book Three in Psalms (which is from Pss. 73–89), things grow dark. In fact, when you enter Psalm 88, you feel like you’re in a room so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Suffering can feel like that. Some trials feel so overwhelming, so disorienting, that the language of Psalm 88 fits them. The psalmist embodies the agonies and despair that a believer can experience in a fallen world. Don’t let anyone tell you that a real believer would never feel overwhelmed and despondent. Psalm 88 would beg to differ!
A familiar sight, an overlooked story
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 Dec 2025
Did you know that one of London's most famous Christmas landmarks is rooted in a deeply Christian story of sacrifice, peace, and reconciliation?
I'm talking about the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree. Each December, the Norwegian Pine stands, at an impressive 65 feet tall, in the heart of London . Its lighting ceremony takes place on the first Thursday of December, featuring carols and performances, and the tree continues to grace the UK's capital city until early January. Many people know that the tree comes from Norway, but few pause to ask why.
John 1: 'A rich and beautiful tapestry of the Triune God'
James Cary
Date posted: 24 Dec 2025
I’m a professional writer (believe it or not) but was one of the few in my school year who did not choose English to study at A-Level.
Back then, reading fiction felt like hard work to me. For my GCSE, I had to read Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It’s a classic. But it’s long, sad and contains an awful lot of dense and wistful description of the Dorset and Somerset countryside. I now live on the border of Somerset and Dorset – in the heart of Hardy’s Wessex. I love Wessex. It’s where I live. I enjoy seeing the hedgerows, oak trees and starling formations. I am still not hungry for lengthy verbal descriptions of all of the above.
