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Luke Randall

Date posted: 1 Dec 2023

Former Scripture Union (SU) Scotland CEO Andy Bathgate died on 17 October, aged 68. He leaves his wife Alyson, with whom he shared over 40 years of marriage, and his three daughters, son-in-law, and grandchildren. He died peacefully at home.

Andy was the CEO of SU Scotland from 2001 to 2020, having volunteered with SU since his teens. He was also the Scottish team leader for UCCF (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) and was a founding member of CVE (Christian Values in Education) Scotland, serving as its Chair from its inception in 2014 until his retirement from the role in 2022.

Verwer was born 3 July, 1938. His parents were Eleanor Caddell Verwer and George Verwer Sr., a Dutch immigrant and electrician. They lived in Wyckoff, New Jersey, outside New York.

Verwer ‘was an athlete and boy scout, but spent a lot of time chasing girls and getting into trouble,’ as US magazine Christianity Today reported. This included starting a fire in some woods and breaking into someone’s home.

Richard Coekin is stepping down as Senior Pastor at Dundonald Church and Mission Director of Co-Mission in 2024 to pursue a ‘new season’ of ‘ministry, training and equipping church leaders’. 

Coekin has ‘faithfully and courageously served’, declared a statement from the trustees of the Co-Mission Churches Trust, Co-Mission Initiative Trust and the Dundonald Church Governing Elders.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Dec 2022

A radical ‘gospel rescue mission’ that began just last year in Derbyshire is seeing powerful conversions to Christ – and community leaders witnessing the extraordinary impact of the gospel.

Edge Faith Community, part of the national Edge Ministries, is pioneering a form of church and faith community in super-deprived communities. Carl Beech (see photo), who runs Edge Ministries, said white working-class people are probably the most unreached people in Europe and among the most vilified.

Around 60 workers from across the UK gathered in Manchester to explore how their careers and sharing the good news of Jesus were made to go together.

Work+Go Manchester 2023 combined plenary sessions looking at the value of work in God’s world and with seminars exploring the practicalities of working out faith in different vocations such as medicine, coding, art and the charity sector.

Milla Ling-Davies

Date posted: 1 Dec 2023

A new report from the Bible Society has revealed that the fastest-growing church in the UK is the Chinese Church.

In just the last two years, there has been 29% growth in the Chinese Church in the UK – a large jump from the 7% growth they’d seen in the previous ten years. This is largely due to people emigrating from Hong Kong to Britain.

A Soho church is issuing a heartfelt plea for a new pastor to join it in one of the UK’s toughest mission areas.

Andrew Murray, who has been pastor of Hope Church, West End – which serves Soho and Covent Garden – says that after four decades of struggle the congregation is now just nine.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Jan 2024

London City Mission’s chief executive Graham Miller and his wife Alison are recovering after an assault in Earlsfield. Their daughter witnessed the attack.

Miller said they were assaulted after he ‘challenged some kids for abusing a cafe manager next to the station’. He tweeted: ‘We were both punched repeatedly in the head from behind and Alison was knocked down. Kids were still hitting her whilst on the floor and passers-by had to tear them off.’

Luke Randall

Date posted: 1 Jan 2024

Chris Wigram has been announced by trustees as the Interim Chief Executive Officer of Global Connections (GC). He started in the post in late November, having previously served as GC’s Chair of Global Conventions between 2006 and 2008, and also as a board member. Chris has also served in leadership positions with OMF and ECM.

Global Connections is made up of several organisations and individuals including churches and charities, as well as others. It exists to support the UK church’s mission community at home and abroad.

How do we bridge generational divides to make Jesus known together?

The recent London City Mission ‘Diaspora Conference’ was an opportunity to bring Christians together from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere, to explore this vital question. With no easy answers to the complex tensions that often exist between generations in our church communities, we focused on listening and learning from each other’s experiences.

Dave Gobbett, Lead Pastor, Highfields Church Cardiff, writes: It is a great thrill to report the launch of a new gospel congregation in South Wales.

November 5th will be the date to remember as the first meeting of Penarth Evangelical Church (penarthchurch.org.uk), planted by Highfields Church, Cardiff. With a core team of around 30 led by three elders, between 70 and 80 people, young and old, mature believers and interested enquirers, are now gathering together each week, committed to Bible-believing, cross-preaching, soul-reaching, and community-creating life together.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jan 2024

Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster, who is orthodox on issues of sex and sexuality, and has been a leading voice opposing change, spoke to en.

She said: ‘Why should we leave? One of my heroes of church planting in the Polynesian islands was George Selwyn, an architect of the Anglican Communion. He had a compellingly pragmatic response to error: “But how, you will ask, shall the truth of doctrine be maintained if we tolerate in the mission field every form of error, and provide no safeguard for the purity of the faith? I answer that, as running water purifies itself, so Christian work is seen to correct its own mistakes.” I urge evangelicals to resist any intimidation, but instead to stay and contend for the gospel through the Church of England.’

Elizabeth Sims writes: On 16 September about 150 people met to give God praise and thanks for a new season in the life of West Kilburn Baptist Church (WKBC); the induction of Steve Palframan as the new pastor and the commissioning of our church revitalisation.

During the service, we recalled how over the past 2 years God had led us to this day. We gave God thanks for His gracious hand upon us whilst we were without a pastor and praised Him for the help and guidance of Johnny Prime and Trevor Archer from the FIEC.

A new statue called ‘Antelope’ has been unveiled on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London.

The artwork depicts Malawian pastor John Chilembwe standing next to a white pastor, John Chorley (see photo below, bottom left). Chilembwe came to faith in Christ in 1893 and was baptised on 17 July that year after getting to know Joseph Booth of the Zambesi Industrial Mission (now Zambesi Mission).

Dismay, anger and outrage from across the Church of England evangelical spectrum are greeting fresh proposals by bishops in relation to sexuality.

A majority of the C of E’s House of Bishops says it will commend its divisive ‘Prayers of Love and Faith’ for use with same-sex couples ‘in public worship’ such as Sunday services – while 11 have publicly dissented.

Nearly 90 church leaders from across London arrived at Stockwell Baptist Church on for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Church’s (FIEC) latest regular London Gathering.

The event is organised three times a year for church leaders (pastors, elders, women’s workers, and others) who are serving in FIEC churches and in other evangelical churches, groups and missions across London.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Nov 2023

Scripture Union is aiming for ‘at least’ 3,500 groups in just three to five years time as it embarks on a new nationwide initiative.

SU – a Christian charity for children and young people aiming to share the gospel – is beginning its new ‘Mission Possible’ nationwide tour.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Dec 2023

Evangelical churches in the UK have started to experience the impact of the significant increase in antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on 7 October.

A church in Bridgend recently received a lengthy message through its online contact form saying: ‘It has become apparent that you fall into the category of dangerous Christians on account of your attitude to the Jewish people who are the biggest usurpers in the history of mankind … And yet the evangelical Christian world idolises them as though it was a duty to do so …’

Nearly 1,000 church leaders from more than 500 churches across Britain have met at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool for FIEC’s annual Leaders’ Conference.

The theme for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches’ 2023 conference was the justice of God: what it means to follow and love the God of justice as He ultimately brings all things under Christ, the just and righteous ruler.

Students from the UK have formed a mission team with UCCF to Bulgaria for the first time in eight years.

A team of students from university CUs across the Midlands, led by two staff from UCCF (the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship), spent a fortnight teaching local students English while providing an opportunity to study God’s word with them.

Around 15% of the entire population of Ireland – if not more – may have engaged with the What’s The Story? mission held across the island.

Statistics released by the organisation behind the initiative state that out of a total population of 5.1million, of which only around 1% are currently evangelical believers:

Susie Leafe

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is growing. Not just because churches are joining or because new churches are being planted – but because God is at work in the lives of ordinary men and women who want to profess their newfound faith in the Lord Jesus.

In June, Trinity Church, Scarborough posted online some fantastic photos (some of which are show here) of a service where nine of their congregation were baptised, which prompted the question, to a WhatsApp group of ANiE leaders, of where else this was happening,

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

Churches and Christian organisations have spoken of their sadness and pain as the official report into well-known charismatic leader Mike Pilavachi said he displayed coercive and controlling behaviour at the church and had inappropriate relationships.

His actions included massaging young male interns and wrestling young men as he used his ‘spiritual authority to control people’.