Eve Paterson
Eve is a military kid and Durham Theology graduate, who spent a year studying graphic design before joining the Evangelical Alliance in 2017. She is passionate about creativity, seeing God's kingdom come, and anything that involves cheese and/or gin. Nomadic at heart, Eve currently lives in Andover and commutes into London to work alongside the dream team at 176. She is insistent that ‘forward planning’ is the sixth official love language and, as such, runs the behind-the-scenes of greatcommission.co.uk, ensuring the UK church is equipped to share Jesus wherever we are.
Do you remember?
18 December 2020But many of us know that this isn’t the only form of worship that we have in our toolkit as disciples. When singing is off the table, it doesn’t mean that worship is as well. It’s actually a brilliant opportunity to rethink what worship means to us. One concept that has stood out to me in recent months is the idea of remembering. Throughout God’s word, God’s people were asked to remember the good things He had done for them, to tell them to their children, write them on their door posts, gather…
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Will you share yours?
11 March 2020Alongside his research and resourcing at the Evangelical Alliance, Phil has also been carefully putting into words the passion he has always felt for sharing Jesus and sharing stories. His first book, Story Bearer, encourages all Christians, whatever age and life stage, to treasure their story and to learn how to articulate it for the growth of God’s kingdom.Phil, you’ve created some powerful spoken word pieces in the past, particularly the ‘Instead of You’ video you made for Great Commission…
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Unity, truth and reconciliation - the foundations of the future
12 December 2019From my experience, New Zealand was an incredibly welcoming and inclusive country. Everywhere we went – despite the vast number of other tourists – we were received with warmth and kindness. I was shocked, therefore, when I learnt more about the country’s history and the journey that they’ve been on to create the culture they carefully foster today.For the first few days of our trip, we stayed in the North Island, just a few minutes’ drive from Waitangi Treaty Ground. In my naivety, I had no…
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Fear silence, not doubt
10 October 2019Turkish author and activist Elif Shafak was in conversation with writer and feminist Sam Baker about Elif’s latest book 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World. Sam started by asking typical questions about Elif’s writing process, how she creates her characters, and what deeper issues she might have been addressing through the novel.It quickly emerged that Elif had been exiled from Turkey as a result of – what has been viewed by the government as – controversial writing, in particular,…
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D-Day: preparing the way
6 June 2019What my grandad didn’t know was that his older brother, Ron, had been on the MMS28 in the preceding days, sweeping through those very same waters to check for Nazi minefields. Having had little to no contact during the war, the brothers couldn’t have known each other’s whereabouts, but as happenstance would have it my grandad’s older brother was looking out for him and preparing the way. I will never fully understand the fear that my grandad must have experienced 75 years ago as he arrived in…
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How to Simply Eat
3 April 2019Just a few months after its release, it’s amazing to be able to see the path that Simply Eat is already carving, and the legacy it is leaving. If you’ve not got your copy yet, or you've had a read and want to know how you could put it into practice, here are some of my tips and reflections:Change starts at home When I first read Simply Eat, I’ll admit that I felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer wealth of opportunities we have to share food and faith. There were so many ideas, and the beauty…
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Born in the age of the internet
14 March 2019Ronald Reagan was handing over to George H. W. Bush, the UK had its first female Prime Minister, and Trump was hosting the Tour de Trump – America’s response to the Tour de France. We can all recognise that the world has changed dramatically in the last thirty years, and not just politically, and without conflating cause and effect, the internet has played a large part in this. I should admit that I was born in 1995 so have no experience of a world in which the internet is not seemingly the…
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Christmas: Our co-mission with God
17 December 2018Have you ever had something not quite go to plan? One morning, when I was no more than eight, I decided to surprise my family by baking them a cake for breakfast. With an overzealous amount of Nutella and mashed banana, and a total lack of any raising or binding agents, I popped my Franken-cake in the oven. But as anyone who has ever baked a cake can imagine, it turned out nothing like I’d hoped. Someone who can quite definitely relate to this feeling is Joseph. He’d planned to marry Mary,…
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Top tips for an ethical Christmas
20 November 2018Start small To create long-lasting change in any area, it’s key not to start everything at once. When God changes things in us, He is slow and gentle, drawing us towards intimacy with Him and a better way of living. The same should be true in our walk towards loving His creation better. You could start by swapping non-recyclable wrapping paper for brown parcel paper that can easily be recycled. If you want to spruce it up, why not write words of encouragement on it? Small, achievable, changes…
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Great Commission to share Jesus at CRE
3 September 2018That’s why I’m so excited that we’re going to be running three seminars at the Christian Resources Exhibition, a three-day event that shares our vision of working together to get the very best inspiration and innovation for the UK church. Individual members of the Evangelical Alliance can get their tickets to CRE for free!
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Jesus' great commission: we all can fulfil it
29 August 2018Born out of a desire to equip the UK church for mission, Great Commission has shared story after story of people stepping out in their context, sharing their faith and making Jesus known. Now two years in, we’re certainly not done yet. It can sometimes feel like evangelism is best left to the professionals or those who seem to have all the right answers, but Matthew 28 reassures us that God wants all of us to be involved in spreading the gospel. We’ve seen this time and again through stories…
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