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What we’ve learnt about welcoming young adults
Equipping People began as a church plant of the New Covenant Church UK in 2015. Our vision is to raise a generation, mostly of young adults, who are passionate about life-transformation, directed in their discipleship and feel equipped as leaders to serve their communities. As people join our…
Akinola Abiona
Dare to have the difficult conversations
Watching our words is a principle many of us take seriously, and with good reason. When it comes to difficult conversations, however, it can become something of an excuse to avoid speaking out or a shield to protect us from being misheard. This has been especially true when it comes to having…
Jo Frost
Three top tips for encouraging interactivity
As a young person, I hated it when this happened in a church service. In fact, I would actively avoid it. You’d most likely have found my eyes up at the ceiling, pretending I didn’t hear until the person sat next to me had found a new conversation partner. But now, as a young adult, I really…
Praying for strangers: good news people in one-off encounters
It all started with a dream. A friend texted to tell me he had a dream in which I was sharing faith with strangers. Up to that point, these encounters had been few, but this encouragement felt like God nudging me to step out in a new way. I regularly run and walk around my community, and one…
Phil Knox
Are you training for the mission field?
American sports broadcaster Bob Costas once said, “The best thing about sports is the sense of community and shared emotion it can create.” We can see the truth of that statement in many ways, whether it’s about following a team, watching a sports game, or even participating in it. There’s no…
Carolyn Skinner
Three ways your church can support mental health amid the unlocking
“Kate (not her real name) is a member of my church. She’s been a Christian for many years and has also suffered with her mental health all that time. A lifeline for her during the pandemic has been the Renew Wellbeing group that has run on Monday mornings, either on Zoom or in person, according to…
Helen Locke
Salt and light in a mental health crisis
In the Queen’s speech, which marked the opening of a new session of parliament, the issue was addressed as the Government set out its Mental Health Recovery Action Plan. There will be a one-off targeted investment of £500 million to ensure that support is in place over the coming year for everyone…
Jo Evans
Start with your street
Jesus’ instruction in the great commission to “go” is often met with good intentions, even zeal. Sadly, that enthusiasm can soon go out with a bit of a whimper in the face of the question, “but how?”. According to a recent survey by the Evangelical Alliance, the biggest barrier to witnessing is…
Martin Graham
Confessions of a hypocritical pro-lifer
Polls suggest that most people (women in particular) oppose such a move, and as one who affirms the value of human life both before and after birth, I am relieved that this is the case. As one who cares about how we might better host diversity of thought and belief in public life, I have been…
Damilola Makinde
Students, go and be the light!
One of the most memorable conversations I had about Jesus at university was with one of my second-year housemates. She was going through a time in her life where she was struggling with a lot of anxiety, and she asked me, “why are you not scared of death?” This question gave me a chance to share my…
Suzanna Ling
Yorkshire puddings for breakfast: the importance of preparing our youth for university
Sunday, September 20th, 2015. With a car full of absolutely ridiculous items (seriously, why did I take a rolling pin to university?), my parents and I set off for Norwich to begin the next chapter of my life. I was 18 years old, straight out of school, and had signed up for three years at the…
Sam Brown
Are you a mental health friendly church?
The state of the nation’s mental health doesn’t make for easy reading. Rates of depression have doubled since the beginning of the pandemic, one in six children between the ages of five and 16 are thought to have a mental illness, and suicide rates have been rising since 2018. Such stark and…
Rachael Newham
Reaching the 99 in our local schools
A few years ago, Scripture Union released some challenging research that indicated over 95 per cent of young people in the UK were not connected to a local church. We also know that 99 per cent of young people in the UK engage in mainstream education in some form. I believe that if we truly want to…
Pete Baker
Have we forgotten the secret weapon of scripture?
Let’s consider the evidence. We know from the 2015 Talking Jesus research that engagement with the Bible is one of the main ways in which people come to faith. Yet around 60% of the population never read the Bible at all. Those non-churchgoers who might be interested in reading it don’t know where…
Paul Williams
Public Leader Scotland: Back for our fifth year
Our vision for Public Leadership here at the Evangelical Alliance is to transform our four nations of the UK over the next 30 years through having a generation of Christians leaders living out their public faith by being true salt and light in their work across all sectors. We believe these…
Chris Ringland