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Phil Knox is head of gospel impact at the Evangelical Alliance, he preaches in a different church most weeks — congregations of ten and congregations of over a thousand, every denomination and background — and he sat down with Jamie in a studio in Belgravia the morning after speaking at St Michael’s. What comes out is part weather report on the UK church, part very practical nudge about your own address book. Note: Phil's talk will come next week. Are we in revival? No — “because if this is revival, then I’m really disappointed.” But Phil Knox is clear the weather has changed: not summertime, but springtime, after a long winter of decline. The evidence he trusts most isn’t a headline, it’s the Evangelical Alliance’s own research. When the EA went looking for 100 adults who had come to faith in the last five years, 280 came forward — and they ran it over the summer, when every church leader was on holiday. Asked what first prompted them to explore, the answers fell into three groups: they needed help with life; a Christian lived and talked well in front of them; or — and this is the one that stops you — 28% said it began with a spiritual experience. A dream. A compulsion to walk into a building they didn’t understand. The last comparable study, John Finney’s Finding Faith Today in 1992, put that number at 6%. As Phil puts it, that’s the closest thing he has to statistical evidence of a move of God. And it’s happening here, in the West — not just in the places we’re used to hearing those stories from. A second piece of EA research asked Christians what stops them sharing their faith. Some said they didn’t know how. But the single biggest answer was that they don’t have any non-Christian friends — 46% don’t know one well enough to invite them to church. Phil has been on a mission for years to raise the volume on friendship: “the most important, least talked about relationship in the world.” We preach on marriage, family and leadership; we barely mention friends. He is careful about the motive — we don’t become friends with people in order to convert them — and equally clear that it is through friendship that God does his best work. And Phil offers the most immediately useful thing in the episode for anyone who hovers awkwardly at the back of church holding a coffee cup. On the day of recording, the EA had just released Understanding UK Evangelicals, which he unpacks. He also looks at why young people are coming to faith, and how he shares the good news with his friends, and how church leaders can model it too. This episode is for: - anyone who wants to know what is actually happening in the UK church — without the hype or the doom - Christians who feel awkward about sharing their faith and suspect the real problem is their diary, not their doctrine - anyone who has ever stood holding a coffee cup at church with nobody to talk to - church leaders wondering how to build a culture of evangelism beyond running another programme - anyone praying for a friend who is hostile, cynical, or has been on the list for years Find Phil Knox: Instagram: @mrphilknox X: @philknox Phil’s articles for the Evangelical Alliance: eauk.org/author/phil-knox The Evangelical Alliance: eauk.org Understanding UK Evangelicals and the EA’s other research: eauk.org/resources/our-resources/reports Phil’s books (all IVP): Story Bearer: How to Share Your Faith with Your Friends — ivpbooks.com/story-bearer The Best of Friends: Choose Wisely, Care Well — ivpbooks.com/the-best-of-friends Good News People, with Gavin Calver — ivpbooks.com/good-news-people The Good News People podcast — Phil and Gavin Calver, with Premier: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/good-news-people/id1867753187 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1hD4MLKnBmI1nKEMfuxPOl Premier Plus: premier.plus/good-news-people More from the EA: eauk.org/what-we-do/initiatives/good-news-people Make sure to subscribe, and we’d love to see you on a Sunday soon.

What does it look like to have a heart that truly burns for Jesus? This message explores the invitation to ask Jesus to stay, allowing Him to move from guest to host as He feeds, shapes and equips us. As we gather around the Bible and the table together, our faith becomes more than information, preparing us to love, serve and share Jesus with those around us.

In our first vision talk for this academic year, Jamie asks how we can have a burning heart for Jesus. Jesus meets us on the ordinary roads of life, even when hope feels lost and we struggle to recognise Him. As He draws near, He invites us out of the stories keeping us stuck and into a greater vision filled with hope. A burning heart for Jesus isn’t something we manufacture, but something awakened through encountering Him. Wherever you are on the journey, Jesus can meet you there and set your heart alight again.

A first for us: this episode was recorded live, in the room, in front of the church — just after Dr Amy Orr-Ewing had finished speaking to us on forgiveness. It turns into one of the most wide-ranging conversations we’ve had on the podcast. You can catch up on Amy’s ‘Forgiveness’ talk here: https://youtu.be/OK2P7MBYzpA?si=Fl6veB1mKgTYsK6z We start with the question Amy’s Gen Z godson sent her after the tragedy at a Christian festival: how could something like this happen at a Christian event? Christian faith, she says, is the opposite of karma. It never draws the conclusion that a disaster was the sufferer’s fault, or that God doesn’t love them. It sets suffering inside a world where love required freedom, where we all live downstream of thousands of decisions — and where the last word is a God who wipes every tear away. Then to Westminster Hall in 2023, weeks after the Coronation, where Amy addressed the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast — with her father, who came to this country as a refugee, sitting in the room. She chose to talk about forgiveness, and she explains why she thinks it is Christianity’s most useful gift to a culture soaked in outrage and grievance. Crucially, forgiveness that doesn’t minimise harm. The church’s great mistake, she argues, has been letting forgiveness be weaponised against victims — telling the abused to forgive and quietly enabling the abuser. The cross says the opposite: the harm mattered enough to cost the death of the Son of God. Her advice for the rest of us — who will never get the platform of Westminster Hall, only the lift at work and the neighbour over the fence — is disarmingly practical. The middle of the episode is pure adventure. In 1996, aged 19, Amy and two Oxford friends got into Taliban-held Afghanistan on visas obtained through a student newspaper. Getting out was harder — a missed train that only ran twice a week, landmines on both sides of a kilometre of no man’s land, a sandstorm, and a failed bribe, but then something miraculous. Amy also opens up about recovering from trauma, and losing the ability to pray and what she did when she felt like a fraud. Finally, with St Michael’s in its own season of rebuilding, Amy has a word on opposition: expect it, because it’s normal and not evidence that God has left the building. And they speak about rumours of the Quiet Revival. Please note: this episode includes discussion of a recent tragedy, of trauma and therapy, and of abuse in religious settings. If you need support, go to: https://findahelpline.com This episode is for: • anyone wrestling with why God allows suffering — or being asked that question by someone they love • anyone who has been told to forgive in a way that felt like being silenced • Christians who want to speak about faith at work or with neighbours without going into broadcast mode • leaders in a dry season, or anyone who has lost the ability to pray and feels like a fraud for it • churches facing opposition mid-rebuild, and wondering how to be ready for people newly curious about faith Mentioned in this episode: Amy Orr-Ewing’s book Forgiveness: Reclaiming Its Power in a Culture of Outrage and Fear; Amy’s Substack piece: https://amyorrewing.substack.com/p/when-disaster-strikes You can also follow Amy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyorrewing Make sure to subscribe to this channel too, and we’d love to see you on a Sunday soon. https://stmichaelschestersquare.org/ https://www.instagram.com/stmichaelschestersquare/ https://www.tiktok.com/@st.michaels.chester.sqr

We live in a moment defined by division and cultural outrage – and forgiveness has never looked more impossible, or more beautiful. What does it actually mean to forgive – and where on earth does the power to do it come from?In this talk, Dr Amy Orr-Ewing takes us through Jesus' teaching on forgiveness, and makes the case that Christian forgiveness is nothing like the version we've inherited from the culture. It isn't "letting it go". It isn't pretending the harm didn't happen, or that it didn't cost you. Forgiveness begins by naming the debt – and the loss is real. She explains why "turn the other cheek" is an act of defiance rather than weakness, why forgiveness can be offered unconditionally while reconciliation still waits on repentance, and the extraordinary story of a mother who forgave the man who murdered her daughter – and eventually brought him home as her son. Forgiveness is a radical counterpoint to the spirit of the age, whichever side of the political divide we sit on. Not because we can manage it on our own – but because of a grace we could only ever receive. Amy joined us for our annual Sunday at Home. Stay tuned for the Equip Podcast episode with her later this week!

Almost fifty years ago, one of Jamie's predecessors, Charles Marnham, and his wife Tricia started a small group that would eventually grow into Alpha, the course now done by 38 million people around the world. Next year is the 50th anniversary, and Miles Toulmin is the one now overseeing it all globally. Miles shares his own story — coming to faith just before university, doing Alpha as a student at St Aldate's in Oxford, and then, as the new employee in an office, nervously inviting the one colleague at the desk next to him. She said yes, brought half the office along, came to faith, and ended up running Alpha in a maximum-security prison in Peru. Years later, after ordination and a being Associate Vicar at HTB, Miles planted a church in Kuala Lumpur that baptised on average two new believers a week, every week, for ten years. The heart of the conversation is a striking statistic: a Gallup poll found 4 million people in the UK know what Alpha is and want to do it — and the only reason they haven't is that no one has invited them. One in three people asked will say yes. So Miles turns practical: He explains why the biggest reason a course stalls is choosing the wrong small-group hosts (and why it shouldn’t be your keenest evangelist), why you mustn't skip the Holy Spirit day — the engine under the bonnet — and why prayer undergirds the whole thing. He shares the 'traffic light' way of integrating Alpha into a busy church. Looking ahead, Miles casts vision for a remade Alpha series built with and for Gen Z (launching 2027), a new schools edition of Alpha Youth, and contextualised versions being made for churches around the world — a fresh, generous, hospitable invitation to a country, and a generation, showing surprising signs of spiritual hunger. This episode is for: --church leaders wondering whether Alpha could become a genuine engine for their church, not just one more programme on the edge --anyone who's tried Alpha before and felt it didn't 'work' in their context --Christians who want to invite friends but aren't sure it's worth the risk of askingleaders reaching Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and anyone curious about the spiritual openness among young people right now --anyone who loves a good story of God turning an ordinary invitation into something extraordinary You can find out more at https://www.alpha.org/ You can follow Miles on Instagram at @mtoulmin https://www.instagram.com/mtoulmin/?hl=en Make sure to subscribe, and we'd love to see you on a Sunday soon. https://stmichaelschestersquare.org/ https://www.instagram.com/stmichaelschestersquare/ https://www.tiktok.com/@st.michaels.chester.sqr

God’s goodness and love aren’t distant promises. They pursue us through every season, even the darkest ones. As we stop striving and learn to receive His love, we discover the freedom to trust Him, rest in His presence and live from a place of overflow rather than lack.

God is not a distant shepherd. He presides over us, pursues us when we wander, and provides for us in every season. As we learn to trust His care, we can let go of worry, stay close to Him and His people, and seek His kingdom first.

Jamie Mulvaney sits down with Joel Burden — church leader of Saints KL and a branding expert — for a conversation about the one thing he reckons church leaders get wrong most often: trying to be like everyone else. As church after church springs up on every corner and social feed, the pressure to copy the bigger, shinier church down the road is huge. Joel's answer is to slow down and go one level deeper — to uncover what God is uniquely doing in your church, because there is no other church quite like it in the world. You can find out more about Joel and his work here: https://www.saints.my/ https://www.cloudcut.co/ Joel tells his own story too — moving from Sheffield to Malaysia at twenty-two with his wife, a small team and not much more than a suitcase, planting a church from scratch in a completely different culture. Eleven years on, it's thriving. His conviction, looking back, is that the anxiety over whether it would all work was misplaced: God had already gone before, already prepared the people and charted the path. The leader's job isn't to make everything come together — it's simply to be obedient and walk into it. From there the conversation turns practical about the digital world. A church, Joel says, is not a bulletin board — social media done well isn't a one-way broadcast of names and dates, but a conversation that creates value first, much like a sermon that earns its call to action at the end. He unpacks why consistency beats bursts of effort, why it's a bit like sowing seeds, why 'no one cares as much as you' about how you look, and why people ultimately follow people, not organisations — which may mean the leader has to become the face. Along the way he shares how the C3 global network of 600+ churches lets leaders learn fast from one another, and how a simple idea borrowed and re-contextualised — the 'Dinner Parties' model — reshaped small groups at Saints KL. And for any leader who feels stuck imitating others, or facing a future that looks unknown, Joel points to two things a busy ministry throws out fastest: space and prayer. Space to look up and see what God is doing right under your nose, and prayer to ask him to set a fresh fire in your heart for it. This episode is for: church leaders feeling the pressure to look like the bigger, shinier church down the road anyone trying to work out what makes their church unique — and how to build around it rather than copy others pastors and teams wanting to use social media as a conversation, not a bulletin board leaders tempted to give up online because nothing they post seems to be landing anyone stepping into an unknown future in ministry who needs to trust that God has already gone before them Make sure to subscribe, and we'd love to see you on a Sunday soon. https://www.stmichaelschestersquare.org https://www.instagram.com/stmichaelschestersquare/ https://www.tiktok.com/@st.michaels.chester.sqr

Though we live in a world marked by fear, suffering and death, we are not powerless because Christ has overcome sin and death and leads us into life and peace. His presence gives us courage, His care keeps us close, and His victory reminds us that we belong to Him.

Jamie Mulvaney sits down with Dr Belle Tindall-Riley — editor of Mockingbird, podcaster, and author of The Sacred Ache — for a conversation that begins in the healing fields of Glastonbury and ends up somewhere far more surprising. In a culture where people are hiring Etsy witches, consulting the stars instead of therapists, and capitalising the U in Universe, Belle asks a beautifully disarming question: what if every spiritual craving — however misdirected — is actually pointing somewhere true? Belle unpacks what she calls the ‘sacred ache’: the cosmic neediness that Augustine named, that C.S. Lewis felt, and that millions of people today are desperately trying to fill with manifestation, astrology, crystals, and energy healing. Rather than rolling her eyes or sounding the alarm, Belle does something rarer — she takes each practice seriously, traces the longing underneath it, and then gently shows where Christianity has been saying the same thing about our desires all along, only better. The conversation gets into why witchcraft is having a feminist moment, what it really means that all we see is not all there is, why the Universe (capital U) is emotional self-protection, and the one thing Belle refused to write a chapter on. This episode is for: anyone with friends who manifest, read their birth chart, or describe themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’ Christians who want to engage the culture around them without dismissing or demonising it those curious about why Britain feels increasingly pre-Christian — and what that opens up anyone who's ever felt that restless ache and not quite had words for it readers looking for their next book recommendation (and a great one to give away) Belle’s book The Sacred Ache is available now. You can read her writing at ⁠mbird.com⁠ and ⁠seenandunseen.com⁠  And make sure to subscribe — we'd love to see you on a Sunday soon. ⁠https://stmichaelschestersquare.org/⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/stmichaelschestersquare/ https://www.tiktok.com/@st.michaels.chester.sqr

True rest isn’t found in escaping life, but in the presence of God. Psalm 23 reveals a Shepherd who finds us when we wander, carries us home, and provides what we cannot provide for ourselves. Our security isn’t in how tightly we hold onto God, but in how faithfully He holds onto us.

What does it really mean for God to be our Good Shepherd? The freedom of trusting God as our provider, letting go of self-sufficiency and believing that He will see to our needs. When anxiety tells us we have to figure everything out ourselves, we’re invited instead to know His voice, follow Him and trust His care.

In the storms of life, it’s easy to wonder if Jesus has forgotten you. This message reminds us that even when obedience feels costly and progress seems slow, Jesus sees every act of faith, every struggle, and every prayer. Discover how true success is found not in visible results, but in faithful obedience, trusting that Jesus will come at just the right time and lead you safely through.

We explore the difference between seeking what Jesus can give and seeking Jesus Himself. Through the feeding of the five thousand, we see that God can multiply what feels small, provide abundantly, and use every part of our lives. Yet the deeper invitation is not simply to receive the bread, but to know the One who alone can satisfy our deepest hunger.