Carl Knightly
Carl Knightly is director of church networks at London City Mission, a 186 year old charity focused on supporting churches in urban gospel outreach. Prior to this Carl was the CEO of Faith in Later Life, following a role on the leadership team at Pilgrims’ Friend Society.
Carl is a trustee at Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) UK and is also a speaker and commentator in the Christian media.
The world needs good neighbours
27 September 2022Against the backdrop of today’s western post-Christian society, what is love? Those of you who enjoyed pop music in the 90s will know a singer called Haddaway attempted to answer that very question, and there have been many musicians, philosophers and writers before and after him who have reflected on that question too. God is love As Christians, God calls us to love our neighbour, and the command to do so is mentioned at least eight times in the Bible, with many more references to loving one…
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Commission impossible? Simple ways your church can share Jesus now
16 March 2022While the pandemic will have affected some churches’ attendance and even their existence, churches are still spread across the UK, many are growing (my church added 100 members last summer) and they are often uniquely placed at the heart of communities. As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, if the last two years have taught society anything it is that life is precious and not to be taken for granted, and that everyone needs hope – the hope that we know is only found in Jesus. The last two…
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Older people and the emerging hybrid church
15 April 2021I recently had a video call with my friend Betty from church, who is 100 and lives in a care home. She was in good spirits and knows a closeness with the Lord that comes from many decades of following Him. Something she said really struck a chord with me: “there’s a difference between living and simply existing”. As Betty observed, many older people have felt as though they have merely existed for the last year, when they couldn’t leave their homes or receive visitors. Even before lockdown, 5…
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Four safe ways to bless older people this Christmas
25 November 2020This Christmas will be unlike any we have seen for generations. Many older people may be unable to spend time with family or friends due to the coronavirus pandemic, others will be mourning the loss of a loved one, and there will be people everywhere feeling lonely, fearful, forgotten, and frustrated by the need to shield or self isolate. This is a difficult season and we cannot underestimate the pressure on the emotional, mental, and physical health of all of us, especially our elderly…
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Equally precious in God's sight
24 June 2020My mother and another aunt were both allowed to attend the funeral but they chose not to. My aunt has underlying health conditions and my mother was understandably anxious about the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the process of leaving the house. Herein lies a distressing consequence of coronavirus: hundreds of thousands of older people with underlying health conditions have been advised by the Government to not leave their homes; and of those older people who are ‘allowed’ to leave their…
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