Gavin Calver
Gavin Calver is the CEO of the Evangelical Alliance. He has a burning passion to see the church working together to share the Gospel throughout the UK. Formerly the leader of Youth for Christ and chair of Spring Harvest, he’s an ordained evangelist and regular public speaker, and has authored six books. Married to Anne, they have two children, Amelie and Daniel. He loves new challenges, is a passionate AFC Wimbledon supporter and was part of the team that broke the World Record for the longest 5-a-side football match.
Prayer, faith and witness
30 April 2020Driving back from speaking at Gold Hill Baptist Church on Sunday, 15 March, there was a strange sense in my gut that things were about to change. The media stories were growing and the idea that things were about to become less free was increasingly clear. Within days, everything was being live streamed and Zoom or Skype had quickly become a friend to all. We have entered a new season, and in these days, these first few months for me of ministering as CEO at the Evangelical Alliance, we are…
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What's stopping us?
11 March 2020We were having a great week and being blown away by all the Lord was doing. The theme of ‘Only the Brave’ exploring determined discipleship from the book of James was having a huge impact on the event and we were settling down to hear another message. The diminutive figure of Hae Woo unassumingly made her way onto the stage. She was being interviewed by our friends from Open Doors, Eddie Lyle and Emma Worrall. Nothing in our ministry up to this point had quite prepared us for the challenge that…
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Junction moments
25 July 2018Prior to coming to serve at the Evangelical Alliance, I spent 14 years working for Youth for Christ. I loved seeing many young people come to faith and was constantly encouraged by the overwhelming percentage of people in the UK who do so under the age of 25. I was also quite taken with an image from Wes Stafford (Compassion USA) that, when it comes to evangelism, young people are like ‘wet cement’ and older people are ‘dry cement.’ In other words: it’s a lot easier to make a profound impact on…
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Don't leave Jesus in the manger
27 December 2017I love Christmas. It’s an amazing time of fun, celebration, food and joy. More than anything else it’s the moment when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and it’s been amazing these last few weeks to remember the Saviour of the world being born in Bethlehem. Those around us seem so much more interested to hear about Jesus at Christmas, making it an incredible opportunity to share the Gospel in a way that seems more natural than the rest of the year. It’s a season when most people are used to…
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Where have all the teenagers gone?
20 February 2017Recent research showed that 86% of those who become Christians in the UK do so under the age of twenty-five (Evangelical Alliance, Time for Discipleship?, 7). This shows the huge need for evangelistic youth ministry and the incredible potential it possesses. The difficult and disengaging teenagers in your community right now could, with the right investment, go on to be tomorrow’s Christian heroes. It’s interesting to look through the pages of church history and see the ages at which many of…
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Ashamed of the Gospel?
29 September 2016The UK church can often seem to have lost some of its confidence in the gospel. This is very unlike Paul, who says in Romans 1:14–16:"I'm obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Paul wouldn't need reminding that he was required to share his faith in every context. Many might say:…
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