Phil Knox
Phil Knox is an evangelism and missiology senior specialist at the Evangelical Alliance and is trying to be a good friend. His book on the subject, The Best of Friends, was published on 16 February 2023. You can read his first book, Story Bearer at www.storybearer.com
Three practical ideas for evangelism during lockdown
30 April 2020But it is also hard. Many churches are grieving and comforting one another through grief and bereavement. Most churches’ income has been impacted by an absence of hall lettings, conference bookings and the fact you can’t pass around a virtual Sunday collection plate. We do need to continue to look inwards and look after those in our church families. But we must not stop looking outwards even though the landscape upon which our eyes fall has dramatically changed. These are times when, perhaps…
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Three reasons why right now is the best time to share your faith
25 March 2020First, the extremity of the change it’s made to my life. My days and weeks used to have tangible, recognisable markers, familiar rhythms and reassuring milestones. School runs, work routines, takeaway on Friday, football on Saturday, church on Sunday; these are the sort of landmarks that have become imbedded in so many of our lives. And now most of us are rightly confined to our postcodes, clutching at any kind of structure to find a new normal. Second is the uncertainty of wondering how long…
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The contagiousness of hope
10 March 2020The conversation in coffee shops, colleges, corner shops and the corridors of power is how to stop it spreading – because powerful things spread. And they do so most potently and quickly through networks of relational connection. 2014 saw an outbreak of the Ebola virus that tragically killed many people, especially in West Africa. The BBC reported the potential threat to the UK at the time and stated that, “The Department of Health said a man had been tested for Ebola in Birmingham but tests…
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Reaching young adults: a journey of hope, not despair
11 September 2019Growing up at a time of global instability in the wake of a digital revolution was always going to make sociological and cultural waves. The effect of these are identified and analysed in a huge piece of research released on Tuesday by Barna Group and World Vision. Faith for the Future surveyed more than 15,000 respondents across 25 countries to better understand their values and their relationship to faith. The research does identify a number of challenges. But there are also some very good…
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Angels on our streets
7 August 2019It all started in a stuffy church meeting. We were discussing plans for our church’s 50th birthday. I was 25 years old, idealistic and not particularly designed to sit still in church meetings. Frustrated by the predictable plans for a church birthday celebration involving quiche, a quiz and a few party poppers, without any forethought I stood up and said, ‘What if our celebration wasn’t just for us, but for our whole community?’ So in 2009 we bought 3000 mugs, delivered one to every home in…
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Spoiler alert... Jesus wins
2 May 2019Caleb is growing up in an age when entertainment is instant. He cannot fathom a time when there were four TV channels, a few hours of children’s TV a day, and ‘on demand’ viewing consisted of putting a black box full of tape into a machine and listening to it whir as it wound to the start of the programme. But even in our world of virtually unlimited entertainment, where you can customise your viewing to have what you want whenever you want it, there are some shared viewing experiences. I spent…
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Finding the ‘missing generation’
29 April 2019If only I were able to tell you that we all had spent the last couple of decades doing just that. Today, I don’t know where most of my peers are at in their walk with Jesus, but I do know there are only a handful of us still going to church. Zoom out from this snapshot and see a wider panorama where a decade ago we began to label young adults as a ‘missing generation’ in our churches. The statistics around church attendance among young adults and the stories break my heart. Because I love the…
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The church is the hope for a hurting generation
11 February 2019These days, I barely go a day without checking news sites or current affairs and sports finding me as I thumb through social media feeds. And as the flickering pixels hit my eyes, there are some stories that make me laugh, some that make me feel warm inside, and others that provoke nothing more than mild indifference. But occasionally there is one that hits me like a punch in the stomach. Last week I clicked on such an article, and this is what it said: “The number of young people in the UK…
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Andy Murray: lessons from a sporting great
17 January 2019In the depths of winter, amidst the frosty mornings and shortened hours of daylight, it can be difficult to remember the feel of the British summer. But, if you close your eyes for a moment, you can take yourself there, to the smell of burgers sizzling on a barbeque, the sight of morning sunlight bursting through the curtains, and the sound of racquet on ball (accompanied by the occasionally grunt) from Wimbledon. And part and parcel of our country’s love affair with Wimbledon is the tendency…
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Christmas: The proximity of Emmanuel
13 December 2018Proximity. Noun. Nearness in space, time or relationship. Immanuel. Noun. God is with us. As human beings we are made with an inbuilt awareness of how close is too close. We ideally like to keep strangers at least three metres away. We feel comfortable with acquaintances coming as close as one metre away. Closer still is the acceptable distance for good friends and family of around 50cm, before we reach the most intimate of spaces that we reserve for those few people closest to us. When our…
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No ordinary church service: teens take their stand in Jesus
17 September 2018But every so often, there are those that leave us knowing that things will not be the same again, where we have encountered God in such a compelling and authentic way that our lives are profoundly and irreversibly changed. I went to one of these services last Sunday. The service filled me with such hope, that I have not stopped talking about it since. It created in me a fresh enthusiasm for the work I do, made me evermore grateful for the next generation, and left me wanting to punch the air…
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