Our history

The motto of the Evangelical Alliance when it was founded was: "We are one body in Christ", and unity was the key principle. By the end of 1846, the Evangelical Alliance had 3,000 members.

A memorial after the trip from the Executive Council read: "They place on record their deep sense of obligation to the King of Prussia for the personal interest which he has manifested in the wrongs endured by his subjects who have suffered from the operation of intolerant laws, and the enlightened and liberal views by which he has guided the recent measures of his government in relation to this subject."

When the delegation arrived in Vienna they found that the Emperor was at his Hungarian palace and embarked on further travel by horse-drawn carriage.

They eventually managed to secure agreement that meeting for worship and Bible study in Bohemia would be permitted.

The Russian revolution was seen as a great threat by European Alliances, who joined forces to support Orthodox and other Christians in the Soviet Union. Having become general secretary of the British Organisation at the age of 30 in 1904, H. Martyn Gooch took on an ‘ambassadorial role’ in the 1920s and 1930s in support of European evangelicals, travelling extensively.

During World War II, the Evangelical Alliance was once again at the forefront of national prayer, organising a number of large rallies. The Evangelical Alliance organised large-scale monthly prayer meetings for the war, attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and was actively involved in supporting refugees from Europe. The prayer meetings had an average attendance of 2,500.

An estimated two million attended events at 15,000-capacity Harringay Arena. The rally was supposed to run for four weeks, but ended up being extended to three months. Around 120,000 people came to the last night of the crusade at Wembley stadium. Demand was so high that the Evangelical Alliance had to organise an overflow rally for some 55,000 people at White City.

During the crusade, Dr Graham employed his trademark style of preaching the gospel in an accessible way before inviting people to make a response in an altar call. Thousands did.

This decision to provide significant finances towards the crusades was to cripple the Evangelical Alliance financially as they spent so much money on the crusades and the follow-up work that they used up all their reserves. But the popularity of the Graham Scotland crusade the following year brought in much-needed funds and the Evangelical Alliance was brought back from the brink of extinction.

Challenges also came from a disagreement over whether evangelicals should stay within mixed denominations or whether they should withdraw. A public disagreement between John Stott and Martin Lloyd-Jones at a conference organised by the Evangelical Alliance in 1966 resulted in the Evangelical Alliance losing some members and for a number of years the organisation was less active than it had been in the 1940s and 1950s.

At 34, Clive Calver was one of the youngest general secretarys in the history of the Evangelical Alliance. Clive arrived at the Evangelical Alliance from Youth for Christ where he had been director since 1974, as well as being involved in local, national and international church contexts.

During his tenure, Clive encouraged the increasing diversity of the Evangelical Alliance membership and worked hard to deepen evangelical unity, increased unity in prayer across the church and the enabling of Christians to act as salt and light in society. He wrote in Christianity Today in December 1996, "As evangelicals have begun to depart from an inherited policy of self-imposed isolation they have emerged from their comfortable ghettos to grapple with the needs of contemporary society."

There was a significant increase in membership of the Evangelical Alliance under Clive's leadership. In the early 1980s individual membership stood at between 900 and 1,000 and church membership stood at less that 1,000. By the mid-1990s, individual membership had increased to 56,000 and church membership had increased to almost 3,000.

By the time Clive stood down as general secretary in 1997 the profile and posture of evangelical Christianity had altered significantly from it's mid-century stance. Evangelical renewal and growth had given the community greater confidence and profile with which to enter the oncoming new millennium.

In 1987 the Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland office opened in Belfast, followed in 1989 by the Evangelical Alliance Wales, established by Arfon Jones as an intentionally bilingual organisation with the aim of encouraging unity amongst evangelicals in Wales. Finally in 1992 Evangelical Alliance Scotland launched, aiming to provide “a framework for evangelicals throughout the country to unite in prayer, mission and active concern for our country.”

In 1988 Joel Edwards appointed as general director of the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance, before going on to become general director of the Evangelical Alliance.

During his tenure at ACEA, Joel demonstrated the transforming power of Christ in communities and built bridges between ACEA and churches in the UK, work that he continued to do as general director of the Evangelical Alliance.

As the Evangelical Alliance's first black Pentecostal general director, Joel navigated a new route into re-branding the Evangelical Alliance and re-positioning evangelical witness in the 21st century. He facilitated an evangelicalism that journeyed more deeply into the public square, creating partnerships and engaging in the times without losing its soul.

Seeking to close the distance between the right and left of evangelical constituencies, Joel believed that unity would be the key to spiritual and social transformation. Through leading initiatives on evangelical mission, social engagement and societal values such as respect and tolerance, Joel presented Christ credibly in the media and in parliament by blending grace and truth. As a regular broadcaster on Radio 4, a member of the Black Christian Leaders Forum, chair of the Churches Media Council and co-founder of Micah Challenge International, he campaigned for government action against poverty, rallied the Church to respond to rising violence in the UK and brought attention to evangelicals in secular spheres.

In his 11 years as general director, Joel was awarded an honorary doctorate from St Andrew's University, received the title of honorary canon at St Paul's Cathedral and was appointed a commissioner for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

On leaving the Evangelical Alliance he wrote, "People should recognise us as good news citizens who are integral to our communities and the public square. Our future as evangelicals is to be at the heart of long-term spiritual and social transformation for our society."

Steve arrived with a mandate to promote and encourage unity within the diversity of the UK church, and with a passion to support healthy conversation, including in disagreement.

Speaking to idea magazine before taking up the post, Steve said: "I think the challenge I'd love to put out there is that if we're going to disagree, let's disagree well. Let's sit in the room and work hard, grapple with these issues, and let's respectfully hear each other, believing the best of each other. These are the things scripture exhorts us to do. Paul writing to the Corinthian church, where there were things that needed to be sorted out, speaks strongly to them as a father and as an apostle. But in the heart of that epistle the challenge that he brings to them is to love each other. And I think that the challenge for us is to relate to each other as God relates to us, even in the midst of our disagreements."

In January 2011 the Evangelical Alliance launched the first in a series of ground-breaking reports on the beliefs and habits of evangelicals in the UK. The aim of the research was to provide churches and Christian organisations with data that would help them better understand and work with the communities they serve. Steve Clifford wrote in the foreward: "By presenting an accurate picture of evangelicals today, we can be much better equipped to make effective plans for tomorrow."

Throughout 2010 around 17,000 people completed questionnaires at Christian festivals for the initial survey, including questions on the environment, volunteering, miracles, prayer, giving, women in leadership and evolution. Since the publication of that report multiple other surveys have been carried out on specific topics such as belief and society, communication, money, church life, the family, discipleship, evangelism, politics and poverty.

Gather is an national network of vibrant unity movements in towns and cities across the UK. It exists to network and equip groups of churches and Christian organisations working together with a heart for their local areas.

Gather offers teaching via articles and seminars that encourage best practice and innovative ways of doing unity and mission together. The network encourages shared practice and the sharing of stories from across the nation as an inspiration and stimulus for other cities and towns to follow and offers links to partnership organisations that work with churches in towns and cities in missional contexts.

Gather encourages new and innovative ways for working together for the transformation of our towns and cities through civic gospel initiatives with borough councils, business, media, health, arts as well as through the local church.

Following extensive consultation and relationship-building with key leaders, the Evangelical Alliance established the One People Commission (OPC). This is a body within the Evangelical Alliance made up of key national church leaders committed to celebrating ethnicity, while promoting unity within the UK evangelical Church.

Around 90 politicians and faith leaders from across Scotland gathered for the launch event at Holyrood, in which the Alliance also announced it would be hosting hustings in seven cities around Scotland, bringing together high-profile MSPs for debates ahead of the referendum in September. The response was overwhelming, with the team invited by both churches and politicians to discuss the future of the nation.

Partnering with Summer Madness and 24/7 Prayer, the Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland produced 100: Our Story of Healing, Honour and Hope - a collection of interviews and articles reflecting on one hundred years since the events of 1916, and looking forward to a hope-filled story for the next one hundred years.

Among a wide variety of features the magazine included interviews with the first minister Arlene Foster and deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, the attorney general for Northern Ireland, John Larkin and Ulster Rugby player, Ruan Pienaar.

Other contributors included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, former Lord Mayor of Belfast, Nichola Mallon, and photo essays of the art-works of the Bogside artists and Ross Wilson.

Greatcommission.co.uk was designed to inspire a passion for evangelism and empower individuals and churches to be talking about Jesus. The website brings together a variety of stories about people who have come to faith and also stories of different ways Christians have shared their faith.

Users can search for resources to use dependent on who they want to reach, what type of activity they'd like to start or using a specific season or festival in the year. There are resources designed to meet a range of understandings of Jesus – for those who know a lot about Jesus but haven't made a commitment to become a Jesus-follower, and for those who are just beginning on their journey of discovery of the Christian faith.

The Evangelical Alliance believed that the Christian faith has provided the foundations for a flourishing society based on love, truth, freedom and justice. The resource asked, what do we want and how do we best communicate what we want? What kind of society? was designed to provoke and address these questions and to get the church started with what it needs to practically cast a vision and be a voice for the good of all.

Launching a year after the referendum on membership of the European Union, What kind of society? sought to address big questions in a time of political and social turbulence. It also provided the foundation of the Evangelical Alliance's contribution to the national conversation around the snap general election.

More than 300 delegates from churches, charities and Christian organisations across the UK attended the Evangelical Alliance’s inaugural Above and Beyond conference on 20 February 2018, held to support churches and charities gain more clarity and insight on regulation and law, and how to navigate the challenges, maintain compliance and thrive.

Expert speakers from organisations that specialise in the charity and faith-based sectors, as well as a prominent member of parliament, gave keynote presentations, led seminars and participated in a panel discussion.

The day-long event saw representatives from law firms, a PR and communications agency, and a Christian charity talk across a selection of pertinent subjects, including General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), gospel-shaped governance, the Equality Act 2010, the culture of money in the church,
working with the Charity Commission, and safeguarding.

At the conference, which was supported by Stewardship, Fiona Bruce MP spoke heartfelt words of encouragement in her keynote address entitled 'The contribution of faith groups to civil society'. She pointed to the recognition MPs (Christians and non-Christians alike) gave to Christian organisations making a difference in communities across the UK, and emphasised the importance of retaining the freedom to practice our Christian faith.

Referencing Romans 10, Fiona concluded with the following call to action: “Our Christian faith needs to
be lived out practically; it can be a real force for good. We need to be as clear and outspoken as our forebears in making Jesus known. The great commission is to bring the message of eternal life to people who are hurting, lonely and vulnerable through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go to see your MPs and tell them of the work you are doing and why. They will be pleased to speak up for you.”

As part of the Evangelical Alliance's commitment to church unity, mission and advocacy, it continues to seek to support Christians and the UK church to share Jesus and speak up for Him in society. The Great Commission hub, the South Asian Forum and the One People Commission continue to serve the cause of unity and mission. Speak Up, Public Leadership and the Evangelical Alliance's public policy work continues to equip Christians to engage with society and be a voice for good. Our national offices in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales continue to serve the church in their nations, equipping and inspiring Christians in unity, mission and advocacy.

Explore more of what we're up to.

These resources seek to inspire and equip Christians to faithfully live for Jesus in their workplaces. The resources include tips for sharing the gospel and information on their legal rights and freedoms in the work context as well as tackle conscience issues Christians may face in the workplace, and where to seek support and accountability. Find them here.

In 2015 we were delighted to partner with the Church of England and HOPE with Barna Group and ComRes to publish the biggest research of its kind on perceptions of Jesus, Christians and evangelism in England. Those findings led to more research in 2017, focusing on young people, and to the launch of Talking Jesus — The Course in 2018.

Then in 2022 we partnered with Alpha, HOPE Together, Luis Palau Association and Kingsgate Community Church, to do the follow up research to compare with the results of 2015 showing the state of faith in the UK, how people come to faith in Jesus and how we, as the church, can talk about Jesus more effectively with our friends and in our community.

Visit www​.talk​ing​je​sus​.org to access all the research.