By Xia-Maria Mackay, Christian Today. (Image: Screenshot evangelismconference /Facebook)
Dozens of church leaders gathered in Glasgow and online for The Evangelism Conference 2026 where they heard a sobering message from Rico Tice about what it will take to pass on the Gospel to the next generation.
Tice, a seasoned evangelist and co-founder of Christianity Explored, said that if Christians are serious about seeing more people come to faith, they need to embrace the “soldier’s life” and be “ready to suffer”.
“It’s a war,” Tice said.
“If you want to pass on the Gospel, it’s going to be brutal … Are we ready to battle?”
The Evangelism Conference was held at Tron Church and followed this week by a mirror gathering at All Souls Langham Place, London, with more churches joining online.
It was organised by A Passion for Life, a ministry dedicated to equipping churches for sharing the Gospel.
This year’s theme was “Pathways to Christ in a time of opportunity”, reflecting what organisers see as a “warming” of the spiritual temperature in the UK, especially among younger generations.
The aim of the conference was to help church leaders think about how they can “understand the cultural moment we are in and respond wisely”.
In his address, Tice encouraged church leaders to create a culture of mission and evangelism and adopt a comprehensive framework for preaching Christ not only from the front but through small groups, in the home, and one-to-one – the latter being particularly weak in British churches, he observed.
Speaking from his own experience, Tice said that Christians discipling people one-to-one could expect “exhausting” and “backbreaking” work, as he read from 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.
He said, “You are no longer your own. You are to give yourself. That’s how the revival and the harvest is going to happen. Individuals have got to lay their lives down for other individuals.”
Making the case for one-to-one engagement, he said it allows church leaders to care for individuals, check how they understand and apply the Gospel, and model the Christian life.