Spiritual Blessings at Easter Events

Easter evangelical events have played a huge part in my life, Christian growth and church ministry. I have been going to an Easter event every year since 1994, and in total I’ve spent more than 35 weeks (that’s about 8 months of my life) at them!

They have been a huge blessing to me and my family, and that is why I am so excited that Rising Lights will be starting in just nine weeks’ time. I would love others to enjoy what has been such a help to me. 

I first went to the second year of Spring Harvest Word Alive in 1994. I couldn’t make the first year because I was on a business trip to Malaysia, but my now wife was there. It was held at Butlin’s Skegness, which was pretty basic if you stayed in their Roman Village. We had to move chalet because the neighbour’s toilet flushed directly into our bath! 

We were new graduates back then, and Word Alive was a great way to meet up with friends from university, and to make new friends through them as they came with their church groups. It was cost-effective because we were able to share accommodation. 

Foundational

As a relatively new Christian, those years were seminal for laying solid foundations. Word Alive offered a range of plenary meetings and seminars that covered biblical exposition, systematic theology, biblical theology, church history, apologetics, evangelism, and practical Christian living. 

Highlights for me were hearing David Jackman on Isaiah and Don Carson on Philippians. I remember Chris Hobbs teaching a ‘Bible overview’ from the wisdom literature, and Tim Ward teaching on the doctrine of the word of God. Contemporary issues such as the New Age, postmodernism, human sexuality, identity and the environment were addressed from a biblical perspective. 

In the later 1990s, we were just entering Christian ministry, and it was very helpful to join a four-session seminar series with Wallace and Lindsay Benn, which helped us establish some good routines for the balance between family life and church work. 

In 1999, we planted City Evangelical Church in Birmingham. From the start, we were an FIEC church and so switched allegiance to the FIEC Family Conference at Easter time, which had been held at Caister, but was then in Pwhelli. We wanted to make connections with our new church network, and going to the Easter event was a great way of doing this.

We first went when our oldest daughter was just three months old. Again, we appreciated the range of teaching as well as the fellowship. Stand out memories for me were hearing Joseph Tonge, the Romanian pastor, preaching and sharing about his experiences of persecution under communism, and John and Anne Benton’s seminar series How to have a right rollicking marriage. Off the back of this we greatly benefitted from their parenting books. It was innovative and immensely helpful that at one session Anne spoke to the husbands and John to the wives. 

In 2007, the FIEC launched Cheltenham Bible Festival in place of their Easter event, which unfortunately only ran for a year because it did not attract the numbers. We were there with our four children, including eight-month-old twins. I was invited to give seminars on Being a Vibrant Church and in a strange providence, Cheltenham was a key step in my becoming FIEC National Director in 2010.

The decision not to continue with Cheltenham coincided with the decision of Word Alive to break away from Spring Harvest and to launch New Word Alive at Easter, with speakers Don Carson, Terry Virgo, and John Piper. We switched back to Word Alive and went along every year since. I became part of the organising team and latterly a trustee. Over those years we heard great teaching, with Bible readings from men like Paul Mallard, Roy Ortlund, Mike Cain, Hugh Palmer, Jonathan Lamb (in the year of the great storm that brought down the marquees!), David Cook, and Vaughan Roberts. It was a joy to get to meet and hear Bruce Ware, Wayne Grudem, Sam Storms, Nick Tucker, Becky Manley Pippert, Carl Truman, Sharon James, Dan Strange, and others. The times of worship at the evening celebrations were uplifting and encouraging with so many brothers and sisters. 

Serving families

But the greatest blessing of both the FIEC event and Word Alive over the years has been to our kids. 

We were part of a new church with few families because it was a very young congregation, or a small church with a small Sunday school and youth groups. Easter events gave our children the opportunity to be with others from like-minded evangelical families from all over the country and helped them to know that they were not alone. 

They got great teaching and formed lasting friendships which continue to sustain and encourage them today. There was immense benefit in going back year after year to foster these connections. We are immensely grateful to all those who gave so much of their time and energy to the kids’ work at these events, and to all the volunteers who gave their holidays to serve. We are immensely thankful for Dave Fenton, Mel Lacy, Trevor Pearce, Rory Bell, and Ben Putt amongst others. Our kids have so benefitted from their ministry. 

Attending the FIEC event or Word Alive was a considerable sacrifice as a family. In later years as a team member, we received financial support to attend, but for most of the last 30 years we paid for ourselves to go. When we were a family of six we got little change out of £1,000, but we felt it was an important spiritual investment. We made these events a part of our annual holiday routine and chose not to do other things instead. We are grateful to God that it was an investment that has paid off for us, and we do not regret it at all. 

For a new generation

I am glad that Rising Lights will enable a new generation to continue to enjoy what was so beneficial for us. There are other similar events available, for example Keswick or Bible by the Beach, but for us Easter worked well in our family year. 

My younger children, who grew up through Word Alive, were sorry not to have the opportunity to come as students. Rising Lights is seeking to fill the gap, offering similar biblical ministry, seminars, celebrations and children and youth groups.

Unlike the old FIEC events or Word Alive, guests find their own accommodation, but there is lots in Torquay at all levels and price points. You can get much better quality than Pontins for very similar prices! We have tried to keep prices low to make it as accessible as possible, with an adult ticket costing £160, under 18s £40, and 18s-24s £100.

We have good numbers for 2026 already – with over 600 children joining us for the groups run by Growing Young Disciples. We still have space for more guests, especially adults, and we’d love you to come, whether you are on your own or as a church group. 

Full details are on our website, which also has details of how to book. If you want to avoid the hassle of having to find your own accommodation, we also have some half-board (Dinner, Bed & Breakfast) packages we have negotiated with a local hotel, which are ideal for couples, or those who can share a twin room.

The spiritual fruit of Word Alive and FIEC Easter events has been great over the last 30 years. I’d love that to be the case for the next 30 year as well.