A daring national effort is underway to rally 200,000 Christians in sharing the Gospel this Christmas, with the aim of reaching two million people in public spaces across the festive season.
Launched under the banner of Shine Your Light 2025, the campaign is spearheaded by the National Day of Prayer and Worship (NDOPW) and has already drawn significant support from political figures and greater than 60 Christian networks and denominations.
The initiative, which began in 2023 with just over 700 participating churches, has rapidly doubled in scale and impact, with over 1,500 churches involved in 2024’s Christmas outreach.
The vision is easy yet ambitious: return Christmas back to its Christian roots by taking carols, messages of hope, and the love of Christ beyond church partitions – into streets, shopping centres, prisons, schools, and anyplace where people gather.
Convenor of NDOPW and founding father of Shine Your Light, Dr Jonathan Oloyede, said: “Summer is here in all her glory. But before Christians set off for his or her break, I would like to remind the UK Church about Shine Your Light. This is the united campaign by all of the churches across the land each December to place ‘Christ back into Christmas’.
“Last yr, we saw over 100,000 Christians mobilised across the UK in cities, towns and villages taking Christmas Carol Services onto the streets, witnessing, and preaching the gospel to roughly 1 million people. Imagine this yr, we’re looking by the grace of God to achieve 200,000 Christians.”
Although Christmas may appear far off, it can come around quickly and Dr Oloyede is asking Christians to think now about how they’ll become involved in outreach and get planning.
“I would like the UK Church to assume Christians in schools, colleges, universities, shopping malls, in prisons, within the workplace, on the high streets – in every single place – preaching the gospel, covering the entire land across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales,” he said.
“That’s what we’re aiming for and we’d like every church to register their interest before leaders set off for his or her holiday, or day without work work.”
Shine Your Light 2025 officially launched at a high-profile parliamentary reception in early May 2025, hosted by MP Jim Shannon, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the International Freedom of Religion and Belief.
The reception brought together over 100 Christian leaders from a broad spectrum of denominations and regions.
Many testified to the life-changing impact of past Shine Your Light events in communities like Canterbury, Birmingham and parts of Wales and Scotland.
Over Pentecost weekend in June, a 72-hour prayer initiative was held, and organisers are rallying much more Christians to become involved in a nationwide outreach blitz from 12 to 14 December.
Congregational Federation representative, Jim Lyon, stated: “We did something last December in my community and we saw some truly amazing opportunities to bring people together to listen to the message of Christmas.
“I might encourage every Christian to wish for a key so that you can unlock the chance to do a Shine Your Light event in your area, using the amazing resources which can be found.”
The campaign is backed by public figures including Baroness Marsha de Cordova, Jeremy Balfour MSP, Jane Dodds AM, and MP Munira Wilson alongside BBC presenters James Lusted, Pam Rhodes, and Gemma Hunt.
 A daring national effort is underway to rally 200,000 Christians in sharing the Gospel this Christmas, with the aim of reaching two million...){kind=link}